There is a desire to make money and the desire to avoid risk. In between is where profit lies. As many ISOs and merchant sales agents know, higher volume, complex, higher risk and hard to place merchants represent a significant profit opportunity. But to benefit, you need the …

Never mind that the Democratic administration that created Operation Choke Point is gone, a Republican Congressman wants to be doubly-certain that the controversial program that tries to cut off payment services to fraudulent merchants dies. So he has proposals to kill Operation Choke Point in not one but two bills. In …

Ripple Labs announced the rollout of a real-time remittance service between Thailand and Japan, based on Ripple’s blockchain. The rollout follows what was said to be the first blockchain-based commercial money transfer across borders, which occurred in April between Spain and Mexico and involved Ripple’s technology. CryptoCoin Creations released its CryptoCoinTracker 2.1, an …

Cardless cash access at ATMs is expanding. ATM operator Cardtronics plc, which owns or operates more than 233,000 ATMs globally, is adding FIS Cardless Cash access to its U.S. machines, Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) announced Thursday. Launched in 2015, FIS Cardless Cash enables consumers to stage cash withdrawals using …

Point-of-sale technology vendor ScanSource Inc. has agreed to acquire POS Portal, a supplier of payment devices and services, for $144.9 million in cash plus an earn-out payment up to $13.2 million contingent on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the 12 months leading up to Nov. 30. The deal is expected …

Independent sales organization Bluefin Payment Systems said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the company two patents for data decryption; both patents encompass Bluefin’s Decryptx platform and online P2PE Manager System. Terminal maker Ingenico Group announced it has increased by 200% over the past year its integrations with integrated software vendors, acquirers, electronic …

With concerns about card-not-present fraud rising, e-commerce merchants have increased their usage of 19 of 21 fraud-detection tools since 2010, some by more than 30 percentage points, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The only tool whose usage declined was 3-D Secure, which …

As the nation’s automated clearing house network introduces faster payments, it’s also racking up steady increases in transaction volume. The system processed approximately 5.35 billion payments in the first quarter, notching nearly 7% growth over the first quarter of last year and rebounding smartly from a tepid 3.7% growth rate …

• The National Retail Federation announced that senior vice president and general counsel Mallory Duncan plans to retire at the end of August. Duncan joined the trade group in 1994 as general counsel and is a staunch advocate for merchants’ interests on payments issues. He plans to consult on payments and …

Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Retail Federation and one of the most outspoken advocates for merchants on payments issues, announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of August. “Whether you’re appealing to the Supreme Court, testifying before Congress or meeting at the …