Retailers

As European banks continue to establish standards for a Single Euro Payments Area, not nearly as much attention has focused on a similar process for ecommerce or mobile payments in the euro zone.

Total System Services Inc. has added two executives to its senior management group, the processor announced Jan. 12.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described GlobalBay, which is software used for a hardware attachment for the Apple Inc. iPad.

Three data-security and payment processors have linked technologies to create a cloud-based advanced encryption payment system designed to protect payment card data and provide storage away from Columbia Sportswear Co. point-of-sale terminals.

A Canadian software provider is the first of many middleware companies that PayPal Inc. says will be key to bringing its online payment system to the physical point of sale.

Verizon Wireless expects to increase customer throughput through an agreement to deploy Rover, AnywhereCommerce's device designed to alleviate the need for customers to wait in checkout lines.

Independent sales organizations associated with United Bank Card Inc. have been differentiating themselves from competitors for a year now by giving merchants free point-of-sale terminals. Now the terminals appear to be getting better.

A strong majority of candidates passed the first examination for the acquiring industry’s new Certified Payments Professional credential.

With mobile-payment options available for New York taxi, subway or train riders, it was only a matter of time before the city’s ferry boats offered a similar plan.

Payments processor Total Systems Services Inc. has signed a new agreement with merchant-services provider Pivotal Payments Inc., the companies announced Jan. 10.

Intuit Inc. is taking GoPayment north to Canada as the company looks to move the mobile card reader and application to countries outside the U.S.

Though Facebook members generally reveal much about their private lives in what amounts to an open forum when posting information on the social media site, they are not as trusting when it comes to spending money on the site.

Acquirers may be wrong if they believe they can coerce small merchants into complying with security standards by charging them fees.

Given all the time and money banks have been putting into nascent mobile payment systems, the last thing they need is a new competitor parachuting into the mix, and in a more advantageous position.

Visa Inc. appears to have one up on other international brands when it comes to debit card acceptance at at least one Canadian airline.

U.S. Bancorp has implemented the electronic payments system Secure Vault Payments with the Nebraska Child Support Payment Center for parents to make child-support payments online.

Any thought that Visa Inc. was the least bit interested in dipping its toe into merchant acquiring quickly dissipated when the card brand decided to sell an online merchant portfolio it inherited from a purchase two years ago to Global Payments Inc.

Acquirers should mention security to merchants more often. A lot more often–every time they make a sales call, field a complaint, explain a regulation, solve a technical problem, send an email message, mail a monthly statement or launch a direct-mail campaign.

In a development that should push along Nigeria’s move toward a cashless society, the Vigeo Group has introduced a point-of-sale terminal that can accept all Nigerian bankcards.

The number of companies caught in data breaches exposing consumers’ credit, debit and bank account numbers is growing, but the best way to make amends to customers is not yet clear.