POS and Retail

In a move some observers say might represent the future of loyalty and mobile payments, loyalty marketer Maritz Real-Time and smart card technology firm Vivotech Inc. have formed a strategic partnership to provide immediate retail promotions to customer mobile phones equipped with Near Field Communication technology.

Consumers in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada soon may use their smartphone as a contactless payment device and mobile wallet using an application from Yespay International Ltd.

Square Inc.’s Feb. 22 announcement that it had dropped the 15-cent transaction fee for card-present transactions represents a return to a rate scheme the merchant-services company had last spring.

The anticipated Federal Reserve Board cap on debit card interchange may send some payments startups, which pitched their services as low-cost alternatives, back to the drawing board.

Axis Bank Ltd. has launched a Visa-branded prepaid card in India designed for foreign tourists visiting the country, the issuer announced Feb. 21.

The Electronic Transactions Association’s payments professional certification program will debut by the end of the year, the trade group announced Feb. 22.

Though perhaps there is no greater rivalry than Thin Mints versus Samoas, two Girl Scout groups are taking sides in a different debate: which mobile card reader is best for cookie sales.

Square Inc.’s Feb. 22 announcement that it had dropped the 15-cent transaction fee for card-present transactions represents a return to a rate scheme the merchant-services company had last spring.

First American Payment Systems L.P., a Fort Worth, Texas-based ISO, has named Liz Curtis as manager of financial institutions. Formerly with Chase Paymentech LLC, Curtis will be responsible for working on referral deals with financial institutions.

Posted on video-sharing site YouTube almost a year ago, “PCI Rocks,” the PCI Security Standards Council animated video about the 12 requirements of the Data Security Standard has drawn more than 31,000 views since then, the council says.

ISO Paperless Transaction Corp. has added remote deposit capture-services to its product offerings, Financial Transmission Network Inc., the company providing the service, announced Feb. 21.

Security Card Services LLC’s decision to renew its processing contract with National Processing Co. stems partially from a degree of comfort the companies have amassed in their 14-year history of working together, according to John Lewis, the independent sales organization’s president.

Independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers using Panoptic Security Inc.’s payment-security service now have another tool to view their merchants’ security-compliance efforts–MyPCIDashboard, a service Panoptic announced Feb. 22.

Independent sales organization Paperless Transaction Corp. has added remote deposit capture-services to its product offerings, Financial Transmission Network Inc., the company providing the service, announced Feb. 21.

Consumer adoption likely will determine whether First Data Corp.’s decision to support Acculynk Inc.’s PaySecure Internet PIN-debit product benefits the processor’s merchant partners that decide to offer the online checkout payment option, observers say.

Blue Bamboo, a China-based point-of-sale terminal maker, on Feb. 18 announced that its P25-M printer is in final testing for approval as a Bluetooth device that works with devices using Apple Inc.’s iOS software.

Vendors often tout their products in press releases and through other efforts seeking publicity. But sometimes they choose to keep things relatively low key.

Hypercom Corp.’s preview of its fourth-quarter earnings Feb. 16 raised fears about the viability of VeriFone Systems Inc.’s plans to acquire its competitor in the second half of the year.

Having successfully nudged lawmakers to reconsider interchange caps, card issuers and payments networks are weighing the ramifications of another, less-discussed part of the Durbin amendment: so-called steering rules.

A glance at fraud statistics would seem to yield an obvious answer: the United States needs to catch up with the rest of the world and upgrade old-school magnetic stripe cards to modern chip and PIN models.