Merchant

Banco Nacional de Costa Rica ordered more than 13,000 Hypercom Corp. Optimum countertop and mobile payment terminals, which it plans to distribute to merchants throughout Costa Rica.

Visa Inc.’s most recent statistics of merchant compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard shows that 100% of the largest U.S. merchants—those processing more than 1 million annual Visa transactions—have validated their point-of-sale systems as not storing prohibited data.

Certain definitions within new Internal Revenue Service rules requiring payment processors and merchant acquirers to track merchants’ transactions and report them to the IRS beginning next year are creating additional hassles, some industry observers say.

Legions of potential investors are clamoring to buy a piece of the merchant-acquiring business, but most ISOs would prefer not to sell. Both camps appear to believe the industry represents a safe haven in hard times and a promising prospect during a recovery.

Vivotech Adding Encryption To Contactless Transactions

Paul A. Rianda is an attorney who has specialized in providing legal advice to the bankcard industry for more than 10 years. His e-mail is paul@riandalaw.com.

Certain definitions within new Internal Revenue Service rules requiring payment processors and merchant acquirers to track merchants’ transactions and report them to the IRS beginning next year are creating additional hassles, some industry observers say.

Legions of potential investors want to buy a piece of the merchant-acquiring business, but most independent sales organizations would prefer not to sell. Both camps appear to believe the industry represents a safe haven in hard times and promising opportunities during a recovery.

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday told the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that protecting financially distressed consumers from deceptive debt relief schemes is a top agency priority.

The Internal Revenue Service on Aug. 13 released its rules for how acquirers and processors should report their merchants’ credit, debit and gift card transactions to the agency beginning next year.