POS and Retail

First Data Corp., the payments processor that went public last year, climbed after posting second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates.

European Union regulators recently passed new rules for shielding data from cyber criminals. Every company that operates in or does business with EU citizens must comply, which is virtually every mid-to-large sized company in the world.

Many times, bitter rivals must set aside their differences for the common good. This has happened a lot in recent years as the payments industry adjusts to the fast pace of innovation.

The regulatory winds swirling around acquirers and independent sales organizations are so swift, those who can't stay abreast of the changes are likely to get blown away.

In the last decade, customer loyalty has extended beyond the bank to include an array of non-bank solutions for financial management, payment and lending.

Payment Data Systems (PDS), a San Antonio, Texas-based payment solutions provider, has introduced a streamlined approach for mobile app developers to enable payment acceptance from all Apple Inc. mobile devices.

Square will enable sellers to make daily bank deposits, adding another in a series of merchant-focused perks designed to diversify revenue streams and sweeten the company's appeal to businesses.

Every product has a "sell by" date, and so should every independent sales organization.

Every product has a "sell by" date, and so should every independent sales organization.

The Beltway debate between the retail and financial sectors over the electronic payment system has flared up again. While retailers are lobbying Congress to extend government price controls to credit card interchange rates, separate bills would repeal Durbin Amendment ceilings on debit card interchange and strengthen merchant security standards.

TSYS is beginning to integrate its $2.4 billion acquisition of TransFirst, an initiative the Columbus, Ga.-based processor hopes will substantially extend its ability to serve merchants in the high-pressure arena of multichannel commerce.

The marriage of in-store shopping, online ordering and mobile commerce is happening just as fast for retailers as it is for consumers.

Pokémon Go has taken the US by storm, to put it mildly. For an app that was released very recently, it already has more users than Twitter and is beating Facebook on daily engagement.

When it comes to filling up at the gas pump and making other everyday purchases, consumers are forgoing cash and using credit cards and debit cards. Retailers are upgrading their systems to keep up with changing payment trends, which is driving demand for payment service providers.

In many emerging markets, daily financial transactions—buying groceries, paying a utility bill, cashing a paycheck or billing a customer—are notoriously difficult. Banking institutions are few and far between, and large swaths of the population have little or no access to them.

A year from now, Sionic Mobile will have distributed 100,000 free iBeacons to small businesses, a $1 million marketing play the company hopes secures its place among local stores as they start to adopt mobile technologies.

Vantiv had a specific vision in mind when acquiring Mercury Payment Systems two years ago to provide the ultimate playground for app developers to operate in a multi-channel world.

When Amazon launched Amazon Dash buttons, many observers predicted that the concept would completely upend the retail model. But recent market research shows that fewer than half of Amazon Dash purchasers have actually used the button.

While the growth of digital commerce is a universal concept, digital has and will continue to manifest itself different depending upon the industry vertical and its level of digital maturity.

They say to dress for the job you want, not the job you have, and First Data's Clover operation did just that.