Payment processing

Integration is the future of business management. There’s an unlimited availability of powerful tools out there that make us wonder how we ever did business prior, writes Rob Nathan, an executive vice president at CardConnect.

Dueling blockchain stories — one arguing it was virtually useless, the other saying it could change real estate lending — seized the top spots this week, while readers also focused on tax reform aftermath and a key Senate retirement.

Merchants need to ensure they are poised and ready for a growing market of digital consumers, write Michael Mertz and Rich Wheeler from CardConnect.

Merchants have been challenging surcharge bans in numerous states on free-speech grounds. They have the wind at their backs following another court victory on Wednesday.

Commercial customers, including small businesses, seem ready to pay up to shift to faster, more sophisticated electronic invoicing and payments, and enterprising banks that provide them the technology to do so could find it lucrative.

CSCU will continue as a separate, card-processing entity.

Some of the most important work in payments happens before the transaction, when retailers have to make sure their devices can handle the new technologies and card types that are about to get thrust upon them.

Alison Burns feels like a broken record every time she has to give the same spiel to prospective merchant clients: Before you invest tens of thousands of dollars in a new point of sale system, know what you’re getting into first.

Many restaurateurs expect more from their merchant services than a paper bill at the end of the month listing the basic credit card transactions, writes Andrew Szala, a content specialist at Upserve.

Merchants won't know for sure until about midway through 2018 whether they received a significant win, after the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the anti-competition complaint against American Express.