Retailers

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.

Paul A. Rianda is an attorney who has specialized in providing legal advice to the bankcard industry for more than 10 years. His e-mail is paul@riandalaw.com.

World Wide Payment Solutions To Process With Cynergy Data

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.

Industry consensus is mounting to suggest that some form of the debit-interchange amendment crafted by U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., will be included in the reconciled financial-reform bill. But top payments-consulting firms continue to parse the amendment’s potential effects.

Ingenico S.A. anticipates generating 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in annual revenue by 2013, the France-based point-of-sale terminal maker announced June 9 during an investor’s presentation.

TaxiEpay, a unit of Australia-based Live Group, has begun deploying more than 3,500 Hypercom Corp. terminals to support a new payment card-acceptance system for taxis in the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based terminal maker announced June 8.

Merchant acquirers that fail to follow Visa Inc.’s safeguards to prevent processing certain high-risk merchants’ transactions face paying $100 per charge-back on top of regular penalty fees under a program Visa announced to its acquirers in March.

Efforts to create a common set of requirements for so-called “end-to-end” encryption moved forward last week when the Secure POS Vendor Alliance released its End-To-End Encryption Security Requirements.

Payment processor Elavon Inc. announced June 8 it has signed agreements with San Diego-based Semtek Innovative Solutions Corp. and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Voltage Security Inc., two competitors that provide advanced encryption services. Atlanta-based Elavon also offers its own advanced encryption products to merchants.

At first glance, the new encryption technology now sweeping the payments industry looks like a bonanza for ISOs and agents. On second glance, the situation appears more complicated.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on June 9 made a brief appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, warning lawmakers of the need to investigate possible collusion between Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide in the setting credit and debit card interchange rates.

Merchant acquirers that fail to follow Visa Inc.’s safeguards to prevent processing certain high-risk merchants’ transactions face paying $100 per charge-back on top of regular penalty fees under a program Visa announced to its acquirers in March.

More than 100 Ingenico S.A. point-of-sale terminals are afloat on 14 cruise ships operated by Costa Cruises as part of an initiative to enable travelers to use a “Costa Card” for their onboard purchases, Ingenico recently announced.

Efforts to create a common set of requirements for so-called “end-to-end” encryption moved forward last week when the Secure POS Vendor Alliance released its End-To-End Encryption Security Requirements.

The road to the widespread rollout and adoption of Near Field Communication mobile payments may be littered with potholes and speed bumps, but payments-industry executives still hope the technology can make a significant splash in the United States.

EMV Version Of VeriFone’s PayWare Mobile Service Coming

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s taxi business is taking on increased importance for the point-of-sale terminal maker.