Payment processing

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, and some dispensaries enjoy millions of dollars in annual sales. However, such establishments may not be ideal clients for ISOs unless they and their sale agents exercise caution, say those who work with the medical marijuana industry.

Nacha, the electronic payments association, is launching new initiatives that leverage programming language and the automated clearing house network to aid business-to-business payments and low-value check processing.

Global Payments will begin offering merchants currency conversion services at their point of sale terminals through an integration with Planet Payment.

Viewpointe has released the Viewpointe ACH Originator Compliance Self-Assessment, a tool for businesses that use automated clearing house payments to assess their compliance with network rules.

With bitcoin in the media spotlight, everyone seems to have an opinion on the price. Few recognize the profound implications of decentralized money for the monetary system, society and government – not to mention the emerging business opportunities.

ACI Worldwide has launched the ACI Universal Payments Platform, throwing its hat into a busy ring of companies building technology to allow financial institutions, processors and retailers to keep up with the nimble startups and other factors that are reshaping the payments industry.

The C-1 electric car is an inventive vehicle, built by a company with an inventive marketing strategy and an inventive way of accepting payments.

When PayPal begins distributing the EMV-chip card version of its PayPal Here mobile card reader in the U.K. this year, it will follow a pattern the eBay unit established in the U.S. of targeting a narrower market than its rivals do.

Alternative digital payments for the on-the-go consumer go well beyond the standard fare of Near Field Communication chips and QR codes. Here’s a look at some of the most imaginative mobile payments options devised.

Possibly viewing Bitfloor, a popular Bitcoin exchange, as a risky money transmitting business, Capital One Financial Corp. has closed the exchange's bank account, prompting Bitfloor to halt operations. The incident may portend a growing wariness of businesses that handle virtual currencies.

Utimaco Safeware on April 23 plans to launch new security technology that uses open development techniques to protect parts of payment transactions.

ACI Worldwide's Money Transfer System successfully processed about 15 million transactions per hour during tests of various end-to-end payments processing scenarios, the company said April 18.

First Data is offering a new way to set up its card management technology, VisionPlus, to reduce cost and the upfront work of deployment.

The simple act of using the mobile phone to make a payment opens up an entire new world of commerce, says Brian McCabe, vice president of day to day banking at Scotiabank. Mobile payment tech is advancing quickly in Canada, and the Toronto-based Scotiabank is building out its strategy.

The chief communications officer of Visa Inc. will leave the company at the end of May as part of the card network's merger of its corporate relations and marketing departments.

The use of ultrasonic noise — silent to the human ear — in mobile payments and rewards hasn't garnered as much attention as Near Field Communication chips and QR codes, but there are a few successful implementations.

Without any clear drive to consolidate, the mobile-wallet market will remain chaotic for merchants in the near-term. But from the consumer's perspective, it won't be chaotic at all.

In Russia, there's a large potential for U.S. payments providers willing to brave country's complex tech infrastructure and a national ID and payment card initiative that's still a work in progress.

For PayPal, mobile devices aren't just new instruments of payment. They are also a way to attract new active users.

The card networks are reporting strong progress among issuers and acquirers in the U.S. migration to EMV-chip cards, but many retailers are still lashing out against the expectation that they upgrade their point of sale hardware.