Retailers

First Data Corp. has appointed Frank Bisignano as the Atlanta-based company's chairman, adding to his role as chief executive officer.

The settlement of the Visa and MasterCard class action interchange swipe fee case has spawned a new type of company—the third-party claims filing company.

Beacons, or Bluetooth Low Energy transmitters, are seeing a burst in popularity as components of mobile payment systems. The devices, which can be roughly the size and shape of a nightlight, allow retailers to detect a mobile app user's presence in the store.

The Princeton, N.J.-based processor Heartland Payment Systems is moving its sales headquarters to a new building in Edmond, Okla.

The Electronic Transactions Association is lobbying Congress to enact a uniform national data breach reporting standard that would replace a welter of contradictory state and local rules.

A new loyalty feature in NCR Corp.'s Silver point of sale system for iPads aims to help small businesses develop and manage customer rewards programs.

Global Payments Inc. has completed its $420 million purchase of Payment Processing Inc., a provider of payments technology and services for smaller merchants.

Citadel EFT, a credit card processing firm, announced March 4 that it is exploring ways to allow state-licensed marijuana businesses to accept electronic payments from their customers.

Leaf, a provider of tablets for payments, has hired several executives including a director at Heartland Payment Systems, which recently invested in the startup.

Payments played a major role in the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Here are some of the biggest announcements that came out during the conference, and a few from just before or afterwards that were no less important to the mobile payments community.

Dash Software LLC, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based mobile payment provider that targets restaurants and bars, has raised $1.2 million in investment to launch its updated iPhone app in Manhattan.

Revel Systems and Index are partnering to bring the kind of personalized consumer messaging that's common in e-commerce to the countertops of retail stores.

Square has purchased BookFresh, a company that sells booking and appointment management technology to merchants.

Swedish bank Handelsbanken plans to resell a VeriFone-built chip-and-PIN mobile card reader to enable the country's micro merchants to accept card payments through smartphones and tablets.

Ingenico's Roam is launching a mobile card reader with chip and PIN acceptance, and it expects U.S. merchants will want to use it to accept PIN debit transactions even before EMV-chip cards become widespread.

HP plans to sell a tablet-based point of sale system that integrates payments with a number of other business operations.

BlueSnap has developed software designed to help online merchants cut down on checkout abandonment by allowing them to host numerous checkout pages designed for different markets.

Square will now accept Discover and Diners Club credit card payments in Canada, joining American Express, Visa, MasterCard and JCB credit cards.

French terminal maker Ingenico SA and electronics giant Samsung are combining their mobile payment products to offer merchants an integrated mobile payment system.

TSYS has increased its stake in its Central Payment joint venture from 60% to 75%. Cpay founders Matt and Zach Hyman, twin brothers who own the remaining portion of the venture, have agreed to stay on as co-managing directors for the next three years.