POS and Retail

After a flurry of activity in the past year and a half to establish itself as a global payments processor, EVO Payments International LLC plans to move into the Spanish market with a proposed acquisition of Banco Popular's merchant acquiring business.

Fraud and data security trends can change by the minute, often making it difficult to pinpoint a specific development as a key event during the course of a year. Not so in 2012.

Digital currency, especially Bitcoin, picked up in popularity this year as the concept began garnering positive attention from payment players — but a series of negative incidents kept the skepticism alive as well.

The payments industry is no stranger to fraud, but there are some key events that stand out over the course of 2012 — and threaten to spill into 2013.

It's been a rocky year for digital currencies. Facebook began phasing out its Facebook Credits while Bitcoin continues to suffer a bad reputation. However, there are some promising developments on the horizon, with experienced payments providers joining in the digital currency game.

The Google Wallet we see today is a much different product from what we had a year ago. Here are the major changes that took place this year, and the challenges Google faced — and still faces today.

For a company that has manufactured point-of-sale terminals in the UK since 1989, Thyron Systems Ltd. admits it has done so in a fairly quiet manner.

At a pop-up market in New York's Union Square Park this week, locals and tourists squeeze past each other as they make their way through rows of candy cane-striped tents, perusing merchants' products as hurried commuters coming and going from a nearby subway entrance dart through the crowd.

The popularity of the Square payment-card reader has sparked a new market for accessories — smaller versions of the cases and sleeves people commonly buy for the iPhones which Square readers attach to.

Voltage Security, an encryption vendor, is touting Voltage Secure Stateless Tokenization technology, which the company says provides merchants and payment processors with a new approach to protecting card data.

The Electronic Transactions Association has wrapped up the first year of testing for its Certified Payments Professional credential, a designation intended to indicate knowledge of the acquiring industry.

American Express continues its move into a payments arena not often associated with the affluent customers served through the New York-based card network. It now accepts Amex card payments at gas stations commonly located in parking lots near Walmart stores.

The Electronic Transactions Association is remaining true to its original constituents in the acquiring business, even as it opens the doors to other types of companies, according to the trade group’s CEO.

Irish-based Monex Financial Systems Ltd. is looking for American independent sales organizations interested in profiting from card transactions made here by visitors from abroad.

Total System Services Inc., or TSYS, has signed a long-term agreement to provide point of sale services, authorization, settlement, reporting, managed services and risk mitigation for independent sales organizations that work with Merrick Bank, a subsidiary of CardWorks Inc.

First Data Corp. called 2012 the “year of universal commerce,” meaning commerce happens anywhere, anytime and on any type of device.

VeriFone Systems Inc., the largest maker of credit-card terminals, was sued by Creative Mobile Technologies LLC for more than $250 million over an agreement to place advertisements on screens in New York taxis.

Now that the Electronic Transactions Association has been administering the Certified Payments Professional credential for a full year, independent sales organizations’ executives and sales agents could start facing more pressure to obtain certification, an acquiring industry veteran says.

Since Square launched its mobile card reader, VeriFone Systems has worked feverishly to slow its rival's runaway momentum. The news that VeriFone is changing its strategy with its Sail reader is the latest in a long line of assaults and retreats.

VeriFone Systems Inc., the largest maker of credit-card terminals, is moving away from competing directly with Square Inc. in mobile payments, according to David Talach, VeriFone’s vice president of industry engagement.