Merchant

An estimated 409 different collection agencies and creditors were sued in the Sept. 1-15 period, down from an estimated 534 sued in the second half of August and 426 sued in the first half of August, according to data from U.S. District Courts.

The six-month deadline extension for Canada’s merchants to convert to EMV chip-and-PIN technology points to certain technical difficulties some have encountered during the lengthy process, observers say.

The PCI Security Standards Council this fall plans to launch a website dedicated to small merchants, which have asked the council for help in understanding how data-security measures affect them.

Pivotal Payments, a merchant acquirer in Melville, N.Y., has agreed to purchase up to 33,000 payment terminals from Hypercom Corp.

The time to prepare for EMV and advanced encryption appears to have arrived.

The more than 350 independent sales organizations that work with National Processing Co. should anticipate work as usual once Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC completes its acquisition of the Louisville, Ky.-based merchant processor.

ISOs and agents seldom question the importance of helping their merchants comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Paul A. Rianda is an attorney who has provided legal advice to the bankcard industry for more than 15 years. His e-mail is paul@riandalaw.com.

High-end spenders who tightened their belts in 2009 are starting to loosen them up, as such consumers likely are behind an overall increase in credit card spending last month, suggests First Data Corp.’s August SpendTrend payment card transaction analysis of all store sales activity that First Data processes.

Editor's Note: Collection agency owner Michelle Janik sent the following letter for publication after reading an earlier statement from a consumer attorney that CollectionsCreditRisk.com published, see story. To comment, contact Darren Waggoner, Editor, CollectionsCreditRisk.com at 815.463.9008 or darren.waggoner@sourcemedia.com.