Ed McKinley

A veteran acquiring executive describes recent changes at First Data Corp. as "the awakening of a sleeping giant" that has placed a renewed emphasis on independent sales organizations and sales agents.

Independent Resource Network Corp., a Westbury, N.Y.-based independent sales organization, recently agreed to pay $400,000 and waived its right to funds in a merchant's reserve account to settle a civil suit brought by the Federal Trade Commission.

Online payments provider 2Checkout is introducing application programming interface libraries that enable merchants to customize the shopping experience.

Ten years from now, members of the acquiring industry may have fond recollections of the nation's transition to mobile payments, says Brian Mooney, CEO of Bank of America Merchant Services.

The future belongs to mobile payments, but that future remains unclear, as many competing technologies are vying for consumers' attention.

The merchants who want to use Leaf's tablet for payments, called LeafPresenter, often also need transaction services. Through the launch of its online marketplace, Leaf will now be ready to offer information from a host of merchant acquirers.

Donna Embry is perhaps the only payments executive who's worn a shark costume onstage at a regional acquiring conference. But her stunt worked.

Not long ago, executives at Visa and MasterCard viewed the entrepreneurs at independent sales organizations as sketchy, shady, fly-by-night con artists. Linda Perry, a former Visa executive, did a lot to change that perception.

On the acquiring side of the payments industry, Holli Targan does it all. As an attorney in the Southfield office of Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, she chairs the firm's Electronic Payments Group. Her duties include handling mergers and acquisitions, helping clients develop their strategy and alerting the industry to regulatory changes.

The Electronic Transactions Association is lobbying Congress to enact a uniform national data breach reporting standard that would replace a welter of contradictory state and local rules.

Acquirers could find themselves looking a lot like marketing firms in the near future.

Acquirers say they're signing up new merchants and retaining established customers with the help of software that bundles payment services.

"Operation Choke Point," the federal government's campaign against online payday lenders and collections agencies, is unjustly attacking third-party payment processors, an association official says.

While Diane Vogt Faro was "growing up" in the payments business, she helped the entire industry mature.

With a new CEO and an infusion of private equity funding, Cynergy Data plans to grow both organically and through acquisitions.

Nomad 2.0, a second-generation mobile EMV chip-and-PIN card reader from AnywhereCommerce, is designed to be a smaller and less expensive version of its 18-month-old predecessor.

The Electronic Transactions Association plans to keep expanding its advocacy, educational and networking efforts in the coming year.

Cynergy Data has named Afshin Yazdian as its new CEO, while outgoing CEO Kim Fitzsimmons will remain with the company as a member of the board and take on a strategic role with Comvest Partners, Cynergy's private equity investor.

Cardtronics Inc. (CATM) has signed a long-term agreement with Houston-based Landmark Industries, naming Cardtronics the exclusive provider of ATM services for Timewise Food Stores, a Texas convenience store chain.

Payment Alliance International and Iberiabank Corp. have agreed to brand ATMs in Rite Aid pharmacies in Greater Memphis.