Merchant

Citing improving economic conditions, Total System Services Inc., or TSYS, on July 26 reported a 3.9% increase in second-quarter revenue, to $447.6 million from $430.8 million during the same period a year ago. Net income was $54.6 million, up 4% from $52.5 million.

Wedding bells are ringing again for technology vendors, but many bank executives do not know on which side of the aisle to sit for their immediate buying decisions.

Few of the security features designed to prove a credit card’s validity in the physical world work well online. One startup aims to change that.

Signaling the opening of a new market for Chinese manufacturers and retailers, Alibaba Group Ltd. is working with Western Union to develop an online payment platform, the Chinese business-to-business e-commerce specialist announced earlier this month.

Following its strategy to saturate the host countries of sporting events that it sponsors, Visa Inc. got an early start in Colombia in signing up merchants for marketing promotions in anticipation of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which starts this week, PaymentsSource has learned.

Credit card issuers wanting to improve profitability in the wake of the recession could get better results by looking more closely at their own fraud cases to determine specifically which type of fraud criminals are perpetrating and how to stop it, new research from Experian PLC suggests.

If a hacker gets into the cash-register software of a restaurant, captures credit card information and sells it on the Internet to counterfeiters all over the world, it could take months or years for police to pinpoint the source.

As the hype for widespread Near Field Communication-enabled mobile payments continues to heat up, eBay Inc.’s CEO doused some cold water on the concept, suggesting instead that large merchants will resist the unproven technology.

Preventing a damaged reputation, more so than cost, is what drives online merchants to improve their data security and comply with industry standards. And more merchants are starting to use third parties to store their payments data to improve security and protect their reputations, new research suggests.

A federal judge on July 20 approved a settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide that bars the two networks from enforcing bylaws preventing merchants steering business to less expensive forms of payment.