The national trend of merchants passing on their credit card fees continues to accelerate, aided last week by a federal court striking down Texas’s “no-surcharge” law as unconstitutional. The Texas ruling follows the defeat of no-surcharge laws in Florida and California, but it is a unique milestone: Texas is the …

U.S. Bancorp is selling its ATM managed-services and debit-servicing businesses to Fiserv Inc. for a price that the parties say is “approximately” $690 million. The assets Fiserv is acquiring, which are part of U.S. Bancorp’s Elan Financial Services unit, also include the MoneyPass surcharge-free ATM network, which links 33,000 machines …

Surcharges and discounts for cash aren’t brand-new pricing tactics, but interest in them by independent sales organizations is rising because of falling legal barriers and the potential profits. Repeated sessions about the topic were packed Thursday at the Western States Acquirers Association annual conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. The presenter was Ryan …

A divided Supreme Court says American Express Co.’s anti-steering rules for merchants don’t violate antitrust law. What does that mean for card payments, especially with another big card-related court case heading for a settlement? The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision upholding American Express Co.’s anti-steering rules for merchants has …

The global networks’ ambition for streamlined e-commerce with a single buy button sounds great—until you consider all the implications and ponder the unanswered questions. Here’s an alternative approach. As consumers leverage digital channels more often for transacting, there has been a sense of optimism that new technology players offering creative …

Bankrate LLC’s latest study of checking account pricing at credit unions found that ATM surcharges and foreign fees haven’t changed much in the past year.  The April study of the top 50 credit unions by deposits revealed that ATM surcharges—fees charged by ATM owners to non-customers who use their machines—actually …

Payments industry veteran Dan Henry has been named chairman of 3PEA International Inc., a prepaid card program manager. President and chief executive Mark Newcomer, who co-founded the company and has served as chairman since 2006, will become vice chairman. Henry was until recently chief executive of prepaid card specialist NetSpend, …

Retail ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics plc said Fifth Third Bank will place its brand on more than 800 Cardtronics ATMs at Speedway LLC convenience stores in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. In related news, Indiana-based German American Bank said it has joined Cardtronics plc’s Allpoint network, giving its customers access …

Despite what you hear about electronic payments displacing coins and folding money, the real story is a little more complicated. The world is flat. Or at least that’s what most people believed until Aristotle around 330 B.C. provided evidence of a spherical Earth. Even then, it was slow to catch …

The U.S. is finally moving toward faster and more secure payments, but the process is far more deliberate than it needs to be. Look at Australia for an example of how it could be done better. Observers of the U.S. payments industry can be forgiven for wondering—in the wake of …