After beefing up its bill-payment services through two acquisitions in 2013, ACI Worldwide Inc. is now turning its attention to fraud prevention. The Naples, Fla.-based payments-software firm on Monday announced that it plans to buy prominent e-commerce fraud-detection and prevention services provider Retail Decisions Plc (ReD) for $205 million in …

  An investment consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is buying First American Payment Systems L.P., a Fort Worth, Texas-based payment processor and independent sales organization, in a deal that observers say highlights the profitability of merchant processing, despite ongoing margin pressure. First American says the Toronto-based pension …

With an eye on expanding its international payments capabilities, Optimal Payments Plc bought two U.S. independent sales organizations that cater to e-commerce merchants, the Montreal-based company announced Tuesday. n Meritus posted 2013 revenues of $74.4 million, and Global Merchant Advisors $8.3 million. Both company names remain in place, Lewin says. …

Vantiv-Mercury: Bad News for ISOs? Mercury Payment Systems LLC made its reputation as the leader in a rising niche of independent sales organizations that offer payment processing as part of business-management applications sold to merchants by software developers, dealers, and value-added resellers. In contrast, many ISOs still peddle straight payments …

The merchant-acquiring business continued its consolidation trend on Wednesday with the news that Priority Payment Systems LLC has merged with Cynergy Data LLC. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, has created an independent sales organization processing some $20 billion annually for 125,000 merchant clients. Comvest Partners, a West Palm …

  MasterCard Inc.’s purchase Monday of C-Sam Inc., a mobile wallet technology company, boosts the card brand’s ability to provide mobile wallet services via a variety of payment methods, suggests a payment analyst. MasterCard paid an undisclosed amount for the Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based C-Sam, which began offering a mobile wallet …

Paul Galant, the new chief executive of payment-processing hardware and software maker VeriFone Systems Inc., says he’s committed to increasing research and development, rationalizing VeriFone’s sprawling product lines, and becoming “more nimble and more focused on our strengths.” Galant, a former senior Citigroup Inc. executive who took the helm 78 …

Mercury Payment Systems LLC may be considering a move to take the independent sales organization public. On Friday, Durango, Colo.-based Mercury issued a release disclosing it had filed a confidential draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that may presage the payment company’s public stock offering. Such …

Token Specs: Curb Your Enthusiasm The three biggest card networks would just like everybody to calm down. As dramatic as their joint tokenization announcement was last month, key officials with Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc., and American Express Co. have been at pains to tamp down the far-reaching industry speculation the …

In a bid to forge closer ties to the increasingly important business of creating and marketing mobile apps and other software products, PayPal Inc. this week announced it is waiving transaction-processing fees for nascent developers in a new program it calls Startup Blueprint. The offer is limited to $50,000 in …