RETAIL BRIEFSANNOUNCEMENTSLeaders from the ATM Industry Association met with legislators and their staff to address concerns regarding the impact of the Financial Institution Customer Protection Act of 2016 (H.R. 766) and Operation Choke Point on the ATM industry. ATMIA also expressed concerns over recent comments from legislators and presidential candidates calling for increased regulation of ATM fees. ATMIA said it continuously advocates for the industry on these and many other issues.
Capital Payments LLC (Bluefin Payment Systems) settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it enabled a telemarketing scheme called The Tax Club to use merchant accounts to process consumers' credit card payments. The Tax Club allegedly bilked consumers who were trying to start a home-based business. The order imposes a $2.6 million judgment that will be partially suspended based on the company's current financial situation.
BlueStar was named North American Distributor of the Year for the second year in a row by Honeywell Sensing and Productivity Solutions during its recent Partner Conference, held in Jacksonville, Fla. Honeywell S&PS honored its leading channel partners in various award categories based on demonstrated commitment to the partner community, executive engagement and year-over-year growth performance.
President Barack Obama said he will nominate Robert O. Carr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of leading payment processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc., to a key post on the National Infrastructure Advisory Council. The council, working through the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, advises the President on the nation's infrastructure. Members work in private industry, academia, and state and local governments.
At a time of rising cyber-attacks, Carr earned widespread praise for his response to a massive data breach of Heartland in 2009. After the attack, Heartland developed an end-to-end encryption system to protect information. The company shared information on the offending malware with competitors to protect them from similar breaches. Carr also took the lead in forming the Payments Processing Information Sharing Council, an industry group that works with law enforcement to combat cyber fraud.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a policy to facilitate consumer access to financial products and services that promise substantial benefits to consumers. The policy provides companies with access to a CFPB statement that reduces regulatory uncertainty for products or services that offer consumer-friendly innovation. Commenting on the policy, the Electronic Transactions Association said a more flexible regulatory structure that supports innovation will benefit consumers and merchants.
Cryptomathic, a provider of cryptography solutions, is a new Participating Organization of the PCI Security Standards Council. As such, the company will work with the council to achieve and improve payment data security worldwide through the ongoing development of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards, including the PCI Data Security Standard, PIN Transaction Security requirements and the Payment Application Data Security Standard.
PCI requires that merchants and service providers that store, process or transmit customer payment card data adhere to information security controls and processes that ensure data protection – not just once a year, but as part of a business-as-usual security posture. "As a Participating Organization, Cryptomathic adds its voice to the standards setting process and will receive previews of drafts of standards and supporting materials in order to provide feedback to shape their final versions, as well as engage a growing community of more than 700 organizations united to improve payment security worldwide," the company stated.
The ETA released its updated ETA Guidelines on Merchant and ISO Underwriting and Risk Monitoring. The guidelines are voluntary best practices for the acquiring industry to use in boarding and oversight of merchant clients. The first edition of the guidelines was published in 2014 to help ETA members detect and prevent fraudulent merchants from accessing the nation's payments systems.
In a statement supporting the release of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said, "The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework supports the growing digital economy on both sides of the Atlantic, while ensuring the protection of consumers' personal information." The FTC pledged its participation, stating that strong law enforcement and increased cooperation would be critical to the new framework's success.
Hyperwallet opened a corporate office in the northwest section of Austin, Texas, within an area that is popular among the city's technology sector. "Hyperwallet is proud to join Austin's growing technology community," said Brent Warrington, Hyperwallet's CEO. "Our Austin location will enable us to build on our success as the preferred payout platform for the new economy."
The Technology Association of Georgia named Ingenico Group one of the Top 40 Innovative Technology Companies in Georgia. TAG's Top 40 Awards recognize Georgia technology companies for their innovation, financial impact and efforts at spreading awareness of Georgia's technology initiatives throughout the United States and globally.
MasterCard Worldwide unveiled the MasterCard IQ series, a solution suite devised to use real-time intelligence to empower issuers to make more informed fraud management decisions to reduce the number of transactions unnecessarily declined. "Our IQ products leverage technology and insights to deliver merchants and consumers a convenient, uninterrupted checkout experience," said Ajay Bhalla, President of Enterprise Security Solutions at MasterCard.
Sage launched the Sage Marketplace, a new global distribution platform for independent software vendors (ISVs) to showcase Sage developer add-ons. Sage Marketplace is a single global site created to showcase apps developed for Sage products and allow ISVs to sell add-on components that are integrated with Sage global products, including Sage One and Sage Live. Sage said all of its customers can view the marketplace and buy directly from ISV partners.
The Smart Card Alliance updated its training programs and expanded the programs available at its National Center for Advanced Payments and Identity Security located in the Washington, D.C., area. Dubbed the Certified Smart Card Industry Professional/Government program, it provides advanced technical knowledge and understanding of usage models for physical and logical access control, the SCA noted.
Signifyd closed $20 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures, with additional participation from Allegis Capital, IA Ventures, QED Investors, Bill McKiernan and Tim Eades. Pravin Vazirani, a General Partner at Menlo Ventures, will also join the company's board of directors. This new round brings Signifyd's total funding to $31 million. The company will use the funds to accelerate growth, scale infrastructure and continue expansion.
Square Inc., which introduced the Square Cash app as an easy-to-use personal finance tool that allows anyone to quickly send money to anyone else, reported that its Square Cash customers can now store money within the app with its new Cash Drawer feature.
"Cash Drawer gives anyone the ability to stash cash they receive directly in the app or add their own from their bank account, making it easier to set aside funds for future costs like dinners out with friends, or upcoming payments like your monthly rent," the company stated. "When the Cash Drawer feature is turned on, anyone can keep all the payments they've received in one secure place and deduct from that stash to make payments."
ThreatMetrix launched the Digital Identity Graph, a tool that maps the complex and ever-changing associations among people and their communication devices, account credentials, telephone numbers, physical addresses and businesses they interact with. ThreatMetrix reported that it can use the graph framework to define digital persona relationships on a global scale, enabling businesses to identify fraud and cyber attacks in real-time without compromising privacy.
The Members Group refreshed its brand, unveiling a new look and feel. According to TMG's Vice President of Marketing and Brand Strategy Georgann Smith, the new brand signifies the processor's willingness to embrace change. "The rapidly transforming industry in which TMG operates requires our experts to be on the leading edge of payments and processing solutions," Smith said. In addition to a new logo, TMG launched a new web presence at www.tmg.global.
RESEARCHAccording to a new report from Boston Retail Partners, only 22 percent of retailers support EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) transactions, while another 53 percent plan to implement EMV within 12 months. The Strawhecker Group also released survey results that estimate only 37 percent of U.S. merchant locations were EMV-ready four months after the Oct. 1, 2015 liability shift.
The Electronic Payments Coalition surveyed consumer attitudes toward cybersecurity and electronic payments. Of the 2,028 registered voters questioned, 75 percent agreed stores should move as quickly as possible to adopt new forms of electronic payments that would help protect consumer information. More than six in 10 polled (63 percent) said retailers should offer a number of payment types that consumers think are secure.
American Express Co., Discover Financial Services, MasterCard and Visa Inc. consumer and commercial credit, debit and prepaid cards issued in the United States generated $4.786 trillion in purchase volume in 2015, which was up 7.8 percent from 2014, according to The Nilson Report, which also stated that Visa credit card purchase volume exceeded all other card types for the third year in a row.
As the United States continues its migration to EMV chip technology to reduce counterfeit card fraud, fraud levels in the healthcare industry are at an all-time high, with billions of dollars lost annually. To address the need to increase security for healthcare identity authentication and payments, the Smart Card Alliance released a white paper titled Healthcare Identity Authentication and Payments Convergence: A Vision for the Healthcare Industry.
PARTNERSHIPSAccenture formed an alliance with Endgame Inc., a provider of cybersecurity software solutions to actively hunt adversaries seeking to penetrate networks for criminal gain. Accenture will integrate the company's sophisticated capabilities with its cyber defense services. As part of the relationship, Accenture also took an equity position in Endgame and will resell Endgame's solutions as part of its portfolio of holistic cyber defense services.
ACI Worldwide Inc. said it is working closely with The Clearing House in support of its initiative to implement a real-time payment system in the United States. The initiative's goal is to enable financial institutions to send and receive money instantly. Together, ACI and TCH will design and build an access capability that can be managed directly by participants or alternatively utilized through a fully managed cloud-based service.
Bluefin Payment Systems partnered with WorldNet TPS Ltd. to further enhance data security for companies using the WorldNet platform with the addition of Bluefin's Decryptx PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE) solution. The integration is designed to enable merchants using the WorldNet gateway to get the security and scope reduction of PCI P2PE with no change to their gateway relationship.
Bluepoint Solutions and AMI Information Systems are partnering to provide Bluepoint's ImagePoint suite of check capture and item processing solutions to credit unions nationwide. AMI provides the market with browser-based, hosted core processing solutions and mobile remote deposit capture. Pairing with Bluepoint Solutions is expected to add sophisticated aggregation technology to the AMI solutions, as well as other capture points and complementary services.
The American Public Transportation Association and the NFC Forum entered a formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) enabling the two organizations to jointly educate the industry on near field communication (NFC) technologies and support the needs of public transportation operators. Through the MOU, APTA and the NFC Forum will work on joint programs that include training courses, white papers, case study analysis, merchant and transportation customer research, webcasts, and hosted events or tradeshows.
Tempus Technologies Inc. formed an integration partnership with Ingenico. Tempus stated it will combine its semi-integrated payments solution PaymentMate, with Ingenico's Telium smart terminals to offer a streamlined approach for businesses requiring superior payment security and simplified EMV software integration. With the PaymentMate software embedded into a Telium terminal, card data will no longer enter a merchant's POS device, the companies noted.
TransFirst Holdings LLC and CheckWorks Inc. entered into a sales partnership agreement. CheckWorks will offer TransFirst's full suite of products to its customer base. Products include credit and debit card, automated clearing house and mobile payments, as well as recurring billing through the TransFirst payment gateway. "Teaming up with TransFirst allows us to bring added benefits to our business customers by providing payment processing solutions," said Mary-Jo Uniack, President of CheckWorks.
USAePay and DemandVoice LLC reported that they now offer merchants a certified Level 1 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard-compliant phone payment method. USAePay added the DemandVoice PayItByPhone product into its offerings to enable secure payment collection anytime, on any phone, and in any language. "Using DemandVoice results in more paying customers due to their innovative PayItByPhone service," said Vlad Galyuz, Vice President of Technology at USAePay.
ACQUISITIONSEvertec Inc. received U.S. regulatory approval for the acquisition of 65 percent of the share capital of Processa S.A.S., a Colombian payment processing company. The transaction is anticipated to close at or about the end of the first quarter of 2016. Mac Schuessler, Evertec's President and CEO, said, "This acquisition aligns well with our strategy to invest in the Colombian market and provides us with a platform to expand upon in the future."
Heartland Payment Systems acquired Beanstalk Data LLC, a provider of customer engagement platforms for U.S. restaurants. The acquisition is expected to enable Heartland to help restaurants seamlessly integrate their customer relationship management systems, marketing and engagement programs with Heartland POS and e-commerce solutions. Beanstalk is a popular technology provider for quick service restaurants and fast casual dining providers, the companies said.
Wirecard AG acquired the Brazilian Internet payment service provider Moip Pagamentos S.A., located in Sao Paulo, which is focused on small and midsize retailers. Wirecard also acquired the Provus Group, headquartered in Bucharest, Romania. Provus is a payment processing and technological service provider that supports outsourced acquiring and card processing, e-commerce and POS solutions.
APPOINTMENTSShopgate Inc. appointed Marc Biel as its CEO to lead the company's expansion into the U.S. mobile market. Shopgate provides high-impact mobile commerce apps and mobile websites to small to midsize businesses and retailers. Biel had served as Shopgate's Chief Operations Officer/Chief Financial Officer since 2014.
Payveris LLC, a provider of next-generation digital payment solutions for banks and credit unions, added Mohan Chunduri as its Senior Vice President of Operations. In that position, Chunduri is responsible for leading operational initiatives that continually enhance the overall customer experience for Payveris clients. He will oversee implementations, project management, compliance, partner and customer support, and training.
The Clearing House hired two former senior Federal Reserve economists to lead its research efforts. William R. Nelson now serves as Head of Research and Chief Economist, and Francisco Covas serves as Deputy Head of Research. Nelson most recently served as a Deputy Director of the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board; Covas was an Assistant Director in Monetary Affairs.
Fiserv Inc. named Robert Hau its Chief Financial Officer. Hau's background includes nearly 30 years of business and financial leadership. He most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of TE Connectivity Ltd. "Bob's proven track record as a public company CFO, along with his strong operational approach to finance, will complement our management team very well," said Jeffery Yabuki, President and CEO at Fiserv.
American Payment Solutions appointed Phillip Heath its new President. In this expanded role, Heath will continue to lead the company's sales team, as well as provide key leadership and strategic direction to the entire organization. "I am honored to promote Phil Heath to President of APS," stated David Ford, CEO of APS. "Phil has consistently driven revenue growth for our company and provides superb company leadership to the team."
Payment technology provider Zooz Inc. named Chester Ritchie its Executive Vice President of Sales & Business Development for the United States. A payments industry veteran with 20 years experience, Ritchie will lead the sales team into new markets. Ritchie most recently served as Head of Business Development for Worldpay, where he helped lead the company's transition into a payments technology company, Zooz noted.
Sage appointed Marc Scheipe as President of Sage North America following his interim term in that role. Sage stated that under Scheipe's leadership, the region hit financial targets and completed the first stages of its transformation. Scheipe now reports to Sage CEO Stephen Kelly, who said Scheipe "has inspiring energy and vision for how we can support businesses and also the communities we work in, and I am pleased to appoint him to the role." 
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