ISOs

Companies are getting better at recovering from data breaches, but the risks of a major incident remain as high as ever.

First Data Corp. is giving the name “Universal Commerce” to the company’s campaign to combine online and offline shopping and loyalty rewards.

A recent acquisition is enabling Trustwave to add malicious-software detection to the data-security scans the company performs to check compliance with Payment Card Industry data security standards.

Speculation about one of the world’s largest payment processors going public in early 2012 had potential investors humming last summer. On March 22, Vantiv Inc. turned eight months of speculation into reality with its initial offering on the New York Stock Exchange, expected to raise $500 million for the Cincinnati-based processor.

Square Inc. is posing the latest threat to the payment industry status quo, as point-of-sale transactions begin to move from cash registers to mobile phones.

Agents should use their negotiation skills to angle for the best possible deals from ISOs on splits, commissions, fees, expenses and benefits, observers say.

An upscale New York restaurant made headlines a while back by banning cash. Now the owners are trying to bring that policy to the masses.

Four consumer technology brands–Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google–are gathering momentum and have the ability to win in a world of integrated social media and payments, one analyst contends.

Every data-security and fraud-prevention vendor or payments-industry analyst offers similar advice to ISOs, agents, banks and merchants about protecting customer card data and personal information.

PayPal Inc. reportedly is planning to launch a mobile card reader that could help its nascent point-of-sale payment system reach small merchants.

Visa Inc. is asserting that the acquiring industry has had sufficient notice of the card brand’s new Fixed Acquirer Network Fee, which takes effect April 1.

Green Dot Corp. has agreed to buy location-based deals company Loopt Inc., the prepaid card marketer announced March 9.

The Electronic Transactions Association is pressing Visa Inc. to postpone the April 1 starting date for the new Fixed Acquirer Network Fee.

American Express Co. is encouraging ISOs and agents to use Small Business Saturday to stimulate transactions, increase charge volume and differentiate themselves from competitors.

The complexities of enabling U.S. merchants to accept EMV contactless smart cards and mobile-payment technology represent a significant revenue opportunity for VeriFone Systems Inc., company executives told analysts March 5.

LAS VEGAS–Pushing a new mobile-wallet scheme seems tough when each week seems to bring news of more potentially daunting new contenders.

LAS VEGAS—Near Field Communication, a technology often cited as the future of mobile payments, may never come to dominate the category, according to a panel addressing the inaugural Cartes in North America Expo & Conference here March 5.

Square Inc. has launched a system that it says can replace cash registers. But the company might not find the same success it had meeting the needs of merchants that previously did not accept plastic.

Clarity or confusion? It’s in the eye of the beholder.

Independent ATM deployers may soon find themselves dispensing prepaid gift cards from their machines.