NEWSHeartland Payment Systems Inc. and MICROS Systems Inc. reached an amicable settlement of a 2007 lawsuit and concluded a restructured and expanded business relationship to bring new payment solutions to the restaurant, lodging and retail industries. Heartland is the official preferred provider for the National Restaurant Association and the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
The two companies are in final development of interfaces that will better integrate their respective products, including collaboration on product innovations designed to protect transactions originated by Micros's Simphony platform, an enterprise, service-oriented architecture POS product for the hospitality industry, with Heartland's E3 end-to-end security solution. Integration of the two systems is expected to be complete by midyear.
Interac Association, a national payment network based in Toronto, threw its support behind the Code of Conduct for Debit and Credit Payments in Canada released April 16, 2010, by federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
The code addresses mounting concerns over Canada's expanding debit marketplace, which has reportedly been long overdue for a uniform set of transparent rules to protect merchants and consumers in the multinetwork debit environment. In 2009, Canadian consumers carried out nearly 4 billion debit transactions, almost 60 percent of all card payment transactions. Canadians are among the highest users of debit per capita globally.
"Maintaining complementary co-badged debit cards is an elegant solution to a whole host of concerns caused by competitive co-badged cards," said Mark O'Connell, Interac's President and Chief Executive Officer. "It upholds what exists in Canadians' wallets today and, at the same time, enhances the competitive debit landscape in Canada by promoting fair and healthy competition."
Payvment Inc., the top Facebook e-commerce solution provider, launched the Facebook Fan Incentive Pricing feature. The free storefront application for Facebook allows brands and sellers to provide electronic coupons or instant discounts to potential and current fans, tying the action of becoming a fan to sales discounts and rewarding loyalty.
The technology will take Facebook from a social network and marketing platform to a channel for direct selling. Payvment's e-commerce suite includes a universal shopping cart that carries goods across multiple storefronts, a proprietary shopping discovery and search tool, and the ability for customers to add reviews to Payvment-enabled storefronts. Spam protection allows sellers to monitor storefront content.
MasterCard Worldwide recently launched MasterCard Labs, a new global research and development arm dedicated to bringing innovative payment solutions to market with greater speed than ever before.
"Supporting breakthrough innovation efforts is at the heart of differentiating MasterCard from our competitors, and key to sustaining our competitive advantage in the marketplace," said Ajay Banga, MasterCard President and Chief Operating Officer. "With products such as PayPass, MoneySend, and inControl - or even our most recent partnership with Next Jump - MasterCard is known as a major contributor to the modern payments landscape."
ANNOUNCEMENTSAlpha Card Services Inc. redesigned its corporate website to more accurately reflect the payment processor and merchant acquirer's mission. Alpha's CEO, Lazaros Kalemis, expects www.alphacardservices.com will become the gateway to everything Alpha and that the company prides itself on "being an agent- and merchant-friendly ISO/MSP and continually tries to improve the experience these customers have with all their interaction and communication with our company."
American Payment Systems chose Omaha to be the first market where consumers will have the opportunity to use the PinPoint Card, a new tool for making purchases and earning rewards at participating merchants. The card combines the directness and PIN-based security of debit cards, with points-based rewards, discounts and personalized offers. A pay-at--the-table feature boosts security by enabling restaurant servers to process payments at the table, according to the company.
Apriva introduced the Apriva Vend, a comprehensive cashless payments solution designed to address the evolving needs of the vending market. The company noted that the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS)-compliant service facilitates the entire process, including hardware, software, wireless connectivity, payment card processing, merchant account services, back-office reporting and support services. "A growing number of consumers are expecting to use credit and debit cards for purchases at almost all retail locations," said Bill Clark, Executive Vice President and General Manager, North America, of Apriva's Point of Sale division. "Apriva Vend enables operators and bottlers to quickly and cost-effectively deploy secure, reliable and profitable cashless vending solutions to capitalize on this growing segment."
According to online security provider Comodo Group Inc., it surpassed VeriSign Inc. in the number of valid Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates currently in use. Based on research conducted by Netsekure.org, which collected data from the root certificates of Alexa's Top One Million websites, Comodo exceeded VeriSign by a margin of 15 percent. Of the 350,000 hosts and 50,000 SSL entries queried, 8,049 certificates were issued by Comodo and 6,944 by VeriSign.
After a decade of serving the payments industry with recruiting services, CSH Consulting Inc. officially changed its name to Impact Payments Recruiting. Since its inception in 2000, the company has placed more than 1,600 payment professionals within the industry. "Our new name better reflects the transformation of our business in recent years," said company President J.T. Driscoll. "We are a very effective recruiting resource, but our bigger objective is to change the way that business is done. We are committed to creating win-win situations with our staff, candidates, clients, vendors and even competitors."
To accommodate regional growth, Eliot Management Group is moving its Minneapolis office branch to a larger location. EMG opened the Minneapolis location in 2005 as part of its continuing 'on-market' service approach that began in 1999. The goal of the program is to secure office space in all EMG markets where EMG personnel can provide local comprehensive sales and service to existing and future clients in the area.
"Due to the amazing results we've experienced in our Minneapolis office, we're excited to announce that we're currently in the process of expanding our presence in this market," said Ron Dichter, EMG's CEO. "Once complete, we will be doubling our staff, providing a more robust team to help service our existing client base and acquire more businesses that can take advantage of EMG's product offerings."
A newly released study by Javelin Strategy & Research, which surveyed 16,000 respondents, revealed that one in four consumers and 39 percent of small businesses desire mobile remote deposit capture (RDC), an emerging technology that allows check images to be deposited through camera-equipped mobile phones. The study found that small banks and credit unions are the first to use mobile RDC to retain trusted customers and expand banking relationships. Smart phones are integral to early adoption of mobile RDC, which requires mobile Web access and the capacity for two-megapixel digital phone images. However, with an email-based solution in the offing, demand for this technology could expand rapidly.
Driven by increased support of its smart-phone applications, mobile banking and payment provider Monitise Americas reported that its parent company, Monitise, achieved over 2 million registered users. Monitise's Mobile Money Manager platform serves over 240 banks and financial institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom and processes 100 million transactions annually.
Monitise Americas stated that it provides mobile banking and payment services to North American financial institutions predicated on an "ecosystem" principle, which allows multiple mobile carriers and financial institutions to deliver services over a single platform. In June 2009, Monitise signed a five-year Global Alliance Agreement to supply its Mobile Money Manager platform to Visa Inc., which has a reported 1.7 billion cardholders worldwide.
NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association issued its list of the top 50 originating and receiving financial institutions of automated clearing house payments for 2009. The top 50 originating financial institutions yielded 13.54 billion transactions in 2009, up slightly from 2008, while the top 50 receiving institutions accounted for 8.53 billion transactions in 2009, a number that was consistent with 2008 figures. For a complete listing of NACHA's top 50, go to www.nacha.org.
Optio Solutions LLC, an accounts receivable management company headquartered in Rohnert Park, Calif., announced that Karen Cividanes, Manager of Client Relations, was selected as one of the top "Forty under 40" by the North Bay Business Journal. The award recognizes outstanding business and community leaders under the age of 40. In the community, Cividanes is active in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and, globally, The Water Project.
PARTNERSHIPSPayment gateway provider and mobile payment software developer Charge Anywhere LLC completed certification to the Moneris Solutions Inc. payment platform. This certification "will now empower our clients and merchants who need the flexibility of mobile phone payments, wireless terminal, Web terminal and IP-based payments in the U.S. and Canada," said Paul Sabella, President and CEO of Charge Anywhere.
Dejavoo Systems and EVO Merchant Services reported that the Dejavoo Countertop C Line and X Line, along with the Mobile M Line terminals, will be fully supported by EVO. EVO will house its own Value Added Server and MMSx Web download server, creating the ability to communicate directly with merchants from its back-office system to the Dejavoo terminal.
Hypercom Corp. and First Data Corp. formed an alliance to aid the payments industry's attack on card data fraud. Hypercom's HyperSafe Remote Key System (HRKS) will be available through First Data's TASQ Technology. The HRKS allows retailers to initiate on-site, in-store payment terminal key injection at the POS, providing a much faster alternative to traditional systems. As an added layer of protection for merchants, Hypercom will also team with First Data to implement the First Data TransArmor solution to address the root cause of merchant data security issues by removing payment card data from the merchant environment as part of processing the transaction. This is designed to significantly reduce risk and the scope of PCI compliance efforts.
In partnership with Ingenico, Element Payment Services Inc. will integrate Ingenico's end-to-end encryption algorithm with its tokenization solution to provide Ingenico customers secure end-to-end transaction processing technologies. The fully integrated solution will reduce the customers' cardholder data environment and PCI DSS-compliance footprint, according to the companies.
Verifone selected RBS WorldPay as a preferred provider of merchant accounts for buyers of Verifone's PAYware Mobile card payment solution for the iPhone. RBS WorldPay will market PAYware Mobile through multiple channels, including its nationwide direct and ISO sales forces, as well as via the Web. VeriFone's card reader slips over the iPhone to accommodate card swipes and avoid high-cost card-not-present fees, according to the company. It incorporates a stylus for signature capture and a mini-USB port for charging the iPhone. The PAYware Mobile card's encryption sleeve, which is designed for secure payment processing, encrypts each transaction from the time of card swipe until it reaches RBS WorldPay. The customizable PAYware Connect gateway service is said to be ideal for small or mobile businesses.
ACQUISITIONSMerchant e-Solutions Inc., a Redwood Shores, Calif., e-commerce payment company, acquired the Columbus Bank and Trust merchant portfolio from Synovus, the Columbus, Ga.-based financial services holding company. As part of the deal, MeS and Synovus agreed to a 10-year joint marketing agreement to provide payment processing services for new Synovus bank merchant customers.
APPOINTMENTSMasterCard appointed Ajay Banga, who is currently the company's President and COO, to serve as the company's President and CEO, effective July 1, 2010.
Banga will also serve as a member of MasterCard's board of directors, effective immediately. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Financial Services Roundtable and a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association.
BHI Advanced Internet Solutions added Tony Capers to its executive staff as Director of Sales. With over 28 years of direct sales experience, Capers will be responsible for organizing the efforts of the inside sales team, leading the account management team to enhance customer relationships, and working closely with the outside sales team to develop new strategies for sales initiatives with corporate concepts and acquiring banks.
Paymetric Inc. hired Mike Rivers as its COO. Rivers will oversee client services, relationship management and software-as-a-service operations to insure seamless integration and high performance throughout the organization. Rivers brings over 20 years of technology and operational experience to Paymetric.
Ed Sterling joined Charge Card Systems as Sales Relationship Manager. Sterling comes to CCS with over 20 years of experience in the payments industry. In his new role, Sterling will focus on recruitment and training of new sales partners, as well as fostering ongoing relationships and providing support for all agents within the CCS sales organization.
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