Retailers

China UnionPay, China’s national card network, soon may launch a mobile card-acceptance device similar to the one Square and other companies have launched in the U.S., according to local media reports.

As more merchants store credit card data in the virtual servers of cloud-based payment systems, the challenge for security providers is to keep the data safe.

At first glance, it comes across as a potential no-win situation.

Independent sales organizations now may offer merchants a security package that combines breach protection, consulting services and software that scans computers for unprotected card data.

The rise of e-commerce is creating a new kind of global merchant–the small to midsize business that sells and ships products anywhere in the world. And those retailers are looking to ISOs for guidance.

Industry analysts have called 2012 a possible “breakthrough year” in the payments industry for Near Field Communication technology.

United Kingdom homewares retailer Lakeland will offer customers contactless card and mobile payments through a partnership with Barclaycard and Visa Europe.

As the newest member of the InComm Inc. family, Medagate Corp. hopes to reach more retailers and expand its restricted-spend prepaid card platform beyond health care and into everyday products.

In what industry analysts view as the first major salvo in what could be a series of post-Durbin fee shakeups, merchant acquirers should learn soon the details of Visa Inc.’s new fixed acquirer network-participation fee.

A taxi organization in the South African city of Cape Town could become the country’s first taxi operator to introduce a fare-payment system that accepts prepaid smart cards along with cash.

China UnionPay cardholders beginning in March may use their cards with online retailers based in Taiwan under an agreement the card organization reached on Feb. 8 with Taiwan’s National Credit Card Center, which is responsible for the interbank settlements of credit card transactions between card-issuing banks and retail merchants’ banks.

In a promotion taking place in New York, consumers may act on their impulses using mobile tags, such as bar codes and QR codes, to not only shop around with their camera phones but also to initiate purchases while riding in certain taxis.

A small restaurant in Park City, Utah, figures to play a big role in determining how card networks prove suspected card data security breaches and whether card processors rightfully can deduct funds from merchant accounts–without telling the merchants–to cover their own network fines for breaches allegedly stemming from a client not complying with Payment Card Industry data-security standards.

At first, Heartland Payment System Inc.’s insistence it would give its merchant clients 100% of the savings from new, reduced debit-interchange rates sounded like a public relations move. But some observers weren’t convinced the processor would stick to its guns if that philosophy didn’t equate to solid financial numbers.

Richard Braddock has been a leader at a couple of well-known companies. He’s now leading a company designed to be anonymous.

Three months into a new rule capping debit card interchange fees, market leader Visa Inc. is showing a modest slowdown in its U.S. debit business, but nothing on the order of the doomsday scenarios once predicted.

India’s widespread highway network soon could see the installation of an electronic toll-collection system that would use radio frequency identification technology for accepting payments.

To improve merchant and consumer comfort with online spending, MasterCard Worldwide has formed a partnership with Silver Tail Systems Inc. to distribute Silver Tail's fraud-fighting analytics to merchants.

Bankcard customers that earn a free TV through Fiserv Inc.’s UChoose Rewards program no longer have to wait days for delivery. Now they can drive to a local Best Buy Co. Inc. store and pick it up minutes after redeeming the award.

Because 2012 represents a “feedback year” in the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council’s three-year cycle for establishing data-security standards, new council Chairman Mike Mitchell figures to absorb plenty of viewpoints about issues facing the industry along with the traditional complaints about compliance testing and costs.