POS and Retail

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is in talks to buy a minority stake in India's One97 Communications Ltd., owner of an online payments processor, according to people familiar with the matter.

Education payments company peerTransfer has grown quickly by providing a specialized service to a specific market, but it may be time for it graduate to new lines of business.

Wirecard, an electronic payments company based in Germany, has partnered with Bank Mega to provide retailer Carrefour Indonesia with point of sale technology.

Apriva is integrating its payments gateway with software that automatically updates point of sale systems connected with Apriva as new types of payments emerge.

The San Jose-based payment terminal maker Verifone launched a new mobile operating system and is separately working with Samsung on new mobile point of sale projects.

Global payment solutions provider Elavon has partnered with Verizon to bring mobile point of sale products to Verizon's small-business customers.

Tritium Partners has acquired a majority stake in Giact Systems LLC, an electric payments service.

Stage Stores, a department store chain based in in Houston, has beefed up its payment security with technology from Chase Paymentech and Ingenico.

Traditional merchant acquirers have faced disruption from a number of new entrants in recent years from companies such as Square and its peers. And now, a football team is getting into the game.

Wirecard, a digital payments company based in Germany, has partnered with Five by Five, a software provider in Croatia, to provide mobile point of sale technology to small businesses.

Retail businesses require expansion, in terms of increasing physical locations or getting more customers into the store. But there are several other ways of boosting profits that involve payments management and analysis, though these are often overlooked by most owners.

Apple's reputation as a negotiator is rather simple—it doesn't negotiate. But Strategic Resource Management, a negotiation company with 200 clients in financial services, contends issuers and merchants have a chance to win more favorable terms with Apple.

Tablet-based point of sale and other integrated payment systems are advancing quickly, but there are some obstacles in the road to domination—particularly for providers that didn't plan ahead for EMV-chip cards in the U.S.

The processor Total System Services has named Tom Boyer as president of its direct acquiring business.

Though Amazon.com's Fire Phone sputtered out as soon as it launched, the company has built a solid foundation in mobile payments that will fuel its next big moves in 2015.

Say goodbye to the Merchant Warehouse and hello to the new Cayan, as the Boston-based independent sales organization and technology provider changes its branding to fit the changes it has made to its business model.

The payments industry is quickly adapting to new technology, new regulations and new consumer demands. Here are 15 of the industry's major transformations already in progress.

Years ago, merchant services meant selling a terminal and writing the merchant account. It seemed easy, right? The problem is that some of us are still trapped there.

Square is committed to its diversification strategy, furthering its transformation from a simple mobile point of sale provider to a company that also handles small-business loans, marketing and e-commerce.

2014 was a big year for payments. Disruption came from within the financial services industry and from outsiders like Apple and Walmart. Mainstream payment companies had to respond to these new competitors as well as adapt to fresh attention from regulators and fraudsters.