A recent string of deals with processors to offer funding to their independent sales organizations has expanded Arlington, Va.-based startup Super G Funding LLC’s reach as a lender. Super G, which was founded in 2009 and has made loans totaling $10 million to about 80 ISOs, is one of only …

School lunches often draw fire from students, who want tastier fare, and parents and nutritionists, who want healthier meals. But for merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc., food service in schools is proving to be a profitable new payments niche. Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland on Monday said it had acquired LunchByte …

A new company run by electronic-payments veteran Bipin Shah announced on Monday it has agreed to buy two merchant processors and a payroll-processing company for a total of $179 million in cash and stock. The acquisitions are part of a strategy followed by Radnor, Pa.-based Universal Business Payment Solutions Acquisition …

Eric Grover Low acceptance costs, convenience, and security aren’t enough. As this global review of would-be PayPals and Visas shows, startups need a clear path to a mass of users. With the advent of mobile payments, we read almost daily about new payments startups. And this avalanche of startups follows …

Vantiv Inc. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday with the symbol VNTV, having priced its shares late on Wednesday at $17, the mid-point of its estimated opening range. The Cincinnati-based payment processor saw its initial offering of 29.4 million shares raise just shy of $500 million. …

n n Competition from Square? No problem, according to VeriFone Systems Inc. chief executive Douglas G. Bergeron. n “We’ve had competitors for 30 years,” Bergeron said in response to an analyst’s inquiry about how he sees the competitive risk to VeriFone, the leading U.S.-based point-of-sale terminal maker, from Square Inc., …

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. …

Prepaid card program manager NetSpend Holdings Inc. beefed up its retail distribution channels through a new agreement announced on Wednesday with leading convenience-store chain 7-Eleven Inc. The news came just a day after NetSpend rival Green Dot Corp. revealed that it bought assets from eCommLink Inc. that will advance its …

Vantiv Inc. filed a registration statement on Thursday for a proposed initial public offering of common stock that, if successful, would have a business started by Fifth Third Bancorp join the thin ranks of publicly traded processors that get most of their revenues from merchant acquiring. Vantiv, formerly known as …

  n n n n n “We’re looking to play in the broad commerce space,” Sanghi tells Digital Transactions News, noting that AmEx started as a stagecoach company 162 years ago. “We’ve reinvented ourselves continuously.” He adds that although most of the investments probably will be domestic, AmEx might invest …