ISO & Agent

As technology companies move into the payments industry, a Silicon Valley data company is providing tools intended to help old-school acquirers maintain market share.

Square has built its reputation as a quick and simple way for micro-merchants to accept card payments, but the company says it has proven it can serve the more demanding needs of larger retailers.

PayPal Inc., pushing ahead with its drive to become the payment option of choice at the point of sale, has entered an agreement with hardware maker NCR Corp.

"We're open to partnering and playing with the existing networks, but not under the existing rule base," says Jamie Henry, senior payment director of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. "The existing rules that are in place for card-based payments are not going to be acceptable for mobile-based payments."

VeriFone Systems announced Jan. 14 a suite of payment products, including an iPad mini version of its Payware Mobile card reader, a similar sleeve for the iPhone 5 and VeriFone HQ, a cloud-based system that allows retailers to monitor their terminals and manage their brands.

A German banking committee has approved an Ingenico SA payment terminal as the first to accept contactless payments in the country under a new contactless pay system called giorgo.

Some prominent mobile wallets today rely on NFC as the primary method of making payments. These include the mobile carriers’ Isis venture and Google’s mobile wallet. Others, such as PayPal, consider NFC optional. The mega-retailers’ Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) venture, which has yet to release a product, promises a software-based alternative to NFC, storing card data in the cloud and using bar codes to conduct transactions.

The acquiring industry's established players are concerned about tech companies entering the business, but they're doing something about it – often by joining forces with the new kids.

Ingenico SA agreed to offer Shift4 Corp.'s gateway offering as part of the French terminal maker's point-to-point encryption portfolio.

Bancsource Inc. is handling first-line and second-line maintenance of International Bank of Commerce's 313 Diebold ATMs in Texas and Oklahoma.

Groupon's push into the payments business continues with an update that brings its mobile card reader to Android phone users.

Acquirers consider the Payment Card Industry data security standards slightly more important as a source of revenue than as an approach to security, new survey data indicates.

Cezar Butu of Romania, who pleaded guilty to taking part in hacking terminals at hundreds of U.S. Subway sandwich shops from 2009 to 2011, was sentenced this week to 21 months in prison.

It's been more than two months since Lower Manhattan was engulfed by flood waters from Superstorm Sandy and many merchants are still without the ability to accept credit and debit cards.

The ZingCheckout iPad application is now available on the App Store with integration for PaySaber Clip, a USAePay mobile point of sale product.

AJB Software Design Inc. plans to announce Friday its participation in the Visa POS Solutions Program (VPSP), which AJB says could allow it to link Visa's digital wallet, V.me, to the point of sale.

Total Merchant Services announced today that it has acquired Fanminder, a social and mobile marketing company based in San Francisco.

In North America, QR code-based mobile payment apps from Starbucks and LevelUp generate a code for each user, and the merchant scans the code to accept a payment. In Brazil, PicPay is flipping the model and making the consumer scan codes presented by the merchant.

Payments and social media have had a rocky relationship. Many companies that have tried to blend the two have failed or been forced to change their business model. Gumroad Inc., a startup founded by a 20-year-old veteran of Pinterest, says it gets it right.

Madison Dearborn Partners is buying a minority stake in EVO Payments International LLC and helping to fund the acquirer's international expansion and other growth initiatives.