ISOs

Small merchants remain woefully ignorant about card-transaction security, but ISOs and agents can do something about it, according to the industry insiders who completed a recent survey.

An Internal Revenue Service announcement that it will not penalize ISOs showing a “good faith” effort to supply the IRS with newly required merchant-transaction data for the 2011 tax year does not represent a total reprieve from the new regulations, a tax-compliance service provider says.

Bank of America Corp. has caved in to customer pressure and the competition and will not charge a $5 monthly fee for debit card use after all, the bank announced Nov. 1.

VeriFone Systems Inc. will provide EMV point-of-sale card-acceptance systems in the Caribbean to payments processor First Data Corp. in a deal the payment-terminal maker announced Oct. 31.

Wells Fargo & Co. on Oct. 28 became the latest big bank to abandon plans to start charging customers for using debit cards in the wake of a widespread backlash against new bank fees.

Bracing for the loss of some debit transactions as a result of new Federal Reserve rules requiring debit cards to carry at least two card network brands, Visa Inc. next year plans to ramp up a series of incentives for merchants and acquirers, Joe Saunders, Visa chairman and CEO, told analysts Oct. 26.

Heartland Payment Systems reported favorable third-quarter earnings Oct. 27, but it is still too early to tell if its “Durbin Dollars” promotion is paying off, an analyst says.

Apriva LLC plans to launch a mobile wallet next month that could help independent sales organizations and agents stake their claim on part of the mobile-payments market.

For toy store owner Buddy Wood, the one thing as familiar as Schwinn bicycles and Radio Flyer wagons is interchange. Wood has watched fees evolve in the four decades he has operated his family-owned store in Metairie, La.

CHICAGO–Google Inc., Isis and PayPal Inc. each are attempting to position their mobile wallets as the one consumers will prefer to use on their smartphones.

Banks that stopped issuing credit cards during the recession are showing renewed interest in getting back into the business, signaling a positive trend that could bode well for payments processors next year, contends the top executive at Total Systems Services Inc., or TSYS.

CHICAGO–The mobile-commerce market is littered with wallet models, acceptance devices and applications, which is forcing merchant-service providers to seek out ways to bring the elements together to help retailers maximize the channel’s potential, notes one mobile-payments executive.

Independent sales organizations should concentrate on making their Internal Revenue Service reporting more efficient and merchant friendly instead of trying to turn it into a profit center, says a tax-compliance service provider.

Accepting card payments with a mobile phone is becoming as American as baseball and apple pie now that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is selling the Square Inc. reader that turns any smartphone into a card-acceptance device.

Marketing analysts who consider mobile access the future of loyalty programs for retailers and restaurants are watching closely to see how consumers respond to new mobile apps linking card purchases to rewards credits.

Call it consumer angst. Customers are considering leaving financial institutions that add debit card fees, the results of a new consumer survey suggest.

When merchants fail to qualify for a cash advance because of bankruptcies, liens, foreclosures, credit scores below 550 or undesirable Standard Industrial Classification codes, independent sales organizations can turn to a handful of companies that specialize in the “decline” market.

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide, sued recently by independent ATM operators and the National ATM Council over ATM fees the operators say violate federal antitrust laws, are the target of two new suits brought by consumers regarding their ATM charges.

WASHINGTON– U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is calling on Wells Fargo & Co. to explain why it needs to impose new debit card fees when it posted a 21% increase in third quarter profits.

The acquiring industry is outsourcing some of the work involved with a new requirement to report merchants’ transactions to the Internal Revenue Service, a task some have characterized as worse than a bad dream.