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Transaction Trends Online
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  • Navigating a New Economic Landscape
  • Building a Compliance Safety Net
  • Pro & Con: Alternative Payments
  • And much more...

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Featured Stories

Versa Pay Acquires Wireless Provider
VersaPay Corporation today announced today that it has acquired control of Positive Inc. (“Positive”), a leading provider of wireless point of sale terminals and merchant services in Canada.

Following the closing of the transaction, Positive will operate as a separate subsidiary of VersaPay Corporation.

Read more...
Alliance Deal May Be Off
The already-delayed $7.8 billion buyout of Alliance Data Systems Corp. by The Blackstone Group may not be take place as planned, according to a January 28 announcement that indicated the deal may be the latest victim of the turmoil in the credit markets.

An Alliance Data press release said Alliance was told on January 25 that Blackstone does not anticipate satisfying a condition laid down by banking regulators requiring a change in control of an Alliance-owned bank. Alliance Data owns World Financial Network National Bank. The company also owns a Utah-chartered industrial bank, World Financial Capital Bank, which is regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Collectively the two banks issue more than 100 million private-label credit cards for about 85 retailers.

According to the release, Blackstone says the OCC is  has demanded "extraordinary measures” on the part of  Alliance and various Blackstone entities, changes Blackstone isn't willing to make. The company said it believes that further talks with OCC are futile, but doesn't list the issues in dispute.

Alliance says it “strongly disagrees” with Blackstone’s position that the OCC’s proposal to Blackstone’s lawyers are the agency’s “final position” about the required approvals. The company also took issue with Blackstone’s dire characterization of the OCC’s conditions.

By invoking federal regulators to halt the deal, Blackstone may be disguising the underlying cause of its new aversion to buying Alliance, which may stem from the fact that  financing is getting more difficult to obtain. Blaming regulators may also help Blackstone escape payment of a $170 million termination fee if the deal falls through.


Rental Program Boosts Spread of Card-Friendly Vending Machines
Shipments of USA Technologies' e-Port G6 readers, which process magnetic-stripe and contactless card transactions, have significantly increased as a result of the company's Quick Start program, which allows the devices to be rented rather than purchased by vending-machine owners.

"USA Technologies designed Quick Start in response to customer demand for more convenient and flexible financing alternatives, and we have been overwhelmed by how quickly the vending industry has responded," said USA Technologies' Mike Lawlor in a press release. "The rapid response from vending operators is confirmation that the vending industry increasingly wants to offer its customers the option of a credit and debit card payment alternative."

Earlier last year USA Technologies entered into a fourth agreement with MasterCard to subsidize e-Port costs in order to construct acceptance sites for its PayPass contactless card.


Consumers May Limit NFC Transactions
Consumers may use their cell phones or other mobile devices for in-store payments, but most want to limit wireless payments to a single payment card, according to new findings from technology research firm ABI Research.

The preference for just one mobile-payment-enabled card stood out in results from the mid-November survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers, according to principal analyst Jonathan Collins. Such cards would be capable of handling transactions from devices empowered with near-field communication (NFC) technology. NFC enables handsets and payment terminals to exchange data with each other at short distances.

Consumers said they also were concerned about fees. In mobile payments, these could come from financial institutions as well as telecommunications providers in the form of a charge for data traffic, similar to the way text messaging is priced.

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