ISOs

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council intends to zero in on e-commerce, cloud computing and risk management.

VeriFone Systems Inc. took another step Nov. 14 in its quest to break free of the constraints of the aging plastic card.

VeriFone Systems Inc. is buying European payment and gateway services provider Point, the terminal maker announced Nov. 14.

Alternative-payments providers such as PayPal Inc., ProPay Inc., Square Inc. and SparkBase Inc. may be better-positioned than the payment card networks to cause the marketplace disruption needed to make mobile payments more mainstream, an Aite Group analyst suggests in a new report.

Near the end of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s one-day payments symposium Sept. 26, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Jamie Henry posed a question that had yet to be answered during the previous eight hours.

Global Cash Access Holdings Inc.’s revenue and net income continued to decline in the third quarter as a result of losing its largest customer, Harrah’s Entertainment, late in 2010, the company announced Nov. 9.

LAS VEGAS–Will mobile phones replace plastic payments cards?

LAS VEGAS–It may be too early to tally the numbers from new, lower debit-interchange rates that took effect Oct. 1, but three of the nation’s largest merchants already are sending signals that the new debit-pricing structure appears unlikely to boost their bottom lines.

A group of U.S. senators on Nov. 9 introduced legislation that would allow states to cap credit card interest rates, which they say are reaching “extortion” rates for some consumers.

Executives at Ingenico SA see an opportunity to boost the France-based payment-terminal maker’s market share in North America, where a shake-up has occurred over the past few months involving the region’s top two vendors.

Cardtronics Inc. on Nov. 7 reported second-quarter revenues of $165.1 million, up 21% from $136.6 million during the same period ended Sept. 30 last year. Net income rose 127%, to $46.8 million from $20.6 million.

LAS VEGAS–Debit card programs will continue to play a vital role in most large banks’ profit strategies for the foreseeable future, despite new government-mandated debit-interchange rates that have cut deeply into issuers’ debit revenues, executives at several large banks told attendees here at the ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum Nov. 3.

LAS VEGAS–The same criteria financial institutions used to determine a debit network partnership before the Durbin amendment still should apply in its aftermath, network executives agreed here Nov. 2 at SourceMedia’s annual ATM, Debit & Prepaid forum.

Cardtronics, the nation’s largest operator of ATMs, on Nov. 3 agreed to acquire Mr. Cash ATM Network Inc., an operator of more than 600 ATMs in Canada, to expand its operations to north of the border.

LAS VEGAS–Mobile-wallet providers Google Inc. and Isis continue to position their products as more than just payments vehicles to replace plastic cards.

LAS VEGAS–The financial-services industry has lost the battle against debit interchange regulation several times over, but some executives are still fighting the good fight.

CHICAGO— The International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition plans to launch a portal-based reporting system to help acquirers online merchants, Robert Caldwell, founding partner of Bellevue, Wash.-based G2 Web Services, told attendees here Oct. 27 during an Electronics Transactions Association leadership summit.

A glimpse of what some say represents the future of payments has arrived, but thus far only in certain geographic areas. With the Card Case smartphone application from Square Inc., consumers pay simply by saying their names at the point of sale.

Income growth may be stagnant and consumer confidence weak, but spending has been “surprisingly resilient” and has helped fuel modest revenue increases for First Data Corp., executives told industry analysts Nov. 2 while discussing third-quarter earnings.

To get a say in future card-data security standards, send feedback to the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council during the next six months, a council executive says.