Retailers

PayPal's embrace of independent sales organizations could signal a trend among the payment industry's new players — but not necessarily right away.

Many third-party mobile payment providers, such as Google and Isis, are seeking bank partners for their mobile wallets. Should banks agree to their terms or go it alone?

If mobile payments can be presented as an opportunity for merchants and point of sale developers, rather than a disruptive threat, the attitude will speed adoption and provide consumers with a better experience, according to Matt Cicciari of Merchant Warehouse.

Heartland Payment Systems continued its mobile payment advancement, recently taking its Mobuyle card reader and software to Apple iOS mobile devices.

The LevelUp mobile payment system, best known for providing free incentives to consumers and free payment processing to merchants, picked up 4,000 merchants and 300,000 end users since its July 2011 inception. But with so much being given away for free, is there a future for the startup once its new clients become regulars?

Merchants working with My Clear Reports can now sign up for Automated Clearing House products and services the vendor integrated from Checkgateway.

A company that specializes in digging up sales leads has made the merchant-acquiring business one of its main areas of specialization.

New companies are constantly entering the payments industry, bringing not just new products but also new ways of doing business. And they don't always play nice.

This week marks the first time incentives take effect for merchants to accept EMV chip-card payments in the U.S., and although many are on that path, there is still plenty of confusion over where payments technology is ultimately heading.

Cardtronics Inc. has launched a product that enables financial institutions to steer their customers to ATMs in their surcharge-free networks.

Attendance reached a record-breaking 874 at the Western States Acquirers Association 2012 Conference last week in Huntington Beach, Calif., up from the previous record of 722 set last year in Burlingame, Calif.

Capital Access Network Inc. is expanding its annual funding capacity to $1 billion.

Acquirers stared into the face of the “enemy” here Thursday, and he didn’t really seem that scary.

The days are just about gone when independent sales organizations and sales agents can sign up merchants for transaction services simply by offering a price a few basis points lower than the completion.

Don’t seek immediate gain when networking with colleagues, an executive advised here Wednesday at the Western States Acquirers 2012 Conference.

Salespeople usually can’t do anything about it when a processor or independent sales organization cancels the residuals earned from signing up merchants for transaction processing.

The telecommunications companies behind the Isis mobile wallet joint venture have had Salt Lake City in their sights as a testing ground for the past year. But recent delays in the Isis rollout have opened the door for direct competitor Google Wallet to continue to gain as much momentum as possible with its mobile pay system.

A provision within the hotly contested settlement between merchants and credit card networks could potentially slow PayPal’s bid to become more widely accepted at grocery stores, restaurants and other retailers.

New players are disrupting the established order and taking market share from independent sales organizations. This rapid pace of change in payments may drive many ISOs out of business, speakers said at an industry event.

Spire Payments will partner with technology investor Newland Computers in developing future products and rolling out a new line of point-of-sale terminals.