Economy

If data-security standards compliance in the United States mirrors what has occurred in Europe, the onset of EMV chip-and-PIN technology in the U.S. will not mean major retailers will skip validating their compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard each year, the head of the PCI Security Standards Council contends.

When the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council was formed five years ago to establish industry standards, General Manager Bob Russo figured about 50 to 60 merchants, associations or banks would participate. He was in for a surprise.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. plans to offer a mobile-payments application that can enable a merchant’s employees to complete sales transactions anywhere in or out of the store.

Visa Inc. has introduced a series of incentives to spur the U.S. to adopt chip cards–a change once considered as likely as the country switching to the metric system.

Visa Inc. plans to accelerate the U.S. switch to EMV contact and contactless chip technology, the card brand announced Aug. 9.

The financial-services industry apparently has work to do to protect customer data on mobile devices. Some tests of mobile-banking applilcations seem to indicate ISOs may not be as close as they thought to bringing small merchants into the world of card acceptance through mobile devices.

Gores Group LLC, the private-equity firm buying Hypercom Corp.’s U.S. payments-terminal business, says it has no plans to make any disruptive changes.

Visa Inc. fired the first shot in the post-Durbin pricing war, but MasterCard Worldwide is not ready to pull the trigger, at least not yet.

Square Inc.’s mobile card reader is under fire again for its security.

With a scant seven months left to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act rules governing everything from machine heights to the wording of Braille messages, many banks and ATM deployers have yet to take action, an analyst says.

Cardtronics Inc. on Aug. 4 reported second-quarter revenues of $147.3 million, up 10.8% from $132.9 million during the same period ended June 30 last year. Net income rose 4.8%, to $8.7 million from 8.3 million.

VeriFone Systems Inc. completed its purchase of rival terminal maker Hypercom Corp. on Aug. 4 after it reached a settlement with the Justice Department to sell Hypercom’s U.S. terminal business to the private-equity firm Gores Group LLC.

After years of discussion, the acquiring industry is preparing to offer a credential that proponents say will certify mastery of a defined standard of practice and “quantify expertise.”

Debit card issuers scrambling to ensure they have appropriate fraud-protection strategies in place before new debit-interchange rates kick in Oct. 1 appear likely to confront some dilemmas, some analysts suggest.

With 2.6 billion China UnionPay cardholders and 1.2 million Elavon Global Acquiring Solutions merchants worldwide, the math simply added up for an agreement that would enable Elavon merchants to accept UnionPay cards, an Elavon executive says.

Flush with cash and the prospect of stronger revenue growth for the rest of the year, Total System Services Inc., or TSYS, is eyeing potential acquisitions that would diversify its operations beyond its core credit card processing business.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is prepared to pass along all of the upcoming reduction in interchange fees to merchants in the form of what it calls “Durbin Dollars.”

After posting record second-quarter highs in processing sales volume and net revenue, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. executives are praising a retooled sales force and diligence in monitoring expenses.