Merchant

Suppose Congress approves the Dodd-Frank Act, and small issuers with less than $10 billion in assets are exempt from debit card-interchange rules the Federal Reserve Board eventually deems “reasonable and proportional.” How will merchants know whose debit cards are exempt?

Springbok Services Inc.’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing suggests the prepaid card market is beginning to enter into a period of uncertainty off the heels of new government regulation and slimming margins, observes one analyst.

Two payments companies, BluePay Processing LLC and Trustwave, separately last week announced new encryption services for merchants.

Precidia Technologies Inc. says Micro$ale POS will use Precidia’s TransNet payment application in its point-of-sale systems. Ottawa, Canada-based Precidia says TransNet converts payment transactions so they can be sent via an Internet-protocol connection. Brandon, Fla.-based Micro$ale makes POS systems for use in quick-serve and full-service restaurants.

Central Bancompany, a Jefferson City, Mo.-based banking firm, will use Clearent LLC’s merchant services, Clearent announced last week.

Pinnacle Corp., an Arlington, Texas-based point-of-sale system maker, says it is offering payment-security compliance services from Vendor Safe Technologies to its convenience store merchants. Merchants will pay a monthly fee for the service, which covers network security and data access controls, firewalls and monitoring.

Despite the overwhelming share the 10 largest acquirers have of the U.S. merchant-transaction business, smaller acquirers have enough room to develop their own niches, according to a recent Mercator Advisory Group Inc. annual report on the acquiring industry.

Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc., a Norfolk, Va. publicly traded debt buyer, today announced that a Missouri court dismissed a case filed in August 2009 by the Missouri Attorney General's office against the company and its subsidiary, Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC.

Visa Inc. has launched a micropayment service in Australia that supports consumer payments for downloadable content such as movies, music and games.

For most lenders, making changes to credit policy is not an easy or expedited process. It often takes financial institutions at least nine months to develop, test and deploy a credit risk policy concept and more likely this process is somewhere closer to 12 to 18 months.