ISOs

Cardtronics Inc.’s wholly owned subsidiary Cardtronics USA Inc. has completed its acquisition of EDC ATM Subsidiary LLC and Efmark Deployment I Inc., the ATM independent sales organization announced July 26.

The smartphone market is maturing rapidly, but financial institutions risk getting left behind because a growing number of users consider the channel unsafe for financial transactions.

Suvidha Starnet Pvt. Ltd. will invest more than 5 billion rupees (US$113 million or 80 million euros) to expand the operations of its Beam mobile-wallet service, a sign of the growing confidence in India’s mobile-payments market.

Two-year-old mobile payment startup Dwolla has gone from zero to $1 million per day in transactions.

Strong revenue performance in North America helped boost Global Payments Inc.’s fiscal fourth-quarter revenue by 22.3%, to $519.8 million from $425.1 million during the same period last year, the Atlanta-based merchant processor announced July 21.

The CEO of eBay Inc. has thrown some cold water on the industry’s heated discussion of Near Field Communication, suggesting instead that large merchants will resist the unproven technology.

Mobile payments could become as easy as a flick of the wrist as the industry builds the necessary capabilities into wristbands, watches and other accessories not hidden away in wallets or activated through software.

Card-security specialists are bullish regarding mobile Near Field Communication payments adoption in the U.S., a movement that could enable ISOs and agents to sell services to restaurants and to businesses that make deliveries or perform services at consumers’ homes.

An ATM services provider sums up the situation this way: “Don’t be discouraged. There is still ample opportunity within the ATM industry.”

ISOs that want to use social media to get closer to customers might do well to observe the way American Express Co. is addressing its legion of 2 million friends on Facebook.

The biggest trend in merchant acquiring this year is a concentration on developing and selling mobile card acceptance to micromerchants, a new report suggests.

Ingenico SA has struck a deal with a point-of-sale equipment distributor that will help it expand availability of its products in the United States, the French payment-terminal maker announced July 19.

A new patients’ wristband that taps into bank accounts should serve as a reminder to ISOs and agents that they work on the acquiring side of the payments business, not just the card business.

Cashiers now may activate entire packs of cards at once instead of swiping each card individually, courtesy of a service First Data Corp. announced July 11. The technology may offer sales opportunities to ISOs and agents as it moves from large national chains to local retailers, the vendor says.

North America may lag behind other countries in mobile-payment availability and use, but the rate of activity here has climbed surprisingly high, new survey data suggest.

Collective Point of Sale Solutions Ltd., a Toronto-based merchant-services provider, is deploying Hypercom Corp. point-of-sale terminals to split and transmit EMV credit and debit card transactions to the least-costly processors, the companies announced July 12.

Shoppers with PIN-debit cards often ask for $20 back in cash when paying at the point of sale, but criminals using fake cards have no qualms about demanding $1,000 or $2,000, risk experts say.

ISOs, agents and processors view the upcoming cap on debit card interchange fees as a golden opportunity to increase margins, boost revenue and gain market share.

Tempo Payments Inc., a pioneer in the decoupled-debit card industry, is winding down its operations as it grapples with Durbin amendment rules it says make its decoupled-debit programs unsustainable. The San Mateo, Calif.-based alternative payments company is notifying cardholders in specific programs about the decision, a process it expects to complete by year end.

ATM maker NCR Corp. is buying hospitality software developer Radiant Systems Inc. for $1.2 billion.