As competitive pressure pushes processors and ISOs to find new sources for leads, research shows mainstream acquirers are becoming more and more active in both paid and organic search. By Marc Abbey, Chris Sanson, and Meryl Dann Though industry events such as the Durbin Amendment gave acquirer margins a …

  It was announced with considerable fanfare almost a year ago, but since then little has been heard about the person-to-person payment service created by three of the nation’s top banks. Is clearXchange at risk of falling behind the competition? By Linda Punch When three powerhouses in financial services and …

n The earliest players in the increasingly crowded market for mobile-acceptance applications were software and hardware providers like Intuit Inc., Square Inc., and VeriFone Systems Inc. Lately, though, merchant processors like North American Bancard and Heartland Payment Systems have been getting into the game. n Heartland, which released an Android …

n Square Inc. kept up the pressure on the traditional merchant-acquiring industry on Monday by introducing a souped-up version of its iPad app for brick-and-mortar merchants called Square Register with enhanced business-management functions. Meanwhile, the Isis mobile-payments venture announced it has struck deals with the major U.S. point-of-sale terminal makers …

A Look at Durbin’s Early Impact Things went pretty much according to script in the first three months of Durbin Amendment debit card price controls. Debit market leader Visa Inc. got dented while MasterCard Inc. picked up speed. Visa chairman and chief executive Joseph Saunders predicted that the slowdown Visa’s …

Value-added resellers have turned into very effective—but increasingly expensive—sales engines for merchant processors. When does it make sense to work with them—and just how much of a cut do they take? By Peter Lucas Ten years ago, value-added resellers looking to broaden their reach to merchants were aggressively pursuing relationships …

Historically, the payments industry has ignored the fact that not everyone who shops online has a credit or debit card. With a handful of startups providing cash processing for online transactions, that’s no longer the case. By Karen Epper Hoffman No matter how much credit and debit cards have come …

Though aimed mainly at debit cards, the Durbin Amendment corrals prepaid cards in a number of ways, as well. Will the restrictions choke off growth in this thriving business? By Linda Punch When the Durbin Amend­ment passed, major financial institutions issuing prepaid cards thought they had dodged the proverbial bullet. …

In a move that could indicate a thaw in the long cold war between banks and wireless carriers in the mobile-payments business, the carrier-controlled Isis venture on Monday announced a trio of major banks are the first to sign on as issuers on its platform. Indeed, with the Isis wallet …

  The bank card networks will introduce new fees for merchant acquirers in April, according to information obtained by Digital Transactions News. The most significant fee is Visa Inc.’s new Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF), a key component of a revamped pricing strategy the No. 1 payment card network announced …