Merchant

The Smart Card Alliance’s transportation council this year plans to continue its focus in support of open-loop contactless transit payment card systems as more cities realize the potential benefits over closed-loop systems, according to an organization executive.

The Federal Reserve Board’s decision this week to take more time to analyze comments before finalizing its proposed debit-interchange rules could mean the final rules might not take as big a bite out of issuer revenue, some analysts believe.

Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and several leading Canadian banks that issue their cards face being included in proposed national class-action litigation tied to a lawsuit filed March 28 in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The suit alleges the card networks and their major issuers conspired to fix prices on fees merchants ultimately pay to accept cards.

Citing the proliferation of smartphone Near Fear Communication applications, NFC provider Vivotech Inc. next year plans to conduct an initial public offering of company stock to help boost its ability to build more NFC products and systems, Muhammed Khan, founder and president of Vivotech, tells PaymentsSource.

An estimated 417 different collection agencies and creditors were sued between March 1-15, down from 444 in the Feb. 1-15 period, according to data from U.S. District Courts.

Citigroup Inc.’s deal to join Syncada could boost momentum for the receivables processing network, which has announced only one other third-party bank participant.

Give up the smoke and mirrors. The time has come for ISOs and agents to bring honesty and transparency to their negotiations on the residual split, industry sources say.

Tap Group subsidiary Tap e-Payment Services (HK) Ltd. will provide electronic funds transfer processing integration services to A.S. Watson stores in Hong Kong and China under a service agreement reached with Sino Payments Inc., the companies announced March 28. Tap Group is a venture partner of Sino Payments.

The Smurfs may have an important security lesson for banks and credit card networks getting into mobile payments.

MasterCard Worldwide on March 28 announced a five-year “roadmap” for electronic payments in Australia that will require issuers and card-accepting merchants there to adopt its PayPass contactless-payment service beginning next year.