Fintech

Though perhaps there is no greater rivalry than Thin Mints versus Samoas, two Girl Scout groups are taking sides in a different debate: which mobile card reader is best for cookie sales.

Square Inc.’s Feb. 22 announcement that it had dropped the 15-cent transaction fee for card-present transactions represents a return to a rate scheme the merchant-services company had last spring.

Banks are looking beyond consumers to Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. to share the pain of lower interchange fees.

The Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit-interchange rates are unlikely to go into effect this summer without some significant changes, the co-chief of a large independent service organization speculates.

Security Card Services LLC’s decision to renew its processing contract with National Processing Co. stems partially from a degree of comfort the companies have amassed in their 14-year history of working together, according to John Lewis, the independent sales organization’s president.

Telefonica O2 Ireland is teaming with 3V Transaction Services Ltd. to launch 02 Money, a Visa-branded prepaid chip-and-PIN card, the Ireland-based mobile operator announced last week.

WASHINGTON — A year after the credit card reform law was enacted, Elizabeth Warren, the administration's official in charge with setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the industry has improved its practices and warned against over regulation of the card market.

Cardtronics Inc.’s Allpoint surcharge-free ATM network has added more than 1,000 machines to its network as part of a long-term agreement with Aptus Financial Inc., the companies announced Feb. 22

Independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers using Panoptic Security Inc.’s payment-security service now have another tool to view their merchants’ security-compliance efforts–MyPCIDashboard, a service Panoptic announced Feb. 22.

Independent sales organization Paperless Transaction Corp. has added remote deposit capture-services to its product offerings, Financial Transmission Network Inc., the company providing the service, announced Feb. 21.