Economy

Merchants may pay recurring bills using a portion of their payment card settlement funds through PayFast, a service Integrity Payment Systems LLC launched earlier this month.

Paul A. Rianda is an attorney who has specialized in providing legal advice to the bankcard industry for more than 10 years. His e-mail is paul@riandalaw.com.

ISOs looking to compete against free-terminal programs and to boost their profit margins may turn to Asia-made point-of-sale terminals.

New debit card interchange rules that are likely to go into effect next year if the Senate passes the financial services reform bill could take a bite out of ISOs’ profit margins, observers say.

Independent sales organizations looking to compete against free-terminal programs and to boost their profit margins may turn to Asia-made point-of-sale terminals.

Visa Inc. says it intends to work with merchants that fail to meet two July 1 payment-security deadlines.

A year or so from now, merchants likely will be paying less to accept debit cards, and financial institutions will be earning less revenue issuing them. And some issuers may have to reacquaint themselves with PIN-debit brands not associated with Visa Inc. or MasterCard Worldwide.

Suppose Congress approves the Dodd-Frank Act, and small issuers with less than $10 billion in assets are exempt from debit card-interchange rules the Federal Reserve Board eventually deems “reasonable and proportional.” How will merchants know whose debit cards are exempt?

Springbok Services Inc.’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing suggests the prepaid card market is beginning to enter into a period of uncertainty off the heels of new government regulation and slimming margins, observes one analyst.

Two payments companies, BluePay Processing LLC and Trustwave, separately last week announced new encryption services for merchants.

Precidia Technologies Inc. says Micro$ale POS will use Precidia’s TransNet payment application in its point-of-sale systems. Ottawa, Canada-based Precidia says TransNet converts payment transactions so they can be sent via an Internet-protocol connection. Brandon, Fla.-based Micro$ale makes POS systems for use in quick-serve and full-service restaurants.

Central Bancompany, a Jefferson City, Mo.-based banking firm, will use Clearent LLC’s merchant services, Clearent announced last week.

Pinnacle Corp., an Arlington, Texas-based point-of-sale system maker, says it is offering payment-security compliance services from Vendor Safe Technologies to its convenience store merchants. Merchants will pay a monthly fee for the service, which covers network security and data access controls, firewalls and monitoring.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.