Merchant

With mobile-payment options available for New York taxi, subway or train riders, it was only a matter of time before the city’s ferry boats offered a similar plan.

Payments processor Total Systems Services Inc. has signed a new agreement with merchant-services provider Pivotal Payments Inc., the companies announced Jan. 10.

Intuit Inc. is taking GoPayment north to Canada as the company looks to move the mobile card reader and application to countries outside the U.S.

Though Facebook members generally reveal much about their private lives in what amounts to an open forum when posting information on the social media site, they are not as trusting when it comes to spending money on the site.

Acquirers may be wrong if they believe they can coerce small merchants into complying with security standards by charging them fees.

Given all the time and money banks have been putting into nascent mobile payment systems, the last thing they need is a new competitor parachuting into the mix, and in a more advantageous position.

Visa Inc. appears to have one up on other international brands when it comes to debit card acceptance at at least one Canadian airline.

U.S. Bancorp has implemented the electronic payments system Secure Vault Payments with the Nebraska Child Support Payment Center for parents to make child-support payments online.

Any thought that Visa Inc. was the least bit interested in dipping its toe into merchant acquiring quickly dissipated when the card brand decided to sell an online merchant portfolio it inherited from a purchase two years ago to Global Payments Inc.

Acquirers should mention security to merchants more often. A lot more often–every time they make a sales call, field a complaint, explain a regulation, solve a technical problem, send an email message, mail a monthly statement or launch a direct-mail campaign.