Technology

Palmetto Bank in Greenville, S.C., has signed an integrated-services contract with Diebold Inc., a strategy the ATM manufacturer and more of its competitors have begun using to counter declining ATM sales to U.S.-based regional and small banks. The agreement’s terms were not disclosed.

Wright Express Corp., a payment-processing company for commercial and government vehicle fleets, recently reported a 3.6% rise in revenue for last year’s fourth quarter, to $83.8 million from $80.9 million during the same period a year earlier.

China Unicom will officially launch its Near Field Communication service later this year in Shanghai, confirms a Shanghai-based official from the nation's second-largest mobile network carrier.

Despite a fourth quarter net loss Heartland Payment Systems Inc. attributes largely to breach-related expenses, the Princeton, N.J.-based payment processor sees “encouraging progress” in small and midsize merchant transaction-processing volume and same-store sales, Robert Carr, Heartland chairman and CEO, told analysts during a conference call last week.

Sales agents for ISOs increasingly are seeking additional industry training to improve their abilities to better compete for scarce business during the difficult economy, observers note.

Two companies that support online payments are getting involved with Facebook Inc. to streamline micropayments for virtual goods users purchase on the popular social networking Web site.

Identity theft and collections ranked first and second on the Federal Trade Commission's list of top complaints consumers filed with the agency in 2009.

A bitter fight is brewing in Florida over whether banks should be allowed to bypass court hearings in foreclosures.

Merchant-portfolio sellers that harbored visions of selling their portfolios at 36 times their monthly residual revenue finally have acquiesced to buyers’ demand to pay less, say observers of the acquiring market. Residual revenue is the recurring transaction revenue acquirers collect from merchants.

Sales agents for independent sales organizations increasingly are seeking additional industry training to improve their abilities to better compete for scarce business during the difficult economy, observers note.