Merchant cash advances for online retailers suddenly are coming into vogue with the entry of PayPal Inc. into the market. PayPal recently disclosed that it plans to test in its home country a cash-advance program similar to one it has tested in the United Kingdom. Finance companies and merchant …

As they began their work, some Federal Reserve Board governors expressed uneasiness with the task Congress assigned them in 2010 through the Dodd-Frank Act: implement the debit card regulations called for in the sweeping law’s Durbin Amendment. In March, however, the Fed expressed enough satisfaction with its handiwork to declare …

Often regarded as operating in a gray area, merchant aggregators let small businesses piggyback on their merchant accounts. But aggregators are moving to the forefront of payments innovation and winning new supporters. By Peter Lucas Complex, confounding, risky, upstart. These are some of the adjectives used to describe merchant aggregators …

By Holli Targan and Joel Alam Dealmaking is hot in the acquiring business just now, in many cases drawing buyers from outside the industry. But acquiring transactions isn’t like making widgets. Here’s a summary of key deal points both buyers and sellers should know. Mergers and acquisitions in the payments …

The acquiring business has entered an age of disruptive change, but it will emerge all the stronger for it, argues Eric Grover. While individual acquirers and independent sales organizations are fragile, acquiring as a whole is anti-fragile. Eric Grover is principal at Intrepid Ventures, Minden, Nev. Reach him at eric.grover@intrepidventures.com. …

Could the new Chase Merchant Services (CMS) processing entity announced Feb. 26 by JPMorgan Chase and Co. and Visa Inc. be a harbinger of a major change in the way bank card payments operate? The payments industry is abuzz with talk about how CMS could shake things up by enabling …

Total System Services Inc.’s announcement late last week that it has agreed to buy ProPay Inc. is the latest chapter in TSYS’s strategy of bulking up its position in the merchant-acquiring business through acquisitions. The deal will also hand the Columbus, Ga.-based processor a key stake in the rapidly growing …

Just when observers might have thought the mobile-acceptance market couldn’t get more crowded, merchant processor Bank of America Merchant Services LLC on Tuesday announced a service called Mobile Pay on Demand. And while the service includes the now familiar card-reading dongle for attachment to a smart phone, it also features …

Open-loop prepaid cards are slowly but steadily gaining market share and now account for nearly 40% of the market, but closed-loop prepaid cards, especially gift cards, remain highly popular with consumers. The 9th annual study of the prepaid card market by Mercator Advisory Group Inc., released in August, shows volumes …

Peter Lucas Flush with new investment, firms that lend to merchants against credit card receipts are more optimistic than ever. Now, they’re laying plans for fixed loans and advances against cash, checks, and alternative payments. It’s been a tough economic recovery for retailers. Not only is consumer spending mired in …