Economy

VeriFone Systems Inc. is working with NBCUniversal Inc. on a system that plays videos on gas-station payment terminal screens.

ISOs and agents associated with United Bank Card Inc. have been differentiating themselves from competitors for a year now by giving merchants free point-of-sale terminals. Now the terminals are getting better, the company says.

Financial Transmission Network Inc., an Omaha, Neb.-based payment processor, is working with Unit4 Coda to offer receivables management that consolidates checks, single and recurring automated clearinghouse transactions, credit card payments, cash posting, and Web payment on the ETran Receivables Platform.

GlobalPlatform has launched the Basic Financial Configuration to specify which elements of the GlobalPlatform Card Specification v2.1.1 product vendors should use to ensure interoperability with the payment marketplace.

Verizon Wireless plans to impose a $2 fee beginning next month for every payment subscribers make over the phone or online with their credit cards, the telecommunication company announced Dec. 30.

Independent software providers will comply automatically with Payment Card Industry data security standards when they integrate their products with the Sage Exchange integrated payments platform, Sage North America says.

Helping doctors accept more credit and debit card payments could increase profits for ISOs and agents, but teaching medical office staff and patients how such systems work presents challenges.

ISOs and agents will not look back on 2012 as the year of mobile payments, partly because banks will push person-to-person payments next year, an analyst predicts.

Heartland Payment Systems has signed a five-year expanded contract with ConocoPhillips, the merchant processor announced Dec. 14. The companies have worked together for 20 years.

First Data Corp. has introduced Global Gateway e4, an online payment gateway that offers what the company regards as safe and reliable processing for card-not-present transactions, the transaction processor announced Dec. 13.

In the realm of payment card data security, 2011 qualifies as the year in which “more” became a key term on many levels.

With more business owners and information technology managers using payments networks with smartphones and other mobile devices, Trustwave figured it was time to put up more walls of defense to keep out hackers.

Debit, it appears, still has some staying power, though market conditions are causing it to spasm.

Business owners no longer must scrawl their names and initials on paper when they sign up for merchant card-processing agreements.

Uncertainty, competition and even attacks. In 2012, ISOs face a year of danger and opportunity.

A Canadian ISO is offering its merchants a proprietary mobile-payment acceptance device that other Canadian ISOs also could sell.