ISOs

GlobalPlatform has launched the Basic Financial Configuration to specify which elements of the GlobalPlatform Card Specification v2.1.1 product vendors should use to ensure interoperability with the payment marketplace.

Verizon Wireless plans to impose a $2 fee beginning next month for every payment subscribers make over the phone or online with their credit cards, the telecommunication company announced Dec. 30.

Independent software providers will comply automatically with Payment Card Industry data security standards when they integrate their products with the Sage Exchange integrated payments platform, Sage North America says.

Helping doctors accept more credit and debit card payments could increase profits for ISOs and agents, but teaching medical office staff and patients how such systems work presents challenges.

ISOs and agents will not look back on 2012 as the year of mobile payments, partly because banks will push person-to-person payments next year, an analyst predicts.

Heartland Payment Systems has signed a five-year expanded contract with ConocoPhillips, the merchant processor announced Dec. 14. The companies have worked together for 20 years.

First Data Corp. has introduced Global Gateway e4, an online payment gateway that offers what the company regards as safe and reliable processing for card-not-present transactions, the transaction processor announced Dec. 13.

In the realm of payment card data security, 2011 qualifies as the year in which “more” became a key term on many levels.

With more business owners and information technology managers using payments networks with smartphones and other mobile devices, Trustwave figured it was time to put up more walls of defense to keep out hackers.

Debit, it appears, still has some staying power, though market conditions are causing it to spasm.

Business owners no longer must scrawl their names and initials on paper when they sign up for merchant card-processing agreements.

Uncertainty, competition and even attacks. In 2012, ISOs face a year of danger and opportunity.

A Canadian ISO is offering its merchants a proprietary mobile-payment acceptance device that other Canadian ISOs also could sell.

Eager for growth after the recession’s chilling effect on borrowing, the acquiring industry may feel relieved to see Discover Financial Services reporting an uptick in credit card purchase volume for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has regained its financial footing since its infamous 2008 security breach and the ensuing flood of lawsuits, but analysts say recent court rulings in the case leave some important liability issues unresolved.

VeriFone Systems Inc. has defied the headlines decrying gloom over the European debt crisis by enjoying continued growth in the region while continuing to expand payment-terminal installations rapidly in Latin America.

Could consumers’ fears about crooks intercepting their financial data and spying on their locations dampen adoption of mobile payments?

Heartland Payment Systems has signed a five-year expanded contract with ConocoPhillips, the merchant processor announced Dec. 14. The companies have worked together for 20 years.

First Data Corp. has introduced Global Gateway e4, an online payment gateway that offers what the company regards as safe and reliable processing for card-not-present transactions, the transaction processor announced Dec. 13.

The price of Slurpees has stubbornly remained the same despite new limits on debit card interchange, according to a survey by a payments-industry lobbying group.