Economy

Hypercom Corp.’s shareholders have approved the $485 million merger with VeriFone Systems Inc., Hypercom announced Feb. 24.

The Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit-interchange rates are unlikely to go into effect this summer without some significant changes, the co-chief of a large ISO speculates.

The Electronic Transactions Association’s payments professional certification program will debut by the end of the year, the trade group announced Feb. 22.

Long satisfied with offering merchants a purpose-built wireless point-of-sale terminal, Matt Freedman, chief operating officer at Total Merchant Services Inc., realized last year his ISO needed to offer more to meet the needs of a broader mobile-merchant audience.

Square Inc.’s Feb. 22 announcement that it had dropped the 15-cent transaction fee for card-present transactions represents a return to a rate scheme the merchant-services company had last spring.

First American Payment Systems L.P., a Fort Worth, Texas-based ISO, has named Liz Curtis as manager of financial institutions. Formerly with Chase Paymentech LLC, Curtis will be responsible for working on referral deals with financial institutions.

Posted on video-sharing site YouTube almost a year ago, “PCI Rocks,” the PCI Security Standards Council animated video about the 12 requirements of the Data Security Standard has drawn more than 31,000 views since then, the council says.

ISO Paperless Transaction Corp. has added remote deposit capture-services to its product offerings, Financial Transmission Network Inc., the company providing the service, announced Feb. 21.

Consumer adoption likely will determine whether First Data Corp.’s decision to support Acculynk Inc.’s PaySecure Internet PIN-debit product benefits the processor’s merchant partners that decide to offer the online checkout payment option, observers say.

Vendors often tout their products in press releases and through other efforts seeking publicity. But sometimes they choose to keep things relatively low key.

Until a few years ago, payment card processors and merchant acquirers found it relatively easy to incorporate biannual April and October updates of interchange-rate tables and other mandates from the payment networks into their systems.

Hypercom Corp., which is being acquired by VeriFone Systems Inc., said in a regulatory filing Feb. 14 that the combined companies should generate nearly $2 billion in revenue next year.

Zumogo, ProPay Inc.’s new social-media payment tool for mobile phones, leaves out vital information that ProPay says some competitors leave in.

First Data Corp. plans to support the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit interchange rules with a two-tiered pricing structure for its Star PIN-debit network, and it expects slow but steady revenue growth ahead, company executives told analysts Feb. 2.

Their silence on the Federal Reserve Board’s proposal to regulate debit card interchange rates could be counterproductive for independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers, Holli Targan, president of the Electronic Transactions Association, told attendees at the Northeast Acquirers Association conference last week in West Dover, Vt.

Various terminal makers have come out with their own devices and services designed to support payment card acceptance using mobile phones. But one ISO has decided to do so on its own, and at least one observer says the company could succeed with the proper marketing.