Payment processing

The state of Meghalaya in India has set up an online system consumers may use to pay direct taxes, an official from the state’s financial ministry tells PaymentsSource.

MetaBank has announced its joining of the automated clearing house system NACHA.

Cardtronics said it is redeeming $100 million of 9.25% senior subordinated notes as part of a refinancing that will reduce debt and interest expenses.

Efforts to grow internationally appear to be paying off for Total System Services Inc., as are indications the economy is improving.

With another strong quarter under its belt, EBay Inc. plans to position its payment unit, made up of PayPal Inc. and Bill Me Later, as a global leader in online payments and to expand its presence across Asia, John Donahoe, eBay president and CEO, told analysts July 21 during a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings.

SCHAUMBURG, ILL.–Square Inc., a startup company offering mobile point-of-sale payment-acceptance services, is willing to talk to merchant services sales agents and other distributors, but just not yet, according to the company’s CEO.

Total System Services Inc. has reached a deal to support Tesco Personal Finance PLC's portfolio of 2.4 million credit cards in the U.K.

Fidelity National Information Services on July 21 reported revenue of $630.6 million for its Payment Solutions unit for the second quarter ended June 30, down 0.08% from $631.1 million during the same period last year.

Total System Services Inc. this afternoon reported net income of $52.5 million for the second quarter ended June 30, down 2.8% from $54 million during the same period last year. The Columbus, Ga.-based transaction processor’s revenues were up 5.3%, to $433.8 million from $412 million.

Total System Services Inc. on July 20 announced the signing of a contract to support Tesco Bank’s portfolio of 2.4 million credit cards. Tesco, a supermarket bank with more than 6 million customer accounts, is the United Kingdom’s sixth-largest credit card provider.

A payments security startup is trying to minimize compliance headaches for small online retailers through cloning — of webpages, that is.

Aptys Solutions LLC last week introduced Active Archive, a platform that enables financial institutions to manage all saved payments data in a single location. Active Archive supports automated clearinghouse transactions, mobile payments, wire funds transfers and check-image exchanges.

Sage Payment Solutions, a merchant-services company with more than 155,000 merchants, has renewed its processing deal with TSYS Acquiring Solutions, a unit of Total System Services Inc., a Columbus, Ga.-based payment processor, TSYS announced July 19.

MasterCard Inc. said its issuers have agreed to the terms of a settlement agreement it reached with Heartland Payment Systems over the processor's 2008 data breach.

MasterCard Worldwide said July 15 that it received enough support from card issuers to proceed with a $41.4 million settlement in the Heartland Payments Systems breach, but dozens of credit unions and banks are still holding out as part of a class action lawsuit filed against Heartland.

Visa Europe has launched a global information-management platform for its commercial cards called Visa IntelliLink Spend Management, the company announced July 15.

U.S. Bankcard Services Inc., an Industry, Calif.-based independent sales organization, has added China UnionPay card acceptance to its list of merchant services.

The prepaid card market has come a long way over the past two decades, and T. Jack Williams has been there since virtually the beginning. As director of membership services at Blockbuster Entertainment, Williams played a key role in creating the world’s first merchant gift card program in the spring of 1994. He later went on to help launch the Kmart Cash Card in 1997 while at Stored Value Systems, at the time a division of National City Bank (see bio). This was the first merchant gift card that also included AT&T long-distance minutes.

Merchants do not need to retain a full 16-digit card number to resolve a transaction dispute, despite demands from some acquirers and processors, according to Visa Inc.

Businesses of all sizes are increasing their use electronic forms of payment to help improve their cash flow, the results of a recent Aberdeen Group study show.