ISO & Agent

The Canadian government has hired BMO to provide integrated travel and expense management services, in partnership with MasterCard and corporate services provider HRG.

Signature Card Services, a Los Angeles-based independent sales organization, is making sure its sales agents and merchants understand the benefits of EMV chip cards.

Lawyers representing retail trade organizations in the class action over card swipe fees are preparing "a strong response" to allegations that they are misleading in how they urge their members to oppose the proposed settlement in the eight-year-long case.

The person VeriFone's board of directors chooses as its next CEO must move quickly to address the myriad challenges facing the point of sale terminal maker. But opportunities abound that make the company's revival a worthwhile undertaking.

Online merchants reacted to Visa's creation of 3D Secure to protect card-not-present transactions more than a decade ago with a resounding thud. But the software has become a viable option to protect card data online, according to a new report from Aite Group.

The organizers of a brand new Dallas-based acquiring and processing company called Anovia Payments plan to operate in 23 countries by the end of next year.

With an eye toward making sure more small and medium-size merchants are aware of the need to comply with the Payment Card Industry data security standards, Dallas-based acquirer SignaPay will utilize ControlScan services.

It took three years to build a portfolio of 3,000 merchants at Unified Payments, an independent sales organization based in North Miami Beach, Fla. A year after the ISO started its charitable giving subsidiary, Process Pink Payments, that number reached 5,000. By the end of 2012, it reached 15,000 merchants for Process Pink and more than 100,000 merchants overall.

Heartland Payment Systems and SCVNGR's LevelUp are taking their merchant services and payments bundle, which they earlier tested in a handful of cities, nationwide.

Leaf, a company that offers a payments-specific tablet, is opening to more processors in an effort to lure merchants away from Square and other point of sale acceptance companies.

A pending MasterCard "staged wallet" fee, set to take effect in June, is setting a new tone for the emerging payments landscape.

VeriFone promoted its executive vice president of operations to the role of chief operating officer and appointed three other executives to regional president posts, the point of sale terminal manufacturer announced this week.

Visa Inc. now counts Overstock.com Inc. among the list of retailers accepting its V.me digital wallet.

As VeriFone Systems Inc. seeks new leadership to help it tackle its ongoing challenges, smaller rivals are looking at their own operations to determine which opportunities to seize in the payments hardware market.

Genesco's $13 million lawsuit against Visa Inc., filed last week in a Tennessee court, has a similar ring to it as a countersuit Cisero's Ristorante and Nightclub in Park City, Utah filed last year against its acquiring bank and processor.

In the low-margin farming industry, companies are particularly sensitive to credit card transaction fees or the time it takes for checks to clear. Dwolla has started targeting these industries with its alternative payment service.

Tranzlogic LLC is targeting independent sales organizations to scale its customer intelligence and marketing strategy more quickly than it could by selling to end users.

Payair's technology supports many mobile-payment methods, but the Swedish company is promoting only the most straightforward forms through its integration with Cash IT.

An embedded feature of the Samsung Wallet on the upcoming Galaxy S4 smartphone could give merchants an easier and cheaper way to accept mobile payments and coupons at the point of sale.

The U.S. may not follow other countries' lead in forcing EMV chip-card users to use a PIN, but data from a biannual Federal Reserve Board survey indicates there is value to sticking with PIN.