Retailers

Square is taking a bigger bite at the small-business market by offering flat-fee processing to small merchants, furthering the company's efforts to present itself as a more full-featured option for card acceptance.

ID Tech, a supplier of point-of-sale devices, has agreed to begin outfitting its SecureMag readers with TransArmor data encryption and tokenization from First Data.

Some the nation’s leading merchants announced today the formation of the Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX, a new mobile-commerce company that will support paying at the register with customizable offers.

Total System Services is taking a different approach to sales by forming a joint venture with Central Payment Co.

Sites like Groupon have captured consumers' attention and loyalty in a way that credit card issuers often dream of. A few savvy payments companies have found ways to benefit from the daily-deals fad.

Merchant acquirers and tech companies are collaborating on mobile payments issues in a new group formed by the Electronic Transactions Association.

Transaction processor Vantiv plans to offer its new Mobile Accept card reader to help brick-and-mortar merchants handle payments outside their stores — without paying more than they do for in-store payments.

Google has changed the rules about how issuers get into its mobile wallet, and American Express is the first to vocally and vehemently oppose Google's new setup. The outcome of this dispute could decide who controls transaction data in mobile payments.

Until recently, the acquiring industry viewed Google and other high-tech firms as interlopers in the payments business. Now, acquirers are courting those very companies as potential business partners.

VeriFone shares fell the most in more than two months after Starbucks, the largest coffee-shop chain, said it will use Square’s rival payment system in 7,000 stores.

Starbucks' $25 million investment in Square says a lot about the mobile payment provider's appeal to larger merchants — but the coffee chain's decision to leave out some of Square's technology also speaks volumes.

U.S. Senator Richard Durbin said merchants should "think hard" before signing a $6.6 billion settlement with Visa, MasterCard and banks over credit-card fees.

ViVOtech has sold its ViVOpay payment-hardware business, the company said Monday in a notice on its website.

No one affiliated with the Isis mobile payment initiative is saying exactly when the first testing in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas will begin, but the venture is steadily tying its remaining loose ends.

U.S. payment-card industry rivals have decided to come together, at least for a few days, to better navigate the gargantuan task of migrating to the modern EMV chip-card standard by 2015.

Many small-business owners don't understand social media, and American Express Co. is making increasing efforts to instruct them in the best uses of such sites. A focus of Amex’s efforts is its forum on LinkedIn, where bird-supply vendor Mitch Rezman participates.

Merchants and ATMs in Nepal last month gradually began accepting cards issued by JCB International Co. Ltd. through partnerships with Himalayan Bank Ltd. and Alpine Card Service P. Ltd., Japan’s only global payment brand announced.

Juan Benitez, the new chief technology officer of Braintree Inc., expects to play a key role in the continued growth of the online and mobile payments provider.

Vivotech Inc. is restructuring its operations and reducing its workforce, the software and systems company announced July 27.

Chicago has become the second U.S. city to participate in MasterCard Worldwide’s Priceless Cities campaign.