Payment processing

Merchants may pay recurring bills using a portion of their payment card settlement funds through PayFast, a service Integrity Payment Systems LLC launched earlier this month.

Independent sales organizations looking to compete against free-terminal programs and to boost their profit margins may turn to Asia-made point-of-sale terminals.

Consumers remained cautious in June, using their payments cards to spend just 6.8% more than they did during the same month last year. The growth in their spending activity also was down from the 9.2% rise in May compared with the same month in 2009, according to First Data’s SpendTrend report.

Social-networking website Facebook quickly is becoming the next playground for payment companies.

Discover Financial Services continues to expand its presence internationally. In its latest move, the card company announced July 8 an alliance with Serbian payment network DinaCard.

Nxgen Payment Services, a Whitefish, Mont.-based merchant-service provider for Elavon Global Payment Services, and wholesale roofing distributor ABC Supply Co. Inc., on July 7 announced an expanded merchant-processing relationship in conjunction with ABC Supply’s recent acquisition of Bradco Supply Corp.

An unnamed quick-serve restaurant chain is testing Apple Inc.’s iPad portable computer as a customer-facing ordering and payment device, according to OrderTalk Inc., which makes online ordering systems for restaurants.

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

Trifish Finance Inc. in May selected ACH Federal to provide automated clearinghouse payment processing to its customers after learning its previous provider, MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc., stopped processing ACH payments, ACH Federal announced last week.

Jack Henry & Associates Inc. said Friday that the president of its Symitar division, which serves credit unions, would step down in October.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has removed two Ingenico S.A. PIN pads from the list of approved PIN-entry devices following reports they are susceptible to breaches.

To better compete in the Single Euro Payment Area market, transaction processors Sermepa SAU and Redes y Procesos SA have agreed to merge their bankcard processing units, forming a new company called RedSys, the two Spain-based companies announced earlier this week.

The rise of small card-not-present transactions for virtual goods and other online services is helping to fertilize runaway growth of micropayment-based card-fraud schemes, at least one consultant contends.

Two payments companies, BluePay Processing LLC and Trustwave, separately last week announced new encryption services for merchants.

The Federal Trade Commission on June 28 asked a federal court to halt an international identity-fraud scheme that it says generated more than $10 million in fraudulent micropayment charges on U.S. consumers’ credit and debit cards.

Small-business owners’ overall confidence fell slightly in June as concerns about temporary cash flow increased, the results of a survey Discover Financial Services released June 28 suggest.

MasterCard Worldwide has promoted Ajay Banga, president and chief operating officer, to chief executive officer, effective July 1. Banga also was named a member of MasterCard’s board of directors. Banga succeeds Joseph W. Selander, who will become executive vice chairman until his retirement on Dec. 31. MasterCard also promoted Alfredo Gangotena to chief marketing officer from global products and solution lead for MasterCard in Europe. Gangotena replaces Lawrence Flanagan, who is retiring.

Visa Inc. says it intends to work with merchants that fail to meet two July 1 payment-security deadlines.

RBS WorldPay Inc. recently selected GDS Link LLC’s technology with the goal of improving portfolio segmentation and helping identify fraudulent merchant fraud identification, Dallas-based GDS Link announced.

National Australia Bank Ltd. plans to roll out software technology first introduced by its subsidiary Bank of New Zealand Ltd. that is designed to reduce card fraud. The technology works by changing numbers on a card's magnetic stripe each time a transaction occurs at an ATM.