Payment processing

Larger financial institutions are beginning to engage in broader product and service agreements, and that is opening the door to more outsourcing opportunities, the chief financial officer at Fidelity National Information Services Inc. said Sept. 7 during the Citi Global Technology Conference.

Card-not-present fraud in the United Kingdom is on track to decline 9% this year compared with last year as merchants and consumers adopt more strategies to thwart fraud, Retail Decisions PLC, a London-based payment fraud prevention firm, announced Sept. 6.

VeriFone Systems Inc. on Sept. 9 announced the acquisition of encryption-services provider Semtek Innovative Solutions Corp., a company in which it previously provided equity funding.

If the U.S. government could mandate the switch to digital TV, why can't it mandate that credit and debit card issuers switch from magnetic stripe cards to the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications to improve security?

Australia’s taxation authority in September announced plans to seek contacts with various third-party providers to support its e-commerce payments.

Transaction processor First Data Corp. expects to sign up more than 100,000 merchants by the end of this year for its new TransArmor payment card security product. TransArmor uses a combination of tokenization and encryption to secure transaction data as it passes through merchants’ systems.

Payments-software provider ACI Worldwide Inc. on Sept. 8 announced an extension and a broadening of its contract agreement with First Data Corp. The new agreement will enable the Atlanta-based transaction processor to more cost effectively develop products and drive infrastructure efficiencies in its global operations, ACI notes in a news release.

BancVue Ltd., an Austin, Texas-based product-development and marketing company focused on community banks and credit unions, on Sept. 7 announced a strategic partnership in which it will provide Total System Services Inc.’s electronic payments services to community financial institutions.

Only acquiring banks and the largest ISOs have to file formal written plans with the card brands to explain how they intend to bring the nation’s 5 million small retailers, restaurateurs and other mom-and-pop businesses into compliance with Payment Card Industry data security standards. But everybody in the credit and debit card “food chain” feels the sometimes-unpleasant effects of those plans.

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s $9 million deal this week to buy mobile point-of-sale terminal maker Way Systems Inc. is not surprising to analysts who follow the POS device industry (see story).

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. on Sept. 1 announced it has entered a $5 million agreement with Discover Financial Services to settle claims stemming from the 2008 security breach of the Princeton, N.J.-based company’s processing systems.

Interchange-fee costs are the top concern among merchants, acquirers and processors that primarily handle card-not-present transactions, new survey data suggest.

Visa Inc. hopes to prove to banks that a contactless payment chip in a mobile phone is a much more compelling product to consumers than the same chip in a plastic card.

VeriFone Systems Inc. plans to use its acquisition of Way Systems Inc. to attract more merchant interest in its mobile-payment systems. But the deal also eliminates a competitor, analysts say.

To boost its mobile-payment strategy, VeriFone Systems Inc. announced Wednesday it has acquired the assets of Way Systems Inc., a point-of-sale terminal and gateway services provider for mobile merchants. The purchase price included a $6 million upfront payment and an earn-out payable in one year of up to an additional $3 million if certain performance targets are met.

Consumer confidence improved slightly in August, reversing directions after declining in both June and July, The Conference Board Inc., a New York-based research organization, reported Aug. 31.

Providers of card not present (CNP) payments technology will soon have company as Transaction Network Services plots an expansion of its international CNP product into the U.S. market.

ACI Worldwide Inc. said Monday that it would supply payment services to Domino's Pizza Inc.

MasterCard Worldwide has announced a deal with a Brussels online payment company that would give customers of MasterCard issuers greater access to U.S. and United Kingdom online merchants.

Intuit Inc. is enhancing its GoPayment mobile credit and debit card acceptance service with a card reader designed to attach to Apple Inc.’s iPhone.