Jane Adler With a growing array of digital wallets, retailers are testing multiple strategies—all at once. When it comes to digital wallets, retailers are like kids in a candy store. Lots of sweet offerings are on display. But instead of picking a favorite, some merchants take one of each to …

Jim Daly Five years after its momentous leveraged buyout, has First Data transformed itself into a toned-up competitor while confined to what some might say is debtor’s prison? On Sept. 24, 2007, Wall Street’s legendary Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. took leading payment processor First Data Corp. private in a …

Born of the transformed world wrought by Durbin, Visa’s new acquirer fee is either a rational response to changed economics or a diabolical exercise of raw power, depending on whom you ask. By John Stewart Bruce Reisman is an angry man. “I’m not a happy camper. I’m constantly looking for …

The rapid insinuation of tablets into the retail point of sale took another big turn this week when Revel Systems Inc., a San Francisco-based startup, unveiled an iPad-based POS system designed for supermarkets. The new system has already been adopted by Marty’s Markets, a Pittsburgh grocery store, and another half …

The new mobile-payments network being developed by retailers went public on Wednesday with its name, Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX, and the identities of 15 initial merchant-investors. But, five months after merchants first revealed plans to build an alternative to the major card networks as mobile payments take hold in …

Worried about getting too far in debt and nearly oblivious to the ongoing debate in the banking and payments industries about the controversial Durbin Amendment, consumers in June continued to display their allegiance to debit cards, according to new figures from First Data Corp. The nation’s leading payment card processor …

With a trial date looming in September, speculation is rising that a major antitrust case challenging credit card interchange will result in new rules handing merchants wider latitude in surcharging for transactions, routing payments, and steering customers to other cards or forms of payment. Settlement talks in the case, known …

School lunches often draw fire from students, who want tastier fare, and parents and nutritionists, who want healthier meals. But for merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc., food service in schools is proving to be a profitable new payments niche. Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland on Monday said it had acquired LunchByte …

New Jersey has delayed implementation of the most onerous provisions of an unclaimed-property law affecting gift cards that caused American Express Co. and two major gift card distributors to pull out of the state this spring. The changes Gov. Chris Christie signed into law last week, however, don’t repeal the …

When PayPal Inc. announced last month that it plans soon to process transactions for people as they watch TV, it looked like just the latest foray by the c-commerce processor into yet another new market. After all, the San Jose, Calif.-based eBay Inc. unit has been pretty aggressive lately about …