Category Archive for : ‘Merchant Services’

To a long list of companies crying foul over Visa Inc.’s pricing models, add Discover Financial Services. Discover’s debit unit, Pulse Network LLC, recently filed a lawsuit against Visa in a federal court in Texas alleging Visa undermines competition in the debit network world. The network is asking the court to “enjoin Visa’s ongoing violations of antitrust laws” and award Pulse compensation for revenues lost due to the challenged policies.

This isn’t the first time Discover has taken Visa to court. In 2008, Discover ended up with out-of-court settlements with both

The mega retailer-backed mobile wallet enterprise Merchant Customer Exchange has had a rough couple of weeks. First MCX received an onslaught of criticism for reminding its merchant partners that they cannot contractually accept the mobile wallet transactions of competitors. Then a data breach of the MCX pilot program reportedly compromised the email addresses of MCX mobile wallet users. Payment pundits have remarked that these are not auspicious developments for a mobile wallet scheme that hasn’t even yet launched.

After Apple Inc. launched its mobile wallet, Apple Pay, in October 2014,

A person who sells bankcard services to merchants on behalf of ISOs, acquirers, and processors. Also known as independent sales agents (ISAs), as well as agents, most MLSs are independent contractors. Others are paid employees of ISOs, acquirers and processors.

ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) must keep pace with the latest payment technologies and trends to be seen as knowledgeable experts in the field. Exploring the advantages of mobile payments will provide valuable selling points to employ during visits with your customers, which can boost your sales and help keep your merchants ahead of their competition.

From requesting taxis to tracking flights to comparing prices, consumers rely on smartphones for several day-to-day tasks. As smartphone technology quickly advanced, mobile payment options were introduced and consumers started making purchases with smartphones.

The latest security breach occurred at the nonprofit retail store operator Goodwill Industries International Inc. The culprit: a new version of malware called Backoff. The breach began on July 21st, 2014, is part of a frequent occurrence of comprises at national retailers. While consumers and mainstream media are adopting the mentality of, “oh, another breach”, security experts and the business community remain serious about securing networks and mitigating attacks.

With security breaches becoming common place some consumers are feeling less sure about who they are shopping with and how their personal

Bethesda, Md.-based Digital Management Inc. designed PriceGuide, a predictive analytics tool, specifically for ISOs. By applying advanced analytics, the system can reportedly recommend optimal margins and merchant-specific pricing, as well as predict attrition and prioritize retention based on the value of individual merchant segments.

“Price optimization is an important step in maintaining your current customer base and attracting new customers,” said Thiag Loganathan, President of the Big Data Insights division at DMI. This is especially true in today’s customer-driven market, where establishing pricing strategies that effectively optimize margins without losing merchants

Another major breach, which came to light in July 2014, apparently occurred at Goodwill Industries International Inc. The culprit: a new strain of malware called Backoff. Once again, security investigative reporter Brian Krebs broke the story on his blog site KrebsonSecurity. Krebs wrote in the July 21 post that unnamed sources within the financial services industry said multiple Goodwill locations had been breached and that an unknown number of credit and debit cards had been compromised.
Goodwill informed Krebs that it had only learned about the breach on July 18, when

The Next Level of Protection with the TransArmor® Solution

Protecting valuable credit card payment data from the moment your customer swipes through the entire transaction with Insignia’s TransArmor® Solution

TransArmor® Solutions Goes Above and Beyond to Protect your Business

The Insignia TransArmor solution is a powerful credit card payment processing security system that combines software or hardware based encryption with random-number tokenization technology.

Credit card payments are protected at every stage of the transaction process – in transit, in use and at rest. With the TransArmor solution the risk of data breach is reduced