ISOs

MerchantService.com has joined the ranks of independent sales organizations using Web videos to promote their services to merchants.

Minnesota’s TCF Bank filed a an expedited appeal request April 14 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit asking the court to overturn a lower court’s ruling and to block the Federal Reserve’s pending implementation of the Durbin amendment’s debit fee caps.

WASHINGTON – A major technology group comprised of some of the biggest corporations shifted its position on the proposed delay in debit rules a week after expressing support for the delay.

The fight over the interchange amendment heated up on Wednesday when Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon an open letter defending the provision.

Momentum for the EMV smart card security standard, common in many European countries, grew this week with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. announcing plans to start issuing EMV cards to U.S. customers this summer.

For the major card brands, emerging global markets that broadly lack access to financial services likely will represent the greatest earnings potential for mobile-payments initiatives, concludes a report from Macquarie Equities Research Group.

A Malaysian national, arrested in October hours after flying into Kennedy International Airport, pleaded guilty in New York April 13 to hacking into the Federal Reserve’s computer system and to illegally possessing hundreds of thousands of card account numbers and other account information.

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.