Kevin Woodward

Companies providing payment gateways, loyalty programs and authorization and related services for Visa-branded transactions have improved their compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, Visa Inc. said.

Global Payments Inc. will provide multicurrency processing services to merchants in the U.S. and Canada through a deal with Planet Payment Inc.

Neovia Financial PLC, the U.K. merchant processor behind the NetTeller prepaid card service, said it will gain a "meaningful" North American operation with its purchase of Optimal Payments.

Merchant-level salespeople who use POS Portal Inc. as their point of sale equipment distributor now have a mobile-phone tool that enables them to check the availability and wholesale pricing of devices.

The payment services company Merchant Link LLC and the point of sale terminal maker Pax Technology Ltd. have signed agreements to use Voltage Security Inc.'s SecureData encryption service.

The payroll services company Payzone will use ACH Federal's automated clearing house processing services to support its small-business customers.

Improved revenue growth in the Asia-Pacific region, Canada and the United States helped Global Payments' results for its fiscal second quarter.

Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. on Jan. 6 reported net income of $53.5 million for its fiscal second quarter ended Nov. 30, down 14.8% from $62.8 million during the same period last year. Revenues, however, increased by 8.4%, to $443.5 million from $409 million.

Total System Services Inc. has moved quicker than it originally anticipated in acquiring First National Bank of Omaha's stake in First National Merchant Solutions LLC.

VeriFone Systems said it has completed its acquisition of Gemalto NV's point of sale terminal business. The deal, originally announced Oct. 21, closed on Dec. 31.

An Ingenico SA board member reportedly is contending that a takeover bid for the French point of sale terminal maker could be renewed.

Henry Gaillard, senior vice president of global operations at Hypercom Corp., has resigned.

Wait and see — that is the attitude the merchant acquiring industry is adopting following the release of the Federal Reserve Board's proposal to cap interchange rates for debit card transactions at 12 cents.

The French point of sale terminal maker, which publicly acknowledged the $1.9 billion bid last week, said in a news release Sunday that the company making the offer "has not been in a position to submit a binding offer that could be accepted by the board."

EMC Corp., a security technology company, has started a service to help merchants achieve compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Assurance Investment Partners Inc. has added merchant processing services to its offerings with its investment in Veritas Merchant Services LLC, an independent sales organization in Louisville, Ky.

The allure of double-digit payment card transaction volume growth and recent deregulation have prompted Elavon Inc. and Credicard, a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc., to form a merchant acquiring venture in Brazil.

Hypercom Corp. said Monday that more than 450 C&A Mode KG fashion retail stores in Germany plan to deploy 2,700 of its Artema Hybrid point of sale terminals.

Ingenico SA has come out with a point of sale mobile terminal line that it says is smaller, lighter and has longer battery life than its predecessors.

Citgo Petroleum Corp. has agreed to make Heartland Payment Systems Inc.'s SmartLink payment system available to its 6,500 Citgo retailers.