Economy

Visa Inc. last week completed a trial of mobile contactless payments in Australia in collaboration with Melbourne-based ANZ Banking Group Ltd., Vipin Kalra, Visa country manager for Australia, tells PaymentsSource.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Durbin, author of the controversial rule to set caps on debit fees, yesterday denounced assertions by banks and credit unions that having card giants MasterCard and Visa set prices for debit is preferable to having the Federal Reserve set price limits on the increasingly popular form of payment.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Durbin, author of the controversial rule to set caps on debit fees, yesterday denounced assertions by banks and credit unions that having card giants MasterCard and Visa set prices for debit is preferable to having the Federal Reserve set price limits on the increasingly popular form of payment.

Visa Inc. has adapted the fraud scoring tool that it uses to vet card-not-present transactions to aid government agencies and private businesses with corporate card accounts.

Wells Fargo & Co. is planning to issue 15,000 EMV cards to U.S. residents in a test this year, making it by far the largest bank to offer the smart cards to domestic customers.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has added former executives from ING Direct and Hypercom Corp. to its management team.

A consortium of technology companies with banking-industry connections is urging lawmakers to delay implementation of the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit-interchange rules, warning they could heighten risk by forcing banks to reduce their investments in security and fraud-protection services.

Direct carrier billing is becoming more popular as consumers see the convenience and merchants are more willing to accept higher transaction fees to increase sales, contends Zong Inc., a mobile-payments platform provider.

The ATM Industry Association has published a best-practices guide for decommissioning ATMs at the end of their seven- to 10-year lifespan.

WASHINGTON – Jaws were dropping around Capitol Hill last week as CUNA President Bill Cheney began a tour of Senate offices with Camden Fine, head of the credit unions’ most virulent enemy, the Independent Community Bankers Association, to lobby for delay of the interchange rule.

Independent sales organizations are using social media, including Twitter and Facebook, to communicate daily with their agents, observers say. In their “tweets” and other messages, they share information on new products, contests and sales results.

Payscape Advisors, a nationwide merchant-services provider, is providing front- and back-end transaction processing support to BillingOrchard.com, which offers online automated recurring-billing and payment-processing services, the two companies announced April 4.

Finding an effective partner has long been one of the most challenging aspects of the payments business for both ISOs and sales agents. ISOs tend to look for agents who can be immediate, prolific revenue producers, and agents seek out ISO partners who treat them fairly and provide healthy margins and reliable residual payments.

Independent sales organizations are using value-added services as profit centers, differentiators, or both, observers say.

First American Payment Systems LP has appointed Alan Struble as executive vice president and general counsel, the company announced April 5.

Independent sales organizations are using value-added services as profit centers, differentiators, or both, observers say.

Retirement suited Larry Petru, but going back to work in the acquiring business suits him even better. As soon as his two-year noncompete clause expired this year, Petru, 65, started another independent sales organization.

Where do ISOs look when they want to hire sales agents from outside the acquiring industry? Just about everywhere.

In response to increasing ATM thefts and rising insurance rates, Cash Connect has published a best-practices guide for armored cash carriers.

Independent sales organizations are using social media, including Twitter and Facebook, to communicate daily with their agents, observers say. In their “tweets” and other messages, they share information on new products, contests and sales results.