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Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is paying $375 million to expand its position as a higher education payments provider. The Princeton, N.J.-based processor announced today it bought Lenexa, Kansas-based TouchNet Information Systems Inc. Heartland says this is its highest-priced acquisition to date. TouchNet provides a variety of payment services to …
Read More »Square Announces a Signature-Based Chip Card Reader, with Availability Early in 2015
Square Inc. on Wednesday ended months of speculation with an announcement that it will begin offering an EMV card reader early next year. Square will start taking orders for the device, which will process chip-and-signature as well as mag-stripe transactions, later this year, the San Francisco-based company said. The move comes …
Read More »First Data Reports Improved Financials And Plans To Buy Digital Gift-Card Provider Gyft
In a busy day for First Data Corp., the leading payment processor on Wednesday reported a reduced quarterly loss and its best revenues since going private, and that it plans to buy digital gift-card services provider Gyft Inc. Thanks to recent tech-company acquisitions and moves to improve its debt-laden balance …
Read More »Fearing Payment-Industry Control, Merchants Call for an ‘Open’ Tokenization Standard
Merchant groups and payment-industry members both want to use tokenization to make it tougher for criminals to get to sensitive cardholder data, but a disagreement has erupted about the best way to do that. On Monday, the Food Marketing Institute, Merchant Advisory Group, National Association of Convenience Stores, National …
Read More »Tokenization Plays the Central Role in Visa’s New Cloud Payment Suite
Visa Inc. moved on Thursday to commercialize mobile payments using cloud-based near-field communication technology with its release of Visa Cloud Payment Solutions. A related development, the announcement of the upcoming debut of a tokenization service, is aimed at locking down cloud-based NFC and other digital payments. The new services include …
Read More »Durbin Routing Rules Should Apply to ATMs, ATMIA Urges in Meeting with Fed
The ATM Industry Association met today with members of the Federal Reserve staff to discuss making ATM debit transactions subject to the routing requirements of the Durbin Amendment to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The association, which represents ATM independent sales organizations and other retail deployers, wants the provision because it …
Read More »Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s Deal for First American Underscores Profitability of Merchant Processing
An investment consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is buying First American Payment Systems L.P., a Fort Worth, Texas-based payment processor and independent sales organization, in a deal that observers say highlights the profitability of merchant processing, despite ongoing margin pressure. First American says the Toronto-based pension …
Read More »Another Zero Option: Cloud-based POS Provider Pose Drops Its Software Fee
Pose POS Ltd., a cloud-based point-of-sale system, has changed its pricing model to a free one, at least for the monthly fee. Formerly $49 a month for the POS service, Pose now charges nothing to use its app, which is available on any device that can operate Google Inc.’s …
Read More »ACI To Expand Its Fraud-Protection Services Menu Through Its Acquisition of ReD
After beefing up its bill-payment services through two acquisitions in 2013, ACI Worldwide Inc. is now turning its attention to fraud prevention. The Naples, Fla.-based payments-software firm on Monday announced that it plans to buy prominent e-commerce fraud-detection and prevention services provider Retail Decisions Plc (ReD) for $205 million in …
Read More »Merchants Face A SNAP Decision on Payment Terminals
Many merchants that accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program transactions face an important decision between now and Sept. 21. By then, participating merchants in the SNAP no longer are eligible for subsidized payment terminals because of a change in law mandated by Congress. Until this change, states were allowed to …
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