Ed McKinley

Though it's the world's longest undefended border, the boundary between the United States and Canada can seem formidable to American independent sales organizations.

An independent sales organization and a health care lender are helping patients pay their physician and dentist bills.

A company that teaches marketing is calling upon independent sales organizations to present a new training course to merchants.

Bipin C. Shah is credited with pioneering ATM networks, 24-hour ATM service, payroll debit cards, debit at the point of sale, cash-back with debit cards and pay at the pump. These days, he’s focusing his creativity on merchants.

A Philadelphia-based company is buying an independent sales organization, a processor and a payroll-services company to pursue the goal of providing complete payments services to small merchants.

Buffalo Wild Wings is all about overwhelming its patrons with options — it has over a dozen wing sauces to choose from, and it is testing a system that adds more variety to how people order and pay.

The Electronic Transactions Association is wrapping up its second month-long test period for a credential it says improves the acquiring industry's credibility with merchants and gives participating independent sales organizations and sales agents a competitive advantage.

Vantiv is offering Ingenico's new point of sale products in an effort to prepare the industry for the EMV chip-card standard and Near Field Communication technology.

Independent sales organizations can present themselves as consultants by specializing in offering card-acceptance services to just one or two types of clients and really getting to know those businesses.

A study released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Board showed that interchange fees are lower, but the savings were not passed on to consumers.

Tiny Square-like card swiping gadget available to those remaining merchants and consumers who still favor the BlackBerry.

Uncertainty, competition and even attacks. In 2012, independent sales organizations face a year of danger and opportunity.

A glimpse of what may represent the future of payments has arrived, but thus far only in certain geographic areas. With the Card Case smartphone application from Square Inc., consumers pay simply by stating their names at the point of sale.

Wal-Mart Stores has joined the list of national retailers that sell Square's device that turns smartphones into mobile card readers.

Apriva has launched a product designed to provide secure voice, email and data communications for smartphone apps, such as mobile banking and mobile payment programs.

Technology company Tio Networks Corp. has developed software for "reverse ATMs" that collect money from lower-income customers instead of dispensing it.

Collective Point of Sale Solutions Ltd., a Toronto merchant-services provider, is deploying Hypercom Corp. point of sale terminals to split and transmit EMV credit and debit card transactions to the least costly processors, the companies announced Tuesday.

Cashiers now may activate entire packs of prepaid cards at once instead of swiping each card individually, through a new service First Data Corp. is rolling out.

Its reader for tablets, announced Wednesday but not available until next year, is meant to serve a different market than its reader for smartphones.

Card.io, a San Francisco startup, is offering software that enables phone cameras to read credit card information.