In a column titled 'No surprise: First Data nearly led to last of Frontier', business columnist Al Lewis writes for the Denver Post about First Data CEO Michael Capellas and his comments about the recent bankruptcy filing by Frontier Airlines that resulted from First Data requiring an increase in reserves from Frontier.

Heartland Payment Systems has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Network Services business of Alliance Data Systems Corporation. 'According to the most recent Nilson report, Alliance Data’s Network Services is one of the industry’s 20 largest payment processors, handling over $17 billion of total annual bank card volume and 604 million transactions in 2007.'   » Continue Reading

A comment on the Rocky Mountain News website by Louise M. Furche suggests that First Data Corp. got what it deserved from how it handled its credit risk management of Frontier Airlines. She suggests that "a better route for First Data would have been to sit down face-to-face with Frontier since they are both based in the Denver area and a meeting could have taken place with less than a 30-minute drive to a neutral location."

Late today, Alliance Data Systems announced that it has terminated the May 17, 2007 merger agreement providing for the acquisition of Alliance Data by affiliates of The Blackstone Group.   » Continue Reading

Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg was at this week's 2008 annual Electronic Transactions Association's Annual Meeting & Expo in Las Vegas. Allen has filed a field report from the Expo.

Felix Salmon writes for Conde Nast Porfolio about credit card holdbacks, merchant acquirers and Frontier Airlines.   » Continue Reading

NOVA Information Systems (NOVA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has unveiled a new global company name, Elavon. Elavon becomes the identity for NOVA and its affiliate merchant acquiring brands including First Horizon Merchant Services (FHMS) and euroConex.   » Continue Reading

Chris Walsh writes for Denver's Rocky Mountain News about the Frontier Airlines bankruptcy filing late last week and the need to move quickly to resolve a dispute with its credit card processor, First Data Corp. Walsh writes that "the carrier initially will look to resolve a dispute with its credit-card processor, First Data, over the amount of money the company can withhold on Frontier's ticket sales."

TSYS Acquiring Solutions has announced 'a partnership agreement with Royal Group Services designed to protect merchants, acquirers and independent sales agents (ISOs) from expenses resulting from a suspected or actual credit card data breach.'   » Continue Reading

AdvanceMe, a provider of merchant cash advances for small and mid-sized businesses, has announced a milestone with RBS Lynk delivering almost $15 million in working capital to the RBS Lynk customer base over the last six months. Through a referral relationship, RBS Lynk expanded its product portfolio to include AdvanceMe's Merchant Cash Advance product, helping clients' access capital quickly, despite tightening credit markets.   » Continue Reading

Aldo Svaldi writes for the Denver Post about Frontier Airlines chapter 11 bankruptcy filing which resulted from what Svaldi reports as a significant increase in the reserve requirements that First Data, as Frontier's merchant acquirer, was imposing. [Editor's note: We first reported the Frontier/First Data news last Friday morning here on Payments News.]

Frontier Airlines this morning announced it had voluntarily filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code late last night. The airline is continuing normal flight operations today.   » Continue Reading

In the UK, EAT, Commidea Ltd and Barclaycard Business have announced that EAT, a sandwich, soup and coffee shop, has become the first retailer in the UK to introduce a fully integrated contactless payment system. Using Commidea’s Ocius Chip & PIN solution with contactless technology, Eat will now be able to process both Visa (Paywave) and MasterCard (Paypass) contactless transactions for its customers using Barclaycard Business as their merchant acquirer.   » Continue Reading

Barclaycard Business has launched Prepaid Solutions, a product it says "will enable retailers to offer gift cards and other stored value solutions to their customers in a more cost effective and convenient way, with the ultimate aim of increased sales and enhanced customer loyalty. The nationwide launch today follows the completion of a successful three month pilot of a Gift Card with Autonomy, a ladies tailoring and special occasion clothes chain with 27 stores nationwide."   » Continue Reading

Chase Paymentech has announced it has formally opened the doors of its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Within three years, the new office will provide operational support for a 100-person team across Europe responsible for expanding Chase Paymentech operations, marketing initiatives and customer support activities outside the United States.   » Continue Reading

Wells Fargo has received the Barlow Research Monarch Innovation "Most Innovative Product" Award for its newest small business checking account product -- Merchant Checking. Described as an "industry first financial package, Merchant Checking combines the convenience of a business checking account with the ability to accept credit and debit card payments at a flat, low, discounted rate."   » Continue Reading

Heartland Payment Systems has announced it has acquired a majority interest in Collective Point of Sale Solutions Ltd, a growing Canadian provider of payment processing services and secure point-of-sale solutions. Under the agreement, Heartland will maintain the CollectivePOS brand in Canada. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.   » Continue Reading

This Thursday in the San Francisco Bay Area, we'll be hosting a special focus workshop on Card Payment Processing - The Value Chain. If you're interested in some current insights into the merchant card processing side of the business, be sure to take a look at the recent conference call transcripts on quarterly earnings from both Global Payments and Heartland Payment Systems. Thanks to Seeking Alpha for making the transcripts available.

Chase Paymentech Solutions has launched a new website designed to help small and medium sized businesses affordably accept credit card payments.   » Continue Reading

Roger Alexander, President of Elavon Merchant Services (Europe) and seasoned payments industry veteran, has been named 'Industry Personality of the Year' at the Card Awards 2008, hosted at the Grosvenor Hotel in London on 31st January 2008.   » Continue Reading

Fifth Third Processing Solutions and Revolution Money have announced an agreement under which the RevolutionCard can be accepted by Fifth Third Processing Solutions' merchant customers across the United States, through Fifth Third's Jeanie network.   » Continue Reading

American Express and Heartland Payment Systems have announced that they will offer a streamlined process that enables merchants to accept American Express Cards on Heartland’s merchant processing platform.   » Continue Reading

Global Payments has announced the introduction of a what it is calling a "next generation payment processing platform, Global Transport," saying it "was designed with a uniform application programming interface supported by multiple communications options to simplify and speed integration to the merchant’s payment acceptance environment for debit, credit, and EBT transaction processing."   » Continue Reading

Merchant e-Solutions has announced it is continuing "to make growth investments in its e-commerce business sector, first by developing payment solutions that are specifically engineered for card-not-present transactions, and now by announcing the appointment of Kevin Gallagher as the General Manager of the MeS e-Commerce business."   » Continue Reading

Intuit and Electronic Clearing House have announced they have "signed a definitive agreement for Intuit to acquire ECHO. Under the terms of the agreement, Intuit will pay $17 per share in cash in exchange for each share of ECHO common stock, including shares issuable upon exercise of options. The total purchase price is approximately $131 million on a fully diluted basis."   » Continue Reading

Alliance Data Systems has announced signing "a multi-year agreement with 7-Eleven, Inc. to provide payment processing services to more than 5,500 7-Eleven-branded convenience stores nationwide. Headquartered in Dallas, 7-Eleven is the largest chain of retail convenience stores, operating, franchising or licensing more than 33,200 stores in 17 countries and one U.S. territory, with worldwide sales in 2006 exceeding $44 billion."   » Continue Reading

Heartland Payment Systems has announced it has "filed an antitrust action against MICROS Systems, Inc.; Merchant Link, LLC; and Chase Paymentech, owner of Merchant Link. The suit, filed in United States District Court in New Jersey, alleges the three companies have caused increased processing prices for table-service restaurants through an anti-competitive tying arrangement which violates the Sherman Antitrust Act and New Jersey's unfair competition laws." The text of Heartland's complaint is available online.

Aite Group has announced a new report titled "The State of the Merchant Acquiring Industry" that "provides an overview of the state of merchant acquiring in the U.S. market. The report looks at the impact of discount rates and interchange in the merchant acquiring space, reviews vendors, overviews sampled acquirers' portfolios and fraud and PCI DSS compliance, and considers the future of acquiring."   » Continue Reading

Aite Group has published a new report titled "Acquisition and Retention in Today's Merchant Acquiring World" that "looks at the two most important challenges that acquirers and ISOs in the United States face: signing up new accounts and retaining the ones they have booked."   » Continue Reading

The Strawhecker Group has announced the availability of its fourth annual 2007 US Merchant Processing Pricing Benchmark Study prepared by surveying the merchant acquiring industry to determine the prevailing line item pricing rates for high volume merchant processing.   » Continue Reading

The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has published a new discussion paper titled "The Merchant-Acquiring Side of the Payment Card Industry: Structure, Operations, and Challenges" .   » Continue Reading

RBS Lynk has announced it is now offering its merchants a way to reach online banking users who want to pay cash at eCommerce checkouts by offering MODASolutions eBillme payment option. eBillme provides consumers with "the ability to safely and securely pay cash using their online banking bill pay service."   » Continue Reading

First Data Corp. has announced the launch of "a new merchant acquiring business called POSNET to serve merchants of all sizes in Canada."   » Continue Reading

Heartland Payment Systems has launched Heartland Express Funds, a bank-neutral remote deposit capture system. "Express Funds allows businesses to electronically deposit checks into bank accounts without physically transporting them to the bank – regardless of which bank or banks the business uses. Eliminating floats and holds, funds are available within 24 hours, and, in many cases, by the next-business morning."   » Continue Reading

The September issue of the First Annapolis Navigator is now available. This month's feature article is "The Addressable Market in U.S. Acquiring." Other articles include: "Internet Payments Acceptance Update", "Expense Diversity Among U.S. Acquirers", "Products & Services Dynamics", "Payments Revenues Continue Robust Growth" and "The Private Equity Effect".

Wells Fargo Merchant Services LLC and Discover Financial Services have announced "an agreement to offer full-service processing for all Discover transactions through Wells Fargo Merchant Services LLC. Under the agreement, Wells Fargo Merchant Services LLC customers will now enjoy seamless card payment processing for a broader range of payment options at the point of sale."   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Charge It!", Elizabeth Holmes writes for the Wall St. Journal about how small businesses can get the best deal on merchant payment card processing. Holmes writes that "navigating the payment-card processing system can be an overwhelming and costly burden. With fees tacked on by as many as 12 intermediaries, from the equipment provider and the Internet service to the card issuers themselves, payment processing is often the third- or fourth-highest expense for a small business."

Merchant e-Solutions has announced the launch of its MeS Global Acquiring Platform - "allowing MeS merchants who have international customers to accept payments in the local currency of their customers. By allowing customers to make purchases in their own currency, merchants can increase sales."   » Continue Reading

The Mercatory Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Business Models and Revenue Streams in Merchant Acquiring: Beyond the Monthly Residual Check" that "focuses on the state of the acquiring market & discusses the market strategy of the industry's most successful players."   » Continue Reading

Verizon has announced Verizon Merchant Services, Payments Powered by Chase Paymentech - a new offering for small and medium-sized businesses with a broadband connection from Verizon Online.   » Continue Reading

Fifth Third Processing Solutions has announced that "Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chain, has signed a new, multi-year contract for credit card processing services to all of its retail locations throughout the United States."   » Continue Reading

Heartland Payment Systems has announced it has announced a strategic relationship with Bremer Financial Corporation (Bremer Bank), based in St. Paul, MN. "Initially, more than 1,500 of Bremer's current merchant clients will be converted to Heartland's processing system. Heartland and Bremer will also focus on a joint business development program that leverages both companies' regional customer bases for new business and cross selling opportunities."   » Continue Reading

CyberSource and Authorize.Net have announced the signing of a definitive agreement for CyberSource to acquire Authorize.Net in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $565 million - about a 20 percent premium over the market value of Authorize.Net at the market close last Friday.   » Continue Reading

Heartland Payment Systems has announced results of a recent survey conducted as part of its Merchant Bill of Rights initiative, a proposed industry standard intended to "inform and educate business owners about card processing costs and drive savings for small and mid-sized businesses." The survey found that many small and mid-sized business owners don't understand credit/debit/prepaid card processing costs, the fees and surcharges they pay, and how these charges impact their bottom line.   » Continue Reading

Alliance Data Systems Corporation has announced that it has "entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Blackstone Capital Partners V L.P., an affiliate of The Blackstone Group, in a transaction valued at approximately $7.8 billion, including the assumption of certain debt. Under the terms of the agreement, Blackstone will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Alliance Data for $81.75 per share in cash. The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 30 percent over Alliance Data's closing share price of $62.96 on May 16, 2007."   » Continue Reading

Chase Paymentech has announced a "major expansion of its European operation, with the appointment of Shane Fitzpatrick as managing director, European Union, effective immediately. This position reports directly to Mike Duffy, president and chief executive officer, Chase Paymentech."   » Continue Reading

CyberSource has announced enhanced "global payment capabilities, expanding the international payment reach of its eCommerce merchants and simultaneously adding anti-fraud and security measures." According to the company, a single connection with CyberSource now provides access to payment processing services for cards, direct debits, and bank transfers in over 190 countries - including new fraud screening capabilities to manage online payment risk across different international markets and secure payment data storage allowing merchants to transact globally without storing sensitive payment data on their networks.   » Continue Reading

Robin Sidel reports for the Wall St. Journal on steps being taken by Visa USA, MasterCard, and merchant processors to crack down on restaurants "for not adequately protecting diners' credit-card data from thieves." SIdel reports that "since January 2005, restaurants represented about 40% of incidents in which intruders gained unauthorized access to credit-card information, according to data tracked by Visa. That is the largest percentage of incidents among merchant groups."

Heartland Payment Systems has announced that forty-six state associations now support its "Merchant Bill of Rights, a major initiative to help owners of small and mid-sized businesses manage the cost and complexity of credit and debit card acceptance."   » Continue Reading

Alliance Data has filed an updated investor presentation with the SEC that emphasizes the growth focus on its loyalty businesses.

Moneris Solutions has announced a new partnership with Recreation Sports Management, the creators of www.esportsdeskpro.com, to offer Web-based payments and other services to the company’s athletic leagues, organizations and team clients.   » Continue Reading

James McNair writes for the Cincinnati Enquirer about the major data security breach at TJX Companies and Fifth Third Bank's role as the merchant acquirer for TJX. In an article titled 'TJX facing customer complaints, possible fines by credit-card firms" in the Boston Globe, Ross Kerber writes that this incident may be the first major test for the recently formed Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. Kerber quotes Seana Pitt, an American Express vice president who chairs the council, who said that the TJX incident is "a wake-up call for the industry" that reinforces why merchants should improve their security. Larry Greenemeier reports the story for Information Week In an article titled 'Credit Card Data, A Hack, And A Rush To Contain The Damage".

TSYS Acquiring Solutions has announced it signed an earlier agreement to provide transaction processing services for National Processing Company (NPC), formerly Iron Triangle Payment Systems. The multi-year agreement was effective in the third quarter of 2006. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.   » Continue Reading

Robin Sidel reports for the Wall St. Journal that the merchant acquirer responsible for handling card payments for TJX is Fifth Third Bank - although the bank won't confirm that fact. Sidel points out that the card associations look to the merchant acquirer for any liability associated with the actions of an acquirer's merchants. Separately, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank posted a statement on the committee's web site saying "those institutions where breaches have occurred must be identified and they must bear responsibility. Specifically, this means retailers or wholesalers must take responsibility, contrary to what common practice is today."

On Friday morning before the stock market opened, Global Payments announced its second fiscal quarter financial results which, according to some observers, met but did not exceed Wall St. analyst expectations. The company has had a history of exceeding expections - so to just meet them turned out to be disappointing and the market reacted with GPN's stock price falling over 16%. Ryan Fuhmann writes about the market's reaction for Motley Fool - reporting that Global Payments' "management summed it up well during this morning's second-quarter conference call. It conceded that "not overachieving expectations is a disappointment for some."

Global Payments has announced the introduction of a Mobile POS Solution using the WAY Systems Mobile Transaction MTT 1556 Credit/Debit terminal. The company says the product "combines the security and performance of a traditional POS terminal with the ease of using a mobile phone."   » Continue Reading

Standard Chartered and First Data Corp. have announced an agreement to jointly establish a new company to provide merchant acquiring services to merchants across Asia.   » Continue Reading

Visa USA has announced it will "offer $20 million in financial incentives and create new sanctions in an effort to further merchant compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)."   » Continue Reading

Investors Business Daily reports on how payments transaction processors are moving into new niches for growth - including Heartland, Global Payments, and TSYS.

MasterCard Canada has announced that Chase Paymentech Solutions has become the first acquirer in Canada to receive approval from MasterCard to process chip transactions. According to MasterCard, "Chase Paymentech's approval sets the stage for the introduction of MasterCard chip cards in 2007."   » Continue Reading

Visa USA has announced an agreement with Blackhawk Network to introduce Visa ReadyLink, Visa’s Prepaid Load Network, to Blackhawk Network’s alliance partner stores. Safeway will be the first in Blackhawk Network’s alliance of 60,000 stores in North America to implement Visa ReadyLink. Fifth Third Bank will serve as the acquiring financial institution.   » Continue Reading

Peppercoin has announced a strategic alliance with Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. that "extends Peppercoin's reach in the merchant community and makes its solutions available to the more than 130,000 businesses that rely on Heartland for payment processing."   » Continue Reading

NOVA Information Systems has announced that it has enhanced its Electronic Check Service (ECS) product to meet the needs of multi-lane retailers by eliminating the investment in check imaging technology at the point of sale (POS). ECS now combines the benefits of real-time check authorization and risk mitigation services with back-office image uploads, resulting in improved cash flow and reduced risk.   » Continue Reading

Marilyn Munch of the Investors Business Daily reports on the holiday mood at Alliance Data Systems.

The October 2006 edition of the First Annapolis Navigator is now available. This month's issue features article on Gas Price Volatility Ripples Through Payments Markets, Debit Centricity in Western European Acquiring, Discount Rate Structures in the Small Merchant Market, Variation in Acquirer Deployment of Web Based Services and The March of Progress for Commercial Cards in the U.K.

With the latest round of quarterly financial results, several banks have reported their merchant acquiring business volumes for the third quarter. Of particular interest is the 18% growth experienced by Chase Paymentech - handling $168.7 billion in payment volume during the quarter. Bank of America's Merchant Services unit grew by 6.2% to $97 billion in payment volume while US Bank's Nova handled $56.4 billion, up over 26% although US volume vs. international isn't broken out in Nova's numbers.

The September 2006 edition of the First Annapolis Navigator is now available. This month's issue features articles on the U. S. Debit Industry Evolution: 1991 - 2006, Credit Card Issuing: Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities in the U.S., The Evolution of the Retail Card Sector: The Long and Winding Road, Lessons from Acquiring's Past, and the Evolution of Business-to-Business Payments.

NOVA Information Systems and Discover Financial Services have announced the signing of a merchant acquiring agreement enabling NOVA to add Discover Network card acceptance to its portfolio of payment processing services. NOVA will provide consolidated pricing, underwriting, risk management, processing, settlement, support and reporting to its merchants, simplifying payments processing.   » Continue Reading

TSYS Acquiring Solutions has announced plans to integrate Discover Network card acceptance into its offering for merchant acquirers and independent sales organizations (ISOs) - offering merchants consolidated servicing, statementing and settlement.   » Continue Reading

Intuit held an Analyst Day yesterday. Of particular interest is the Small Business presentation given by Senior Vice President Brad Smith which includes some great insights into the small business market in the US along with Intuit's success with its Innovative Merchant Solutions merchant card acquiring business.

Global Payments has announced that as of September 26, 2006, Ruth Ann Marshall will join its Board of Directors. Most recently, Marshall served as President, Americas for MasterCard International responsible for all major banking and retail relationships, as well as governance, business development, global acceptance, product management, finance, planning, and human resources.   » Continue Reading

Bank of America has announced that its BA Merchant Services unit has entered into an agreement to sell its independent sales organization business of National Processing Company to Iron Triangle Payment Systems, a payments processing business financed by GTCR Golder Rauner. BofA says it's doing so "In order to pursue its aggressive growth goals and better integrate its sales efforts with existing in-house capabilities."   » Continue Reading

Heartland Payment Systems has announced it is launching a major initiative to help owners of small and mid-sized businesses manage the cost and complexity of credit and debit card acceptance. "The Merchant Bill of Rights" is proposed as an industry standard to inform and educate business owners about card processing costs and drive savings for small and mid-sized businesses.   » Continue Reading

First Data Corp. and Chase Paymentech Solutions have announced a five-year global e-commerce processing agreement in which First Data International, utilizing its OmniPay processing solution, will provide payment processing services to Chase Paymentech's portfolio of global e-Commerce merchants. The OmniPay merchant processing platform, located in Dublin, Ireland, will process transactions for Chase Paymentech's merchant portfolio, in most major currencies on a single platform in all markets where Chase Paymentech's merchants are based.   » Continue Reading

Global Payments and Discover Financial Services have signed a new merchant acquiring agreement enabling Global Payments to begin selling Discover Network card acceptance. Global Payments also will purchase that portion of Discover's merchant portfolio currently providing Visa and MasterCard processing.   » Continue Reading

The Strawhecker Group, a new Omaha-based consulting firm focused on the merchant acquiring sector of the card payments industry, has just published the first issue of Exchanges (PDF), a new newsletter for clients and friends of the firm. The inaugural issue includes an article by Cliff Gray of the importance of PCI compliance to ISO's and acquirers along with news about a new eCommerce Gateway Analysis the firm recently completed.

Digital Transactions, In an article titled 'Study Warns of Contactless, Other Rising Risks for Top Acquirers", writes about a recent TowerGroup report titled "Taking Charge: Essentials of U.S. Bank Card Acquiring" and speculates that implementation of RFID technology by major retailers might represent a risk to major US acquirers.

Chase Paymentech Solutions has announced a new data security compliance program targeted to small-to-medium sized merchants -- those who process less than 20,000 e-commerce and/or one million card present transactions of a single card brand annually.   » Continue Reading

TowerGroup has announced new research examining the US merchant acquiring business - concluding that further concentration of the large merchant acquirers in the United States is unlikely and that growth opportunities are likely to come from competition either between U.S. acquirers or with those outside the United States.   » Continue Reading

Nick Godt and Robert Schroeder report for MarketWatch on Wal-Mart's efforts to launch a Utah-chartered ILC - what Wal-Mart has repeatedly described as acting as the merchant acquiring entity for the card payments made at its stores - and the potential impact that might have on processors such as First Data Corp.

Richard May reports for the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations about a merchant's perspective when selecting a merchant card acquirer - commenting "rent-to-own dealers must be diligent in looking for hidden fees and charges that credit cards apply with every transaction. For example, if a rent-to-own customer uses a debit card instead of a credit card, it affects the dealer's interchange fee."

Barclays Bank and TRANSFIRST have announced a strategic partnership to provide U.S. merchants with processing solutions for worldwide payment transactions with TR