ISOs

If the Zappos Retail Inc. data breach has a silver lining, it may be that more merchants, including the shoe-marketing giant, have taken key steps to prevent thieves from stealing customers’ full credit card account numbers, which will blunt potential losses.

A payments gateway offering multiple functions and customization options has become available in recent weeks to independent sales organizations and agents.

Financial Transaction Services LLC wants to help merchants reduce interchange rates on business-to-business transactions and has developed the technology to do it.

Payments processor Total System Services Inc. hopes to boost the growth of merchant-services provider Pivotal Payments Inc. by becoming a preferred service provider, the companies announced Jan. 10.

Three data-security and payment processors have linked technologies to create a cloud-based advanced encryption payment system designed to protect payment card data and provide storage away from Columbia Sportswear Co. point-of-sale terminals.

Clunky desktop point-of-sale terminals are becoming as outdated as shoebox-sized 1980s cell phones.

Priority Payment Systems LLC has become a certified servicing agent of American Express OnePoint, which provides small and midsize merchants with a single source for statements, settlement and customer service for all major card brands.

Maas Global Solutions Corp. is joining forces with Total Systems Services Inc., or TSYS, to bring more services to merchants, giving ISOs and agents an opportunity to capture new business and increase revenue, the companies say.

A strong majority of candidates passed the first examination for the acquiring industry’s new Certified Payments Professional credential.

Acquirers may be wrong if they believe they can coerce small merchants into complying with security standards by charging them fees.

Acquirers should mention security to merchants more often. A lot more often¬–every time they make a sales call, field a complaint, explain a regulation, solve a technical problem, send an email message, mail a monthly statement, conduct a Web seminar or launch a direct-mail campaign.

The explosion of mobile applications, especially those involving banking and payments, is almost certain to lead to ingenious new hacker attacks on consumer data this year. After all, why should 2012 be different from any other year, as crooks continually look for holes in security in hopes of reaping financial rewards?

Yahoo Inc. stands out as the only major Internet brand without a payment service, but that may change now that the company has hired Scott Thompson from PayPal Inc. as its new CEO.

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s GlobalBay iPad retail mobile-payment software literally is rolling out onto the sales floors at U.S. Guess Inc. clothing and accessories stores, providing further evidence that the company intends to position itself as a key player in mobile payments and consumer marketing.

Global Payments Inc. stayed true to its name in targeting the acquisition of merchant portfolios from banks in Russia and Malta during its fiscal second quarter, but it also solidified its North American activities with a deal to purchase CyberSource’s U.S. merchant-acquiring portfolio from Visa Inc.

Merchant cash advances, a value-added service some ISOs offer to retailers, are defined as lump-sum payments to a business in exchange for a percentage of its future credit or debit card sales.

Elavon has launched a secure payment product that turns mobile devices, such as cell phones, into chip card payment terminals, the unit of U.S. Bancorp announced Jan.4.

VeriFone Systems Inc. is working with NBCUniversal Inc. on a system that plays videos on gas-station payment terminal screens.

ISOs and agents associated with United Bank Card Inc. have been differentiating themselves from competitors for a year now by giving merchants free point-of-sale terminals. Now the terminals are getting better, the company says.

Financial Transmission Network Inc., an Omaha, Neb.-based payment processor, is working with Unit4 Coda to offer receivables management that consolidates checks, single and recurring automated clearinghouse transactions, credit card payments, cash posting, and Web payment on the ETran Receivables Platform.