Economy

Merchants and payment vendors who never bother to change the default password in sensitive systems are getting fresh attention from the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

Square has eliminated holds and deposit limits for manually entered transactions in the U.S., and is marketing these changes to frustrated PayPal users.

Even if it takes the payments industry months to respond to Google's use of Host Card Emulation, which simulates the signal from a Near Field Communication chip, the technology is a potential game changer.

Google Inc. sent a few tremors through the payments industry when announcing its newest Android operating system can perform contactless payments without high-level access to NFC hardware. No one could blame SimplyTapp CEO Doug Yeager if he were cheering Google on from the sidelines.

SaaS-based technology provides a blended approach to remittance processing that enables financial institutions to outsource infrastructure responsibilities, while retaining the management of transaction processing, bank deposits and receivable updates.

Big players are entering the merchant cash advance business and the industry's smaller players are maturing. Meanwhile, the market is growing with the help of automated clearinghouse transactions.

Cynergy Data has named Afshin Yazdian as its new CEO, while current CEO Kim Fitzsimmons will remain with the company as a member of the board and take on a strategic role with Comvest Partners.

Cynergy Data has named Afshin Yazdian as its new CEO, while outgoing CEO Kim Fitzsimmons will remain with the company as a member of the board and take on a strategic role with Comvest Partners, Cynergy's private equity investor.

This month, Microsoft and Sony are launching new machines with a whole new take on games, movies — and payments. And they're not the only ones applying video game strategies to the payments industry.

Merchants labeled high-risk often have trouble finding processors willing to work with them, but they may have better luck if they adopt a digital currency designed to prohibit chargebacks.

Continuing its international expansion through partnerships, U.S.-based EVO Payments International LLC has acquired a controlling interest in Polish financial institution PKO Bank Polski's merchant acquiring arm.

The Twitter initial public offering culminated with the ringing of the New York Stock Exchange's opening bell Thursday, the social media site becoming a public company valued at more than $14 billion. But Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey isn't done with Wall Street yet, as he's reportedly begun exploring an IPO for Square, the mobile payments startup he co-founded in 2009.

The Electronic Transactions Association is redoubling its efforts to shape legislation and regulation in ways that benefit the acquiring industry.

Big players are entering the merchant cash advance business and the industry’s smaller players are maturing. Meanwhile, the market is growing with the help of automated clearinghouse transactions.

More independent sales organizations are using fees to force merchants to take Payment Card Industry security standard compliance seriously.

If ISOs want to stand out in the acquiring industry, they have to bring something valuable to the table — something that will deliver a lasting edge in terms of competitiveness or efficiency.

Total Systems Services (TSYS) and Womply, a big-data startup, are nearing their goal of providing Womply's Insights platform to 10,000 of TSYS' clients by the end of the year.

Square Inc.'s new partnership with Staples treats the office supply seller as both a distribution channel and a showroom for its Square Stand point of sale system.

Citibank Hong Kong and wireless carrier 3 Hong Kong are jointly launching the 3 Citi Wallet, which was designed for Hong Kong, but establishes a technology Citi can export to other regions.

EVO Payments International LLC has finalized its acquisition of a controlling interest in Banco Popular merchant acquiring business in Spain that was disclosed last December as part of EVO's push to become an established global payments processor.