ISO & Agent

If independent sales organizations aren't willing to shift their business models in the coming years, they'll go extinct in a payments industry bustling with aggressive, agile startups that skip the middleman and go directly to the merchant.

Mobile point of sale processor payworks and European hospitality technology provider Orderman are designing mobile terminals for chip-and-PIN cards.

PayPal's plans to extend its payments business inside of stores includes technology that attempts to reduce the need for customers to wait in line at the cash register.

Revel is offering PayPal’s mobile payment capabilities as an integrated service within the Revel point of sale system.

Gun sellers, medical marijuana shops, pornography sites, bitcoin exchanges and mug-shot galleries share a common stigma — many payments companies refuse to do business with them, whether or not they run afoul of the law.

October can be a frightening month, and not just because of Halloween. In two years, the October deadline for EMV card acceptance will hit, leaving most merchants on the hook for fraud if they have not begun accepting smart-chip cards.

Heartland Payment Systems and Tabbedout are developing an integrated mobile payment system for restaurants and bars.

Security can be an expensive, time-consuming investment for small merchants, and most have a mindset that security hacks won't happen to them. But independent sales organizations must take an active role in protecting even the merchants that don't want to be protected.

Dickie Brennan is a New Orleans staple, a local business owner whose family has operated restaurants in the Crescent City for decades. A protégé of legendary chef Paul Prudhomme, Brennan is also an early adopter of a new mobile technology he hopes will change the way people dine out.

As Isis prepares for its nationwide launch, it is getting marketing help from a significant merchant: McDonald's.

First Data Corp. and Clover Network Inc. are collaborating on the Clover Station, a point of sale and business management system for merchants.

Jumio Inc. has expanded its ID scanning technology to support Apple and Samsung's digital wallets, enabling scanned payment cards to be used within other mobile apps.

Groupon's strategy in mobile payments relies heavily on the feedback it gets from its merchants. The company's latest update to the Breadcrumb POS mobile payment app allows those merchants to get similar knowledge about their own customers' needs.

Merchants are often wary of investing in a new point of sale terminal when even newer technology may be just around the corner. Spire Payments aims to ease their concerns by offering a developer-friendly system designed to adapt quickly.

U.S. Bank is developing a mobile app that can provide physical stores with the sort of data that is typically only available to online and mobile shopping sites.

Two payments industry veterans have come up with a way to make mobile phones and terminals communicate wirelessly without a conventional wireless or Near Field Communication signal.

Amazon.com Inc.'s new "Login and Pay with Amazon" is designed to let merchants accept payments from online shoppers without requiring them to create a dedicated account.

ShopKeep POS has hired Drew Schwartz as vice president of product management and David Herzog as director of business development for the company's channel business.

PayPal is developing a new checkout process for its mobile app, allowing users to scan a QR code or type a PIN at the point of sale to authenticate purchases made with its cloud-based mobile payment app.

Credit and debit card payments at vending machines could present a whole new realm of opportunity for independent sales organizations.