Economy

Continued global expansion of EMV smart card programs helped drive revenue and profit growth last year for Gemalto NV’s Secure Transactions unit, which includes banking cards, the France-based smart card vendor announced March 11.

A federal judge has dismissed a shareholder class-action lawsuit brought against VeriFone Systems Inc. following a restatement of three quarters from its 2007 fiscal year caused by accounting errors, VeriFone announced March 9.

Hundreds of neighborhood businesses are calling on the Federal Reserve Board to proceed with the debit interchange provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act in hopes of passing on the savings back to their communities.

The expanding array of services offering merchants advanced encryption of sensitive payment card data is causing competition to heat up among purveyors already jockeying for dominance by touting each product’s specific advantages.

High-tech hackers capable of breaking into sophisticated networks may be what many small-business owners envision when hearing about data-security risks. In their minds, such breaches are more likely to plague a corporate retail giant than a small, family-run shop.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc.’s Steve Elefant readily admits software-based payment-acceptance products are less secure than those requiring hardware. But that did not prevent the payments processor from supporting Acculynk Inc.’s PaySecure checkout software, which enables merchants to accept PIN-debit cards online.

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.