Economy

Acquirers should mention security to merchants more often. A lot more often¬–every time they make a sales call, field a complaint, explain a regulation, solve a technical problem, send an email message, mail a monthly statement, conduct a Web seminar or launch a direct-mail campaign.

The explosion of mobile applications, especially those involving banking and payments, is almost certain to lead to ingenious new hacker attacks on consumer data this year. After all, why should 2012 be different from any other year, as crooks continually look for holes in security in hopes of reaping financial rewards?

Yahoo Inc. stands out as the only major Internet brand without a payment service, but that may change now that the company has hired Scott Thompson from PayPal Inc. as its new CEO.

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s GlobalBay iPad retail mobile-payment software literally is rolling out onto the sales floors at U.S. Guess Inc. clothing and accessories stores, providing further evidence that the company intends to position itself as a key player in mobile payments and consumer marketing.

Global Payments Inc. stayed true to its name in targeting the acquisition of merchant portfolios from banks in Russia and Malta during its fiscal second quarter, but it also solidified its North American activities with a deal to purchase CyberSource’s U.S. merchant-acquiring portfolio from Visa Inc.

Merchant cash advances, a value-added service some ISOs offer to retailers, are defined as lump-sum payments to a business in exchange for a percentage of its future credit or debit card sales.

Elavon has launched a secure payment product that turns mobile devices, such as cell phones, into chip card payment terminals, the unit of U.S. Bancorp announced Jan.4.

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.