POS and Retail

Discover Financial Services’ merchant-acquiring efforts impressed independent sales organization and acquiring respondents to a recent Aite Group LLC survey.

Hypercom Corp. last week announced a deal in Sweden in which a taxi company in Stockholm is deploying 1,600 of its Optimum M4100 “Blade” payment terminals.

From the July/August 2010 issue of ISO&Agent magazine.

From the July/August 2010 issue of ISO&Agent magazine.

From the July/August 2010 issue of ISO&Agent magazine.

From the July/August 2010 issue of ISO&Agent magazine.

SCHAUMBURG, ILL.–Square Inc., a startup company offering mobile point-of-sale payment-acceptance services, is willing to talk to merchant services sales agents and other distributors, but just not yet, according to the company’s CEO.

Total System Services Inc. this afternoon reported net income of $52.5 million for the second quarter ended June 30, down 2.8% from $54 million during the same period last year. The Columbus, Ga.-based transaction processor’s revenues were up 5.3%, to $433.8 million from $412 million.

Merchant Warehouse Inc., a Boston-based ISO that offers software designed to help small retailers find the lowest-cost processing for card transactions, could benefit from Congress’ approval July 15 of the Dodd-Frank Act, says Henry Helgeson, the company’s co-CEO.

U.S. Bankcard Services Inc., an Industry, Calif.-based ISO, has added China UnionPay card acceptance to its list of merchant services.

Merchants unsure about which type of merchant account would be cheaper have another tool to use when deciding between a traditional merchant account, a Square Inc. mobile account and an online PayPal account.

Merchants do not need to retain a full 16-digit card number to resolve a transaction dispute, despite demands from some acquirers and processors, according to Visa Inc.

TransFirst In NBT Bank Deal

Merchants that struggle to pay for breach-related costs may find some help from their merchant acquirers.

Merchants unsure about which type of merchant account would be cheaper have another tool to use when deciding between a traditional merchant account, a Square Inc. mobile account and an online PayPal account.

U.S. Bankcard Services Inc., an Industry, Calif.-based independent sales organization, has added China UnionPay card acceptance to its list of merchant services.

The prepaid card market has come a long way over the past two decades, and T. Jack Williams has been there since virtually the beginning. As director of membership services at Blockbuster Entertainment, Williams played a key role in creating the world’s first merchant gift card program in the spring of 1994. He later went on to help launch the Kmart Cash Card in 1997 while at Stored Value Systems, at the time a division of National City Bank (see bio). This was the first merchant gift card that also included AT&T long-distance minutes.

The allure of mobile payments, which Generator Research, a United Kingdom-based research firm, estimates will grow to an estimated $600 billion worldwide by 2014, has drawn AT&T Inc. into the fray, as have the merchants accepting payments via their phones. The telecommunication giant announced July 7 it will work with Apriva to sell the wireless-payments company’s AprivaPay and AprivaPay Professional mobile-payment services.

Merchants may pay recurring bills using a portion of their payment card settlement funds through PayFast, a service Integrity Payment Systems LLC launched earlier this month.

Paul A. Rianda is an attorney who has specialized in providing legal advice to the bankcard industry for more than 10 years. His e-mail is paul@riandalaw.com.