It’s been a busy year on the M&A front for merchant acquirers. What’s driving the deals, and what’s ahead in 2018? The year is coming to a close with nearly $14 billion in mergers and acquisitions either announced or completed in the merchant-acquiring industry. The number of deals could easily …

A strong third-quarter earnings report helped lift shares of ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics plc by 4% Friday morning after they plunged 17% Thursday on news that Link, the ATM network in the United Kingdom—a key market for Cardtronics—floated a proposal to reduce interchange by 20%. Cardtronics, which has …

The current wave of buying and selling is the right prescription at the right time for a business that badly needed shaking up, says O.B. Rawls. For decades, the payments industry was pretty stagnant, but over the past decade, and even more so recently, that has changed drastically. Now part …

Mastercard Inc. enjoyed a strong third quarter, and Tuesday morning its top executive was not shy about celebrating some of the trends that he expects will further lift results for the world’s second-largest payment card network. These include recent acquisitions, a global partnership with PayPal Holdings Inc., and budding developments …

Most components of First Data Corp.’s massive merchant-acquiring machine performed well in the third quarter, and the company renewed its acquiring contract with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer. But new merchant referrals from First Data’s joint ventures with three big U.S. banks remain problematic. “These businesses have remained …

Prepaid cards are still popular with Americans, but not quite as popular as in some recent years, according to new findings from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. A Mercator online survey of 3,011 U.S. adults in June found that 56% of respondents had purchased a prepaid card in the preceding 12 …

Payments provider Revolution Payments announced an interchange-adjustment service for business-to-business and business-to-government credit cards that automatically attaches details to each transaction that qualify the transactions for level 3 interchange rates, which are less than level 1 and level 2 rates for such transactions. Unattended-payments specialist USA Technologies Inc. announced a partnership with Premier Food Service …

Change. It’s one of the most feared events in one’s life; personally and professionally. People are scared of the unknown, which makes them naturally resistant to change. This fear is one of the primary reasons why evolving, or changing, an organization is one of the most difficult leadership challenges most …

It didn’t get a lot of press at the time, but the acquisition by merchant acquirer Global Payments Inc. of Accelerated Payment Technologies in 2012 proved to be the starting point of big acquirers pairing up with integrated software vendors and value-added resellers to deepen their relationships with merchants. Atlanta-based …

Citing possible regulatory hurdles, payment processor First Data Corp. and commercial payments provider Fleetcor Technologies Inc. disclosed Thursday that they have canceled the planned joint venture they announced in March to consolidate their gift card businesses. “While both companies believe the proposed joint venture would provide significant benefits to customers …