Merchant

The Electronic Transactions Association has given Total Merchant Services CEO Joe Kaplan a spot on the association's advisory council. In addition, the ETA appointed Paul Rosenfeld, vice president and general manager of Total Merchant Services.

Total System Services CEO Phil Tomlinson took time out from discussing record revenue during the payments processor's Jan. 28th earnings call to proclaim his company safe from the slate of recent data breaches that have afflicted Target and other retailers.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's says his office has collected more than $1.3 billion in debts owed to state government offices.

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuits decreased for the second consecutive year in 2013, down 10 percent from 2012, which itself was down 7 percent from 2011. Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigation exploded in 2013, up 69 percent from 2012.

New York regulators have reached a settlement with Western Sky Financial LLC, CashCall Inc., WS Funding LLC and their owners, Martin Webb and J. Paul Reddam, for violating the state's usury and licensed lender laws in connection with personal loans they made over the Internet.

The processor Global Payments Inc. has agreed to acquire Payment Processing Inc. (PayPros), a company that serves mostly smaller merchants.

Finnish bank OP-Pohjola has introduced a mobile point of sale system designed to help consumers take advantage of local tax breaks.

California's plan to halt payday loan services owned by Indian tribes was dealt a setback this week after a state appeals court ruled tribal sovereign immunity stands in the way.

The latest Equifax National Consumer Credit Trends Report indicates that the automobile lending sector continues to thrive. The total number of new auto loans originated from January through October 2013 was 20.2 million, totaling $405.2 billion and representing the highest origination total for that time in eight years.

Swedish mobile point of sale company iZettle has launched a software development kit (SDK) to allow other companies to leverage iZettle's technology to build payments services.