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Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has acquired point-of-sale system developers Dinerware Inc. and pcAmerica, both makers of restaurant point-of-sale systems, Heartland announced Friday. Terms were not disclosed. The acquisitions spurred Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland to create a dedicated business unit call Heartland Commerce, which includes Dinerware, pcAmercia, Xpient, Leaf, and Liquor POS. …
Read More »Already on the Way Out, SSL Data Security Could Get the Boot From the PCI Council
The PCI Security Standards Council issued a bulletin Friday saying that no version of the Secure Socket Layers (SSL) protocol for protecting Internet communications meets its definition of strong cryptography. Accordingly, the Council said it will soon revise versions 3.0 of its main Payment Card Security data-security standard and the …
Read More »A New Study Says More Than 30% of Big Merchants Are Not PCI-Compliant
Fudging the numbers about their merchants’ compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) may be a common practice by merchant acquirers if findings from a new study about payment card data security are to be believed. The study by the Merchant Acquirers’ Committee, an association of more than …
Read More »First Data Reports First Profit in 29 Quarters Since Going Private
Leading payment processor First Data Corp. late Tuesday reported its first quarterly profit since being taken private in a $29 billion leveraged buyout by investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in 2007. Net income wasn’t big, $11.8 million, but it beat the $123.1 million loss Atlanta-based First Data reported …
Read More »With Its PayEase Acquisition, Burgeoning Mozido Enters China
Financial and marketing services company Mozido Inc. now is serving China through its acquisition of PayEase Corp., a China-based payment processor. Announced today, the acquisition makes Austin, Texas-based Mozido the owner of one of 22 licensed payment-processing companies in China. PayEase, which is headquarter in Beijing, provides in-app mobile payments, …
Read More »Americans Overwhelmingly Prefer Paper Bills, but Increasingly Pay Them Electronically
More than 90% of Americans still prefer to receive paper bills, but a strong majority of them pay electronically, according to findings released Monday from a survey sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General. The three-month study of customer records from a major East Coast utility …
Read More »EMVCo Aims for a ‘Smoother Experience’ in Revised Spec for Online Payment Security
With the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card movement well under way in the U.S. market, a key standards body is training its sights on a technology many believe could combat the fraud EMV is expected to drive to the Web. By the end of this year, EMVCo plans to have a …
Read More »Eye on Litigation: Visa Seeks Dismissal of Pulse Lawsuit; Numerous Opt-Out Merchants Settle
By Jim Daly In the opinion of Visa Inc.’s lawyers, the Pulse PIN-debit network’s antitrust suit against the leading payment card network shouldn’t even have a pulse because Pulse hasn’t shown it has been harmed. Meanwhile, Google Inc. and a number of merchants that individually sued Visa and MasterCard Inc. …
Read More »Eye on Processors: EMV Card Orders Boost FIS; Fiserv’s Debit Business Grows
Orders for Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) smart cards rolled in for bank and payment processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) in the fourth quarter while rival Fiserv Inc. saw increases in its multi-faceted payments business. Jacksonville, Fla.-based FIS on Thursday reported $647.2 million in fourth-quarter revenues from its Payment Solutions Group …
Read More »Braintree’s Mobile Transactions Grew 400% in Fourth Quarter
Online-payments provider Braintree says 2014 was a banner year for the Chicago-based unit of PayPal Inc., with total transactions growing to 2.8 times the 2013 tally. In a blog post, chief executive Bill Ready also said that Braintree’s mobile transactions in the fourth quarter increased to four times the number …
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