Merchant

More than 300 T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants plan to use a payment card security method that masks sensitive transaction data with a numerical token, says Merchant Link, the company providing the TransactionVault service.

International expansion will not benefit every company, and merchant-service providers that want to expand outside the United States should carefully evaluate their business models to determine whether such a strategy is feasible, some observers note.

The deadline to become compliant with the final rule on the “ability to pay” amendments to Regulation Z stemming from the CARD Act of 2009 passed last month. Financial institutions are breathing a sigh of relief and getting on with their business.

Mortgage modifications made permanent jumped 45% in February, according to newly released U.S. Treasury Department data.

Merchant Warehouse Inc. says its mobile payment-acceptance software for smartphones now works with devices using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile and Google Inc.’s Android operating systems.

Heartland Payments Systems Inc. has signed Martin Eagle Oil Co. Inc. as the first customer for the processor’s SmartLink consolidated-network technology, Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland announced this week.

Nxgen International is opening operations in the United Kingdom and Italy as part of a European expansion strategy the Whitefish, Mont.-based merchant-service provider announced last week. Diversifying geographically can help Nxgen grow and differentiate itself further, says Giuseppe Caltabiano, Nxgen president.

As one of the first resellers of VeriFone Holdings Inc.’s PayWare Mobile service, Merchant 360 Inc. says some mobile merchants like that the service includes a card reader that enables them to get card-present transaction rates.

U.S. revolving credit, 98% of which is credit card debt, fell to $864.4 billion in January from a revised total of $866.1 billion in December, marking the 16th consecutive month that saw Americans shed credit card debt, according to the Federal Reserve's latest G.19 report.

LifeLock Inc. agreed today to pay $11 million to the Federal Trade Commission and $1 million to a group of 35 state attorneys general to settle charges that the company used false claims to promote its identity theft protection services.