Transparent Financial Services (TransFS) has announced the launch of its TransFS Card Terminal, "an iPhone app that provides businesses with credit card acceptance capabilities in virtually any location. TransFS Card Terminal™ is the first iPhone app of its kind to be free of cost and provide complete freedom of choice in credit card processor selection." TransFS has also made the source code of the application available as open source software. READ MORE »

TD Merchant Services has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain MasterCard merchant acquiring accounts from First Data in Canada. Concurrently, First Data will acquire a small number of VISA accounts from TD. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in December. The transaction is not expected to be material to TDBFG’s financial results.

The acquired accounts will become part of TD Merchant Services, which already provides Visa and Interac payment processing services and Point of Sale terminal solutions to all of these customers today. “Acquisition of these MasterCard merchant accounts will ensure our clients have a single source for their payment processing needs,” says Jeff van Duynhoven, President, TD Merchant Services. READ MORE »

As part of its agreement with the UK government announced today, the Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to participation in a revised Asset Protection Scheme that, among many other conditions, requires RBS to divest itself of several businesses over the next four years including its Global Merchant Services unit. According to RBS, its Global Merchant Services unit "is the fourth largest provider of global card payment services, enabling over 5 billion card transactions to be made each year. It meets the rapidly changing and increasingly sophisticated needs of clients to accept card payments on a global, efficient and secure basis."

First Data has announced a relationship with Yahoo! Inc. to provide merchants with "easy-to-implement eCommerce solutions for small and mid-size merchants eager to extend their businesses to the Internet. First Data will provide merchants with point-of-sale terminals and payment processing services to complement Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and Web Hosting subscription-based products, which allow small businesses to set up their online stores and catalog web sites with simple design tools and tracking features." READ MORE »

In an article titled "TransFS Launches Comparison Site for Credit Card Processing Fees", TechCrunch profiles TransFS - one of a new breed of websites designed to help businesses comparison shop among various merchant acquirers and ISOs for the best deal that matches their needs. TransFS collects information from the merchant and then gathers bids from providers to present back. The TransFS blog provides a steady stream of helpful, merchant-related articles as well.

Another new entrant into this space is Payments-R-Us (www.paymentsrus.com) that focuses on online merchant payment solutions. Unlike the auction process managed by TransFS, Payments-R-Us offers a free "suggester" based upon the merchant answering some basic questions about their business. Payments-R-Us also has a collection of reference materials helpful to online ecommerce merchants.

Elavon and Santander have announced the launch of a new alliance for merchant services in the UK. This alliance combines Elavon, a wholly owned subsidiary of US Bancorp, and Santander, one of the strongest and best capitalized banks in the world. "Jointly, Elavon and Santander’s strategy is to become one of the leading players in the UK acquiring market. The new alliance will enable Santander to leverage Elavon’s end-to-end control of the processing relationship; from risk and underwriting, to processing, funding and all customer support functions, whilst Elavon will dramatically increase their presence in the UK market by partnering with one of the most respected and fastest growing institutions in the UK." READ MORE »

Elavon, a wholly owned subsidiary of US Bancorp, has signed a three-year agreement with FNC Inc., a technology company offering tailored solutions for the real-estate and mortgage industry to streamline industry processes, regulations and compliance. According to Elevavon, "the agreement provides credit and debit processing services via a new dashboard functionality offered by FNC in support of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) – a regulatory requirement impacting the mortgage industry’s appraiser selection process." READ MORE »

VeriFone Holdings has announced that RBS WorldPay has agreed to work jointly towards marketing VeriFone's VeriShield Protect end-to-end solution for encrypting payment card data. According to VeriFone, "RBS WorldPay is the first merchant acquirer to endorse a commercial end-to-end encryption solution. By encrypting the card number on swipe, right at the point of sale, RBS WorldPay merchants who choose the VeriShield Protect solution will be able to dramatically reduce both their own risk and that of their customers as well." READ MORE »

Heartland Payment Systems has announced that yesterday it successfully completed the first phase of its end-to-end encryption pilot project. According to the company, "this first step involved the transmission of live AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)-encrypted card transactions from a merchant to Heartland’s processing platform. AES is the highest level of encryption and is currently on track to replace DES (Data Encryption Standard) and Triple DES as the desired standard for sensitive data."

Earlier this month Heartland announced it was working with Voltage Security to develop its end-to-end encryption approach. READ MORE »

Bank of America and First Data have announced "the formation of a new company that will deliver next-generation payments solutions to merchants ranging from small business to commercial and corporate clients worldwide."

According to the two companies, Banc of America Merchant Services, LLC will provide clients "with the most comprehensive suite of innovative payments solutions including credit, debit and prepaid cards to merchant loyalty, check and eCommerce payments." READ MORE »

Heartland Payment Systems has selected Voltage Security as a partner to develop end-to-end encryption (E3) software specifically suited to payments processing.

“Heartland is developing a complete end-to-end encryption solution designed to protect cardholder data at all stages of a transaction – from card swipe through delivery to the card brands,” said Bob Carr, Heartland’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Together with Voltage, we are developing a comprehensive solution that currently does not exist.” READ MORE »

Merchant e-Solutions has announced the addition of Visa and MasterCard automatic account updating services for e-commerce and card-not-present merchants that specialize in recurring billing. According to the company, "pproximately half of all card accounts change annually in an issuing bank's portfolio, which can lead to denial of transactions billed to outdated cards." READ MORE »

Global Payments has announced that it has acquired the remaining 49% interest in its merchant services joint venture in the United Kingdom from HSBC Bank plc ("HSBC"). "In June 2008, Global Payments and HSBC formed a joint venture, HSBC Merchant Services, to provide payment processing services to merchants in the United Kingdom and Internet merchants globally. Under the terms of today's agreement, Global Payments will pay HSBC a total of USD$307.7 million in cash to acquire the remaining 49% ownership interest in this joint venture. In addition, HSBC will extend the current ten-year exclusive marketing alliance agreement whereby the bank provides merchant referrals and bank sponsorship to Global Payments to June 2019." READ MORE »

Intuit has announced that Intuit GoPayment, a new way for business owners to process credit cards on their mobile phones, is the first small business application available for the new Palm Pre phone. According to the company, "GoPayment helps improve cash flow by giving small businesses an affordable and hassle-free way to process credit card payments outside the office as soon as the job is done." READ MORE »

Elavon has announced enhancements to its international processing platform that expands multi-currency, cross-border and Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) capabilities for merchants. Elavon’s network now has the ability to authorize in 89 currencies, settle in 16, and convert up to 48 currencies for DCC. In addition, Elavon has launched DCC in Germany, where the processor can currently convert 27 currencies, giving its merchants the ability to generate a new revenue stream by sharing in the conversion fees. READ MORE »

Earlier this year, Intuit "soft launched" its new GoPayment mobile card acceptance solution for merchants. Yesterday, Intuit officially announced the new service - "GoPayment helps small businesses improve sales and cash flow by using their mobile phones to accept credit card payments. GoPayment is affordable and hassle-free. All that’s needed is a mobile phone with access to the mobile Web, or the easy-to-download GoPayment application, and an Intuit GoPayment merchant account." READ MORE »

In a story titled "Cash Vanishes from Merchants' Accounts", Amy Barrett and Jeremy Quittner write for BusinessWeek about how some merchant acquirers are imposing new reserve requirements on some of their card accepting small business merchants.

Most processing agreements give the transaction giants the right to accumulate those reserves simply by holding back money the merchant is supposed to be paid after a credit-card transaction has cleared, often with little or no warning.

Noting that US consumers spend $1 Trillion annually on recurring transactions and installment billing, Litle & Co. says it believes that in order to remain competitive, merchants -- particularly online, membership and subscription services businesses -- must embrace and support these transaction types as part of their overall offering. The company has developed a list of "Recurring Transactions Best Practices" to hel merchants take advantage of recurring transactions to convert traffic into long-term customer relationships and to maximize revenue opportunities. READ MORE »

First Data has announced that it has entered into a relationship with Visa in Canada, becoming the first merchant acquirer in the country to directly participate in all three major schemes: Visa, MasterCard and Interac. READ MORE »

CreditCards.com has announced the launch of its latest site, MerchantAccountGuide.com, saying it offers "a unique and vital service to the small business community in the United States. The website allows small business owners to compare merchant processing services, which facilitate the acceptance of credit cards for customer payments." READ MORE »

Chase Paymentech and Revolution Money, operator of the RevolutionCard payment network, have announced that Chase Paymentech's processing platforms now enable the acceptance of RevolutionCard transactions for online and retail merchants. Revolution Money says it "currently operates the largest PIN-based acceptance network for credit card purchase transactions in the U.S." READ MORE »

Fifth Third Bancorp and Advent International have announced entering into a definitive agreement whereby Advent International will acquire a 51% interest in Fifth Third's processing business through the establishment of a joint venture that values the new company at approximately $2.35 billion before valuation adjustments by either party. Fifth Third will retain the remaining 49 percent interest in the new company, Fifth Third Processing Solutions, LLC. READ MORE »

In an article by Peter Lattman and Dan Fitzpatrick, the Wall St. Journal reports that "Fifth Third Bancorp is expected to announce Monday that it has agreed to sell a majority interest in its payment-processing unit to private-equity firm Advent International Corp." According to the article, Advent will pay Fifth Third $561 million in cash for 51% of the business. Apparently both Visa and MasterCard dropped out of the bidding for the Fifth Third unit.

In its 2008 earnings release this morning, First Data Corp. announced that on Dec. 31, 2008 First Data and Wells Fargo extended their merchant alliance joint venture, Wells Fargo Merchant Services, for five years. In connection with the transaction Wells Fargo increased its ownership in WFMS by paying First Data a cash consideration resulting in First Data and Wells Fargo owning 40% and 60% of WFMS, respectively, as of Dec. 31, 2008.

First Data held a webcast this morning - an accompanying presentation is available online.

Diners Club International, a business unit of Discover Financial Services, in conjunction with Discover, and SIX Multipay, a leading Swiss-based payment services provider, have announced that they have signed a long-term merchant acquiring agreement. This is the first multi-country, acquirer agreement to further European acceptance of Diners Club and Discover Network cards. READ MORE »

TSYS Acquiring Solutions has announced the availability of two new all-in-one point-of-sale (POS) solutions to help small- and mid-sized retailers integrate store operations with the point of purchase. Offered as a complete business-in-a-box, each solution includes hardware components and Microsoft software to help retailers manage every aspect of their business. READ MORE »

Intuit has introduced Intuit GoPayment - saying it "enables business owners to accept credit and signature debit card payments using their mobile phone and a QuickBooks Merchant Services Account." The new service supports an optional Bluetooth mag stripe reader or reader/receipt printer along with Quickbooks integration of the payments processed.

Web.com has announced an agreement with Chase Paymentech to offer merchant payment processing solutions to small and medium-sized businesses Web.com customers will have access to multiple secure payment processing services including all major credit, debit and customizable gift cards. READ MORE »

Are you a member of our LinkedIn Merchant Acquirers group? If you're a payments professional in the merchant acquiring side of the payments business, please consider joining.

Last week, we asked the following question of the Merchant Acquirers group:

Which Merchant Bankcard Acquirer is the World's Largest (by revenue)? In other words, which bankcard acquirer in the world is the world's largest as measured by annual revenue?

Who do you think? Join the Merchant Acquirers group and share your thoughts!

First Data and American Express have announced a new merchant services agreement in Poland where First Data will become the exclusive merchant acquirer and merchant processor for American Express Card transactions in Poland. READ MORE »