Merchant

The former president of a payment processing company has agreed to settle charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission and seven states for his role in an operation that allegedly debited more than $200 million in bogus charges from consumers’ bank accounts.

Transaction processor First Data Corp. expects to sign up more than 100,000 merchants by the end of this year for its new TransArmor payment card security product. TransArmor uses a combination of tokenization and encryption to secure transaction data as it passes through merchants’ systems.

With the recent upheaval in the financial sector, consumers have changed the way they borrow, spend and save. In a quest for better customer service, more competitive rates and less fee gouging, many have moved from larger institutions to smaller community banks, credit unions and online banking.

Only acquiring banks and the largest ISOs have to file formal written plans with the card brands to explain how they intend to bring the nation’s 5 million small retailers, restaurateurs and other mom-and-pop businesses into compliance with Payment Card Industry data security standards. But everybody in the credit and debit card “food chain” feels the sometimes-unpleasant effects of those plans.

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s $9 million deal this week to buy mobile point-of-sale terminal maker Way Systems Inc. is not surprising to analysts who follow the POS device industry (see story).

The State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group (SFPWG) recently released a study showing that as many as 60% of mortgage borrowers did not have their accounts forwarded to the mortgage lender’s loss mitigation department after becoming 60 days or more late on their payments.

New York regulators are conducting an investigation into deceptive credit card marketing practices that target students at their colleges.

Cielo S.A., a Brazil-based merchant acquirer with approximately 1.2 million active merchant accounts, is buying 30,000 Optimum T4205 point-of-sale terminals from Hypercom Corp., the terminal maker announced Sept. 2.

One of the owners of a payday loan and collection operation agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges for his role in a scheme that illegally tried to garnish borrowers’ wages and used other illegal collection practices.

Only acquiring banks and the largest ISOs have to file formal written plans with the card brands to explain how they intend to bring the nation’s 5 million small retailers, restaurateurs and other mom-and-pop businesses into compliance with Payment Card Industry data security standards. But everybody in the credit and debit card “food chain” feels the sometimes-unpleasant effects of those plans.