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Visa has hired Ramon Martin, who was previously with American Express, for the newly created job of global head of merchant sales and solutions. Visa also announced that Elizabeth Buse, who heads its global solutions group, plans to retire March 31 after 16 years at the company.

Contactless card payments are building a fan base in the United Kingdom, where their use has spiked in the past year, but the product is still a long way from replacing magnetic-stripe cards.

McDonald's customers throughout Sweden can now pay for their meals with their phone using Seamless' QR code-based mobile wallet, SEQR, from within the McDonald's app.

First Data Corp. has appointed Frank Bisignano as the Atlanta-based company's chairman, adding to his role as chief executive officer.

The Princeton, N.J.-based processor Heartland Payment Systems is moving its sales headquarters to a new building in Edmond, Okla.

The Electronic Transactions Association is lobbying Congress to enact a uniform national data breach reporting standard that would replace a welter of contradictory state and local rules.

Cece Stewart, who spent three years trying to turn around Citi's U.S. retail banking operations, is retiring. In an interview, she cited account growth, productivity improvements and cross-selling of credit cards as accomplishments that offset "enormous headwinds."

A new loyalty feature in NCR Corp.'s Silver point of sale system for iPads aims to help small businesses develop and manage customer rewards programs.

Global Payments Inc. has completed its $420 million purchase of Payment Processing Inc., a provider of payments technology and services for smaller merchants.

Citadel EFT, a credit card processing firm, announced March 4 that it is exploring ways to allow state-licensed marijuana businesses to accept electronic payments from their customers.

Leaf, a provider of tablets for payments, has hired several executives including a director at Heartland Payment Systems, which recently invested in the startup.

Dash Software LLC, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based mobile payment provider that targets restaurants and bars, has raised $1.2 million in investment to launch its updated iPhone app in Manhattan.

Revel Systems and Index are partnering to bring the kind of personalized consumer messaging that's common in e-commerce to the countertops of retail stores.

Square has purchased BookFresh, a company that sells booking and appointment management technology to merchants.

Swedish bank Handelsbanken plans to resell a VeriFone-built chip-and-PIN mobile card reader to enable the country's micro merchants to accept card payments through smartphones and tablets.

Ingenico's Roam is launching a mobile card reader with chip and PIN acceptance, and it expects U.S. merchants will want to use it to accept PIN debit transactions even before EMV-chip cards become widespread.

HP plans to sell a tablet-based point of sale system that integrates payments with a number of other business operations.

BlueSnap has developed software designed to help online merchants cut down on checkout abandonment by allowing them to host numerous checkout pages designed for different markets.

Square will now accept Discover and Diners Club credit card payments in Canada, joining American Express, Visa, MasterCard and JCB credit cards.

French terminal maker Ingenico SA and electronics giant Samsung are combining their mobile payment products to offer merchants an integrated mobile payment system.