Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• Merchant acquirer Square Inc. announced a promotion that waives processing costs for small businesses on more than $12,000 in Apple Pay charge volume. It will give free processing on Apple Pay transactions for small-business customers that enroll this year in a promotion that includes purchase of Square’s contactless and EMV chip card reader (Apple Pay uses contactless near-field communication technology) and the reader’s charging dock. Normally selling for $49, the reader is going for $29 in the promotion, and the dock also costs $29.
• Merchant processor iPayment Inc. and its parent company, iPayment Holdings Inc., announced the company has received a revised offer from holders of approximately 82% of iPayment’s outstanding 9.5% senior secured notes due 2019, which also hold approximately 46% of the parent company’s common stock, for a refinancing of iPayment. The company began refinancing proceedings earlier this month.
• Payments gateway USAePay released Merchant Console, a virtual terminal that includes invoicing and EMV device management.
• Cloud-services company Evolve IP said it has achieved compliance with all 12 sections of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI-DSS).
• Pediatric hospital Dayton Children’s has chosen health-care transaction specialist InstaMed to process payments. The hospital will be the first health-care organization to use version 2 of InstaMed’s point-to-point encryption solution.
• Sionic Mobile announced its Mobile Rewards Marketplace will be available early in February. Aimed at both small and chain retailers, the marketplace includes mobile payments, merchant-controlled rewards, and access to Mobile Rewards app customers.
• ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics plc expanded into South Africa with its acquisition of Spark ATM Systems Proprietary Ltd., deployer of 2,600 ATMs throughout that nation. The deal’s financial terms were not disclosed.
• Noted payments attorney Anita L. Boomstein has joined Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP as chair of the firm’s global payments practice. Formerly, Boomstein was a partner at Hughes Hubbard and Reed.
CORRECTION: In yesterday’s “In Other News” section, Digital Transactions News misspelled the name of Tracy Cray, who is leaving Royal Bank of Scotland to join Chargebacks911. DTN regrets the error.
