Economy

A Woodlands, Texas-based independent sales organization has added a processing platform and is growing into a super ISO with fewer but higher-producing partners, company executives say.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on April 12 published guidelines for online third-party payment providers in an attempt to regulate the fast-developing business-to-consumer e-commerce market.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jon Tester opened debate on delaying the controversial interchange rule this morning insisting the proposed cuts in debit fees will cause unintended harm to rural banks and credit unions, even as the Senator and his allies desperately search for a bill to attach their delay measure to.

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.

Setting sales goals can feel like walking a tightrope. Make the goals too high, and managers risk frustrating agents. Set the goals too low, and they jeopardize the bottom line.

American Express Co. is positioning its undisclosed investment in mobile-payments company Payfone Inc. as the next step in adding additional functionality to the card brand’s new Serve digital wallet product.

Independent sales organizations and agents should hire lawyers to help draw up contracts and navigate the revenue split from merchant transactions, as such legal advice can help ward off unpleasant surprises, observers agree.

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.