Merchant

Independent sales organizations should ensure the legal names and Internal Revenue Service taxpayer identification numbers of their merchant customers match the IRS files, Jill M. Miller, attorney at Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C., advised attendees at the Northeast Acquirers Conference in Dover, Vt., this week.

As economists and government officials declare the recession over because of an artificially funded rise in GDP, the orphaned byproduct of the downturn - high unemployment - remains alive and well and will extend its tentacle of impact on consumer collections for many months.

Consumers who bank or initiate retail purchases online already can secure those transactions through a variety of means, including passwords used only for the Web, card readers that plug into personal computers or challenge-response procedures that can include images they preselect.

As issuers mail out contactless credit and debit cards by the millions, it is not clear how often they are being used.

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index, which increased in November and December, improved again in January. The index stands at 55.9, up from 53.6 last month. The baseline for the index, set in 1985, is 100.

The Commercial Collection Agency Association (CCAA) reports that its members received a record volume of business-to-business accounts for collection in 2009.

As the frontrunners in Florida's gubernatorial race debate who should regulate rogue collection agencies - each arguing the other failed to police the industry as required by their current political roles - the collection industry will closely track developments in the race leading up to the November election.

Fear of foreign manufacturers one day invading the United States and other developed markets with low-cost hardware is another headache plaguing the world’s top payment-terminal makers (see main story).

The world’s leading payment-terminal manufacturers expect to see a modest uptick in demand this year after a lengthy, recession-driven sales slump. France-based Ingenico, along with U.S.-based VeriFone Holdings Inc. and Hypercom Corp., all are cautiously optimistic about this year’s sales outlook, partly because of improving economic trends in certain global regions and new data-security mandates that will require certain merchants to replace existing terminals.

West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw sued credit card issuer Capital One Bank and four other companies for deceptive, unfair and "unconscionable conduct in connection with their credit card lending and collection practices," according to his office's Consumer Protection Division.