Economy

WASHINGTON – Responding to progress the financial-services industry has made in Congress to delay or derail new interchange caps included in the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act, the National Retail Federation is rolling out a major, nationwide, 60-day lobbying, grassroots and media campaign aimed at ensuring that the law goes into effect as scheduled.

ControlScan Inc. is offering new services it said would streamline the Payment Card Industry data security standard compliance process for small and midsize merchants.

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s Paymedia add-on now enables gas stations to present advertising on their pumps’ screens, the terminal maker announced.

Transaction processor Merchant Data Systems Inc. has renewed its contract with ControlScan Inc., a provider of Payment Card Industry data security standards compliance help.

Two community banks have signed up for Secure Vault Payments, according to eWise Systems USA Inc., the Denver-based company working with NACHA, the electronic payments association, to offer the technology.

PayCommerce Inc. has integrated its cloud-based payments platform for small to midsize businesses for use with commonly used business software, the company announced May 10.

VeriFone Systems Inc. and Hypercom Corp. say they believe their merger can be completed in the second half of 2011, despite a civil antitrust lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice filed against the companies May 12.

SAN DIEGO–A future fraught with change is coming into focus, with electronic messages replacing merchants’ ads in the local Gazette, mobile payments proliferating and even the smallest retailers getting an affordable opportunity to link the point of sale to inventory replenishment.

SAN DIEGO–No one has brandished a crystal ball, but payment-terminal makers here this week at the ETA Annual Meeting & Expo still have had plenty to say about the future.

SAN DIEGO--The financial services industry, now at the height of an expensive national campaign to delay the so-called Durbin amendment, was urged Wednesday to do the opposite: contact elected officials at home to explain the local effects of the legislation.

Stronger demand for its payment terminals in certain emerging markets helped Hypercom Corp. produce higher-than-expected first-quarter revenues, according to analysts, as the company draws closer to its planned acquisition later this year by VeriFone Systems Inc.

Merrick Bank Corp. has signed on to offer Secure Vault Payments to merchants through its ISO network, and sources say the fledgling payment method may become available to 17 million consumers before the end of this month and to 50 million by year’s end.

When the financial-services industry came together this year to oppose the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, retail ATM deployers were ready to do their part with the help of the ATM U.S. Defense Fund.

First Data Corp. has named Mark Herrington executive vice president of global product management and innovation, and appointed him to the company’s executive committee.

A new payment card shows users their balances right away with the technology they already have — no chips, fancy apps or even bookmarked mobile websites required.

Total System Services Inc., or TSYS, is continuing to expand its presence in the merchant-acquiring industry with the purchase of TermNet Merchant Services Inc.

Cocard Marketing Group LLC, a Nashville, Tenn.-based independent sales organization with more than 90 offices across the nation, has renewed its card-processing contract with National Processing Co. LLC.