Retailers

Citigroup Inc. has appointed Jud Linville as CEO of its Citi Cards credit card unit, replacing Paul Galant, who was named Citi’s CEO of global enterprise payments. Linville previously was president and CEO of American Express Co.’s U.S. Consumer Services operations.

Merchants using VeriFi Inc.’s charge-back re-presentment service no longer have to use the Los Angeles-based company’s online payment gateway. Instead, merchants now may use any online payment gateway, and they do not have to switch payment processors, Jeff Sawitke, VeriFi chief product officer, tells PaymentsSource.

Telecom Canada International, a telecommunications and energy consultancy with offices in Canada, the United States and Hong Kong, will refer its Canadian and U.S. clients wanting merchant-processing services to Elavon Inc., the Atlanta-based payment processor announced Sept. 21.

Many who work in the ISO and acquiring business today likely have dealt with in some way the effects of a payment card data breach.

Sales agents questioning the revenue-share payouts from their ISOs often ponder the fine line between complaining and complaining too much. The question may be important, however, such as whether the ISO shares revenue when an agent helps bring merchants into compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Guest Column

The more than 350 independent sales organizations that work with National Processing Co. should anticipate work as usual once Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC completes its acquisition of the Louisville, Ky.-based merchant processor.

Payment processor Global Payments Inc. will sell VeriFone Systems Inc.’s PayWare Mobile service in Canada, VeriFone announced Wednesday.

Calpian Inc., a Dallas-based lender to independent sales organizations, is turning to the investor community to raise money so it can complete more deals.

Sales agents questioning the revenue-share payouts from their ISOs often ponder the fine line between complaining and complaining too much. The question may be important, however, such as whether the ISO shares revenue when an agent helps bring merchants into compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Though there are no plans yet for the U.S. to adopt EMV chip-and-PIN technology, U.S. merchants are not all in the same boat in terms of their readiness to adopt EMV technology, observers say.

Calpian Inc., a Dallas-based lender to independent sales organizations, is turning to the investor community to raise money so it can complete more deals.

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s $9 million deal earlier this month to buy mobile point-of-sale terminal maker Way Systems Inc. is not surprising to analysts who follow the POS-device industry.

Two point-of-sale terminal makers recently introduced new products or updates to their product lines.

In a move one analyst says might be tied to poor results following a change in company sales strategy, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has reassigned its chief sales officer to a regional director position, the Princeton, N.J.-based payment processor announced Friday in an 8-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Larger financial institutions are beginning to engage in broader product and service agreements, and that is opening the door to more outsourcing opportunities, the chief financial officer at Fidelity National Information Services Inc. said Sept. 7 during the Citi Global Technology Conference.

VeriFone Systems Inc. on Sept. 9 announced the acquisition of encryption-services provider Semtek Innovative Solutions Corp., a company in which it previously provided equity funding.

Transaction processor First Data Corp. expects to sign up more than 100,000 merchants by the end of this year for its new TransArmor payment card security product. TransArmor uses a combination of tokenization and encryption to secure transaction data as it passes through merchants’ systems.

Only acquiring banks and the largest ISOs have to file formal written plans with the card brands to explain how they intend to bring the nation’s 5 million small retailers, restaurateurs and other mom-and-pop businesses into compliance with Payment Card Industry data security standards. But everybody in the credit and debit card “food chain” feels the sometimes-unpleasant effects of those plans.

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s $9 million deal this week to buy mobile point-of-sale terminal maker Way Systems Inc. is not surprising to analysts who follow the POS device industry (see story).