Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) on Thursday announced that Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) will do the transaction processing for the nascent mobile-payments network owned by some of the nation’s largest retailers. MCX also said department-store company Kohl’s Corp. and the parent company of the Circle K convenience-store chain are …
Read More »PAI Sticks To Its Guns in Serving Firearms Merchants As Square Walks Away
Sometimes news developments turn certain types of merchants into public-relations and political hot potatoes for their payment processors, forcing merchant acquirers to decide whether they want to continue serving them. Despite strong sales, firearms merchants are one such category today, thanks to several mass shootings in the past two years, …
Read More »CSI’s SPIN, with Payments to Visa Cards, Is the Latest Entry in Faster Transactions
As more and more financial institutions, processors, and networks climb on the instant-payments bandwagon, Computer Services Inc. has introduced a person-to-person payment service with a twist: It delivers near-real-time payments to recipients’ Visa debit cards. CSI, which calls its new service SPIN, for Social Payments Instant Network, has one client …
Read More »The FTC Sues Newtek Just Days After Hauling IRN to Court
In a move that indicates federal regulators are getting more serious about policing independent sales organizations and other merchant processors, the Federal Trade Commission on Friday announced it is suing Newtek Merchant Solutions and its former president, Derek Depuydt. The FTC added both Newtek and Depuydt as defendants in an …
Read More »Eye on the Law: FTC Rings ‘Fire Alarm’ with ISO Case; Supreme Court Okays Arbitration
A lawsuit brought earlier this month by the Federal Trade Commission against a telemarketer and its merchant processor should serve as a warning to independent sales organizations and other acquirers that they could be held responsible for their clients’ actions, according to a prominent payments attorney. “The FTC’s suit should …
Read More »New PCI Council Rules Call for More Extensive Testing of Card-Accepting Devices
More testing and documentation for payment card-accepting devices that process personal identification numbers are the order of the day under newly revised requirements from the PCI Security Standards Council. The revisions, dubbed Version 4.0 of the PIN Transaction Security (PTS) Point-of-Interaction (POI) requirements, are the first of three major …
Read More »As the CFPB Studies Overdrafts, Some Say Any New Rules Could Favor Debit Volume
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to be gearing up to put more controls on bank overdraft fees. The impact of any new overdraft rules on debit cards is unknown but there’s a chance they could prove positive for transaction volume, according to one industry researcher. The CFPB, a creation …
Read More »VeriFone’s Interim CEO Eats Humble Pie As the Company Cleans Up a Bergeron-Era Mess
VeriFone Systems Inc. interim chief executive officer Richard McGinn gave a blunt review of the company’s recent past Wednesday in the point-of-sale hardware and payment software provider’s first quarterly earnings call in memory without former chief executive Douglas Bergeron. McGinn said the company under-invested in research and development and …
Read More »Eye on Acquiring: IP Commerce To Stop Processing; Passilla at Chase; Groupon And SumUp
IP Commerce Inc., a 9-year-old Denver-based company that provides platforms for independent software vendors (ISVs) and other payments developers, will discontinue its front-end payment-processing service effective June 30, according to a notice on the home page of the company’s Web site. The company began notifying clients earlier this month, …
Read More »A New Mercedes-Benz App Enables Loan Payments on Mobile Devices with Wheels
n The purpose of the new “My MBFS” app is to increase customer convenience and continue Mercedes-Benz’s leadership in applying mobile-commerce technology to automobiles, Matt Darrah, manager of B2C digital marketing at Mercedes-Benz n “At Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, we have had this mobile journey, we saw mobile coming in …
Read More »