Surpassing the 1-billion mark for the first time represents “a real milestone for the industry,” Brian Russell, an SPA representative, said on Monday at the Cartes North America conference in Las Vegas. Russell is a senior vice president at Giesecke & Devrient, one of the SPA’s members. The other five …

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. …

Many small merchants have never heard of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, let alone taken steps to comply with its rules. That’s a big problem that acquirers are in the best position to fix. By Lauri Giesen The formation of the PCI Security Standards Council and the related security …

It’s no wonder consumers are confused about debit cards these days, what with big banks discouraging use and merchants doing just the opposite. Influencing payments choices now calls for extra finesse, says Beth Robertson.   Javelin data shows that 70% of consumers believe that recent debit card regulations will actually …

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 …