POS and Retail

Visa Inc. says it intends to work with merchants that fail to meet two July 1 payment-security deadlines.

A year or so from now, merchants likely will be paying less to accept debit cards, and financial institutions will be earning less revenue issuing them. And some issuers may have to reacquaint themselves with PIN-debit brands not associated with Visa Inc. or MasterCard Worldwide.

Suppose Congress approves the Dodd-Frank Act, and small issuers with less than $10 billion in assets are exempt from debit card-interchange rules the Federal Reserve Board eventually deems “reasonable and proportional.” How will merchants know whose debit cards are exempt?

Springbok Services Inc.’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing suggests the prepaid card market is beginning to enter into a period of uncertainty off the heels of new government regulation and slimming margins, observes one analyst.

Two payments companies, BluePay Processing LLC and Trustwave, separately last week announced new encryption services for merchants.

Precidia Technologies Inc. says Micro$ale POS will use Precidia’s TransNet payment application in its point-of-sale systems. Ottawa, Canada-based Precidia says TransNet converts payment transactions so they can be sent via an Internet-protocol connection. Brandon, Fla.-based Micro$ale makes POS systems for use in quick-serve and full-service restaurants.

Central Bancompany, a Jefferson City, Mo.-based banking firm, will use Clearent LLC’s merchant services, Clearent announced last week.

Pinnacle Corp., an Arlington, Texas-based point-of-sale system maker, says it is offering payment-security compliance services from Vendor Safe Technologies to its convenience store merchants. Merchants will pay a monthly fee for the service, which covers network security and data access controls, firewalls and monitoring.

Despite the overwhelming share the 10 largest acquirers have of the U.S. merchant-transaction business, smaller acquirers have enough room to develop their own niches, according to a recent Mercator Advisory Group Inc. annual report on the acquiring industry.

Visa Inc. has launched a micropayment service in Australia that supports consumer payments for downloadable content such as movies, music and games.

MasterCard Worldwide has promoted Ajay Banga, president and chief operating officer, to chief executive officer, effective July 1. Banga also was named a member of MasterCard’s board of directors. Banga succeeds Joseph W. Selander, who will become executive vice chairman until his retirement on Dec. 31. MasterCard also promoted Alfredo Gangotena to chief marketing officer from global products and solution lead for MasterCard in Europe. Gangotena replaces Lawrence Flanagan, who is retiring.

Visa Inc. says it intends to work with merchants that fail to meet two July 1 payment-security deadlines.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.

From the June 24, 2010, issue of ISO&Agent Weekly.

Accelerated Payment Technologies Inc. hopes its recent name change will further its ambitions to sign up more merchants for its point-of-sale processing services. It also is looking for a bit of help from software vendors.

Independent sales organization Eureka Payments LLC has no ambition to be a one-size-fits-all merchant-services company. Instead, the Eureka, Calif.-based start-up is pursuing only mobile merchants and those accepting card-not-present transactions.

Point-of-sale terminal makers want to be known for more than solely selling hardware. All three of the major terminal makers–Ingenico S.A., Hypercom Corp. and VeriFone Systems Inc.–are turning to recurring service revenue to bolster their financial results.