Payment processing

One place exists where Christopher Kenyon, chief information officer and executive vice president of systems and technology at Elavon Inc., does not want to see his company’s name: in a headline for a story about a data breach.

The recent changes in quarterly processing volume at Total System Services Inc. reflect the effects of an undulating global economy and market consolidation.

Merchant acquirers that fail to follow Visa Inc.’s safeguards to prevent processing certain high-risk merchants’ transactions face paying $100 per charge-back on top of regular penalty fees under a program Visa announced to its acquirers in March.

Efforts to create a common set of requirements for so-called “end-to-end” encryption moved forward last week when the Secure POS Vendor Alliance released its End-To-End Encryption Security Requirements.

Local governments, universities and charities in the United Kingdom may use First Data Corp. to manage their credit cards issued to employees now that the Atlanta-based company is an approved supplier to these types of organizations, First Data says.

A growing number of mobile payments companies are promoting systems that charge purchases to users' phone bills rather than credit or debit cards.

After undergoing several consumer pilots and tests with European banks, Visa Europe’s new CodeSure payment card is now available for commercial launch. The card provides cardholders additional security when making online purchases by generating single-use numeric codes.

Mega Cabs Pvt. Ltd. plans to begin accepting credit card payments in its fleet of taxicabs in India later this month, an official from the New Delhi-based cab operator tells PaymentsSource.

Total System Services Inc.’s TSYS Healthcare unit has inked an agreement with Lighthouse1 LLC that it says will enhance its offerings of consumer-directed health care payments, including enabling consolidation of consumer health care payments onto a single payment card.

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s taxi business is taking on increased importance for the point-of-sale terminal maker.

Deutsche Card Services GmbH this week signed an agreement to become the acquirer and service provider supporting Media-Saturn Holdings GmbH’s online commerce. The Germany-based electronics retailer says the deal will enable it to accept transactions online more securely.

VeriFone Systems Inc. on May 26 reported net income of $20.2 million for the fiscal second quarter ended April 30, an 89% increase from $10.7 million the point-of-sale terminal maker generated during the same period last year.

Though legislation that would permit merchants to set minimum and maximum limits on card transactions remains pending in Congress, it is gaining a lot of attention among merchant acquirers and independent sales organizations.

First Data Corp.’s new chief Joe Forehand is wasting no time in shaking things up within the debt-laden processing company, as indicated by the company’s May 25 announcement of the unexpected departure of three top executives, including its recently hired chief financial officer, W. Patrick Shannon.

MasterCard Worldwide is planning to open up its software format, enabling third-party programmers to develop payments applications for its network. The company on May 25 said it would release open application programming interfaces for developers later this year.

With restaurants accounting for nearly 35% of Heartland Payment Systems Inc.’s merchant base, the payment processor thought it appropriate to introduce its advanced payment-encryption technology this week at the National Restaurant Association’s show in Chicago.

Best Buy Co. Inc.’s first store in Turkey will use a shared point-of-sale service, eliminating the multiple POS terminals commonly seen domestically on merchant countertops, according to Ingenico S.A., which is supplying the service.

Software platforms that have enabled developers to create payment applications for use on Apple's iPhone and social-networking websites will have a significant effect on the payments industry over the next decade, David Evans, founder of Market Platform Dynamics, said.

State Bank of India is increasing its domestic merchant acquiring activity with plans to deploy up to 1.5 million point-of-sale terminals for credit and debit card acceptance by March 2011, an official from the Mumbai-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has entered a $41.1 million agreement with MasterCard Inc. to settle claims stemming from the 2008 security breach of the Princeton, N.J., company's processing systems.