Retailers

Editor's Note.

The day when the United States joins many other large markets globally in converting to EMV chip-and-PIN cards from magnetic stripe versions will not occur any time soon. But it will come eventually, one observer predicts.

David Leppek, president of Transaction Services LLC, has an opportunity that many in the ISO and acquiring business encounter infrequently in their careers. He has the chance to design his ISO without having to use years-old legacy technology.

As competition for clients intensifies and margins grow increasingly thin, many ISOs are seeking ways to reduce costs, increase efficiency and stand out from competitors. One method gaining consideration is the use of digital signatures and contracts.

Though legislation that would permit merchants to set minimum and maximum limits on card transactions remains pending in Congress, it is gaining a lot of attention among merchant acquirers and independent sales organizations.

Best Buy Co. Inc.’s first store in Turkey will use a shared point-of-sale service, eliminating the multiple POS terminals commonly seen domestically on merchant countertops, according to Ingenico S.A., which is supplying the service.

State Bank of India is increasing its domestic merchant acquiring activity with plans to deploy up to 1.5 million point-of-sale terminals for credit and debit card acceptance by March 2011, an official from the Mumbai-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

An amendment that would give the Federal Reserve Board authority to control debit card interchange rates could have a “neutral to slightly positive” impact on First Data Corp., an executive at the Atlanta-based payment processor told analysts during a May 14 conference call to discuss first quarter earnings.

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.

Processor Approves Way Device

The PIN Transaction Security standard consolidates three formerly separate requirements for PIN-entry devices in an update released today by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

As competition for clients intensifies and margins grow increasingly thin, many ISOs are seeking ways to reduce costs, increase efficiency and stand out from competitors. One method gaining consideration is the use of digital signatures and contracts.

Smartphone-based transactions represent an opportunity to grow the U.S. card-acceptance market, which largely has become saturated and commoditized because many brick-and-mortar merchants already accept card payments.

VeriFone Holdings Inc. has changed its name. The point-of-sale terminal maker now is called VeriFone Systems Inc., the San Jose, Calif.-based company announced May 18.

IPayment Inc., a Nashville, Tenn.-based payment processor, is reselling Roam Data Inc.’s RoamPay mobile-payment services, Roam Data says. RoamPay can be loaded onto cell phones and used to accept credit and debit card payments.

VeriFone Holdings Inc. Monday said it has purchased Orange Logic Ltd., a South Korea-based point-of-sale terminal maker.

Payments-industry players are vowing to begin lobbying members of Congress in hopes of blocking further progress of an interchange-regulation amendment to the financial-reform bill the Senate passed on May 13 that they believe would have devastating consequences.

After years of trying, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., finally succeeded Thursday in passing a measure that would restrict interchange fees.

With fierce competition for merchants and slim margins in the U.S. acquiring market, more ISOs are expressing interest in penetrating the largely unsaturated Canadian market, according to Federated Payments, an ISO with operations in the U.S. and Canada.

Merchant acquirers should be as concerned as the card brands over proposed legislation that would alter merchant fees, according to the Electronic Transactions Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group representing the acquiring industry.