ISO & Agent

Nearly a year after making its mobile card reader available in Canada, Square Inc. has decided to locate a permanent office in the country.

The mobile payments market is overrun with companies offering clip-on card readers in a variety of shapes and sizes. Tantrum Street is betting that it can offer the same service without any add-on hardware at all.

An ISO based in Southern California is using LeafPresenter point-of-sale tablets to differentiate itself from competitors and save money for merchants.

PCI services and merchant intelligence provider Sysnet Global Solutions is working with iScan Online, which specializes in security scanning of devices, to provide acquirers with new mobile security.

Ingenico is planning to deploy a new lightweight payments acceptance device in North American markets this fall.

Difference Capital Financial is investing $2 million and will taking a 5% stake in Carta, a Canadian mobile payments company.

The PCI council continues to expand its reach, with the intent of remaining a strong guide for data security well into the future.

First Data has signed an extension of its merchant services partnership with Provident Bank, a $7.3 billion-asset bank that services central and northern New Jersey.

The Digital Media Zone at Ryerson University is home to many startups that hope to someday be as successful and famous as Square or LevelUp.

PayPal's $800 million deal to buy the payments processor Braintree fuels a fast-paced acquisition streak that has granted PayPal some of most disruptive technology — and people — in the payments industry.

PayPal’s parent company eBay has entered into an agreement to buy online payment processor Braintree for $800 million in cash, a deal that’s expected to close in the fourth quarter pending regulatory approvals.

Square Inc. sent a notice to customers today warning that updating their iPhones and iPads to the latest version of the iOS operating system could prevent Square’s card reader from working properly.

As the U.S. payments industry advances in its migration to EMV-chip cards, some merchants perceive the EMV push as "a giant head-fake" to establish a foundation for mobile payments based on Near Field Communication technology.

Merchants that use Square will be able to use it with Intuit's QuickBooks accounting software, as Intuit adds support for the mobile card reader in the newest version of its program, according to multiple reports.

MasterCard is working on new mobile payments functions that give shoppers the choice between Near Field Communication chips and QR codes — two mobile payments methods that have competed in the market and are typically treated as mutually exclusive.

Italian mobile point of sale company Jusp has launched a mobile chip-and-PIN card reader as a plug-in device, veering from the more common approach of using a separate Bluetooth device.

United Merchant Services Inc., a vendor of payment processing and point of sale systems, has received funding from The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to expand globally and to enhance its technology platform, client service and sales effort.

Southwestern Advantage, a multi-level marketing company with a model similar to Avon or Amway, relies on college students to sell its educational materials — raising potential risk issues as a young and inexperienced sales force is tasked with protecting payment details.

Columbus Data Services, an ATM processor, has completed MasterCard end-to-end certification for all Triton ATM products. As a result, CDS is now processing transactions that comply with the EMV-chip card standard on MasterCard networks.

LevelUp's software development kit (SDK), released last week, allows companies such as Zuppler to add mobile payments without drawing users away from the merchant's branded mobile app.