Payment processing

The world’s largest payment-terminal manufacturers expect to see a modest uptick in demand this year after a lengthy, recession-driven sales slump. France-based Ingenico, along with U.S.-based VeriFone Holdings Inc. and Hypercom Corp., all are cautiously optimistic about this year’s sales outlook, partly because of new data-security mandates that will require certain merchants to replace existing terminals.

American Payment Systems increased compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard among its roughly 1,200 merchant clients to 48% currently from roughly 10% Oct. 1 with a phone-call campaign, according to the Omaha, Neb.-based independent sales organization.

Merchant Data Systems Inc., a Miami Beach, Fla.-based independent sales organization, has bought ISO Merchant Services, an ISO with 1,300 merchants, Merchant Data Systems announced this week. Terms were not disclosed.

Some payments organizations want the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to clarify aspects of a law that takes effect next January requiring acquirers to report merchant credit and debit card transactions to the IRS, and they want penalty fees mitigated in the early stages of enforcement, according to comments submitted to the government agencies.

JetPay LLC, a Carrollton, Texas-based payment processor, says it has won a trademark-infringement issue involving its Web site address, www.jetpay.com.

Payment Alliance International has acquired the ATM-processing business of WRG Services Inc., a Willoughby, Ohio-based ATM independent sales organization, Louisville, Ky.-based Payment Alliance announced Monday.

Not all marketing tactics merchant-service providers use are equally effective at piquing merchants’ interest, some observers note. Independent sales organizations often go through multiple marketing techniques to determine which ones are less effective.

Texas consumers wrote fewer checks for purchases in 2009 compared with the previous year, reaching instead for their debit or credit cards, according to survey results released by Swacha, a not-for-profit regional payments association.

Merchants that sell needs-based products, such as food, building materials or vehicle-repair supplies, have experienced less decline in transaction volumes during the recession than have merchants that sell less-necessary goods, such as luxury or entertainment items, observers note.

The Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode online card-security protocols are relatively weak compared with other available options. And as fraud continues rising among card-not-present transactions, more-robust authentication methods will be needed to prevent online fraud from skyrocketing, two United Kingdom-based researchers contend in new research released this week.

NYCE Payments Network LLC Friday named Neil Marcous as president. Marcous replaces Steven A. Rathgaber, who is leaving to become CEO of Cardtronics Inc on Feb. 1.

Fiserv Inc. said Thursday that Mutual of Omaha Bank has implemented 11 Fiserv systems, including online banking and bill pay.

Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC said Thursday that five banks have agreed to use its processing services.

Planet Payment Inc. will provide its Pay in Your Currency service to merchants in the United Arab Emirates under an agreement with Network International LLC, an acquirer in the Middle East and North Africa and a card-services provider in the United Arab Emirates, according to Long Beach, N.Y.-based payment processor Planet Payment.

Independent sales organizations should ensure the legal names and Internal Revenue Service taxpayer identification numbers of their merchant customers match the IRS files, Jill M. Miller, attorney at Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C., advised attendees at the Northeast Acquirers Conference in Dover, Vt., this week.

Nearly a year after USAA Federal Savings Bank launched a service that enables customers to deposit checks into their accounts using images captured with cameras on their Apple Inc. iPhones, the bank last weekend launched the same service for Android-powered smartphones.

Consumers who bank or initiate retail purchases online already can secure those transactions through a variety of means, including passwords used only for the Web, card readers that plug into personal computers or challenge-response procedures that can include images they preselect.

As issuers mail out contactless credit and debit cards by the millions, it is not clear how often they are being used.

Total System Services Inc., known as TSYS, plans to reduce expenses and employee headcount in anticipation of another difficult year. The Columbus, Ga.-based transaction processor believes it will see continued constriction in its business until the economy begins to recover and unemployment levels fall.

The debate over credit and debit card interchange this week went local when California State Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, chairman of the state’s Banking and Finance Committee, conducted a hearing on credit card interchange rates.