Sept. 21th, 2012

Edition #322

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In this Issue

	Groupon Rolls Out its Own Square Competitor
	Groupon's New Mobile-Pay App Is Only the Beginning
	August Unemployment Rates Increased in 26 States
	Small Start-Up ISO Reshaping The Industry?
	Nine Retail Trade Groups Take Their Credit Card Settlement Beefs to Congress
	Apple Who? NFC Payment Tech Appears in More Mobile Devices
	Square Closes $200M Funding Round
	Square’s Rabois: Retailers Will Opt for iPads Over Registers Within 18 Months
	'Better Than Cash Alliance' to Push e-Payments in Fight Against Poverty
	Breach Exposes POS Vulnerabilities
	Online Holiday Shopping Will Increase 17% This Year
	W.net 2012 Career & Leadership Summit Draws Record- Breaking Attendance
	Element Payment Services Moves to New Headquarters
	Giving Apple's Passbook a Real-World Spin
	PCI Memo To Mobile Payment App Developers: It’s Up To You
	Directory of U.S. Merchant Acquirers – Contribute & Stand Out with Complimentary Listing

In Other News

This Day in History 1780

Benedict Arnold commits treason

On this day in 1780, during the American Revolution, American General Benedict Arnold meets with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British, in return for the promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. The plot was foiled and Arnold, a former American hero, became synonymous with the word "traitor."

Arnold was born into a well-respected family in Norwich, Connecticut, on January 14, 1741. He apprenticed with an apothecary and was a member of the militia during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). He later became a successful trader and joined the Continental Army when the Revolutionary War broke out between Great Britain and its 13 American colonies in 1775. When the war ended in 1883, the colonies had won their independence from Britain and formed a new nation, the United States. Click here to read more.

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Groupon Rolls Out its Own Square Competitor 9/19/12 Reuters    Groupon Inc, the world's largest online daily deals provider, launched a payment business on Wednesday and entered a crowded field where it will compete aggressively on price with eBay Inc's PayPal and start-up Square Inc. The service, called Groupon Payments, lets U.S. restaurants, salons and spas, retailers and other businesses that run Groupon daily deals accept credit card payments at a lower rate than other providers. In a typical local deal, a customer could pay $20 for a voucher worth $40 of goods and services. Groupon will charge 1.8 percent for MasterCard, Visa and Discover cards, on top of a 15 cent per-swipe fee. For American Express cards, it charges 3 percent plus the 15 cent fee. Click here to see the Groupon Payments site. Groupon's New Mobile-Pay App Is Only the Beginning 9/19/12 BTN    Groupon is the latest company to provide merchants with a card reader that clips to smartphones. But the daily-deals company is not simply selling a me-too device — it is planting the seeds of a bigger payments strategy. "We consider ourselves a payments company," says Gene Alston, Groupon'sVP and GM of payments. "Our first solution integrates with merchants' Groupon mobile app, but like any other payment service we intend to open it up to more options for acceptance, especially for these high-volume merchants that may have different requirements." August Unemployment Rates Increased in 26 States 9/21/12 USA Today    Unemployment rates in August rose in 26 states from July, but most states showed lower rates than a year ago, the federal government reported Friday. Nevada continued to lead the country with the highest unemployment rate, 12.1% in August. North Dakota had the lowest at 3%. Twelve states and the District of Columbia posted rate decreases last month vs. July. Jobless rates were unchanged in 12 states. Regionally, unemployment was highest in the West and lowest in the Midwest. Small Start-Up ISO Reshaping The Industry? 9/20/12 ISO & Agent    ShopKeep POS, may help change the payments landscape. About 3,000 merchants use its cloud-based point-of-sale system that’s supported by Apple iPads and MagTek mobile card readers. The New York-based ISO is capturing the attention of companies big and small. Earlier this month, it worked with PayPal Inc. to test that company’s mobile-payment system at a movie festival, and recently it announced plans to integrate with two other mobile-payment systems, Dwolla and LevelUp. Nine Retail Trade Groups Take Their Credit Card Settlement Beefs to Congress 9/20/12 Digital Transactions    Numerous merchants and merchant groups have publicly declared their opposition to a controversial proposed settlement to the big credit card interchange litigation. In hopes of turning the settlement into a political issue, nine trade associations on Thursday took their beefs about it to Congress. Jason Oxman, the new chief executive of the ETA, says his members work hand-in-hand with the members of the retailer groups to provide card-acceptance services. But on this issue, he says, acquirers diverge from what the merchant groups seem to want. Apple Who? NFC Payment Tech Appears in More Mobile Devices 9/19/12 American Banker    It may be an ironic twist or wise marketing timing, but the number of Near Field Communication announcements in the payments industry seemingly increased quickly last week after it was revealed that Apple Inc.'s iPhone 5 would not have an NFC chip. More importantly, at least one of those announcements illustrates a potential trend: That the flexibility of NFC chips allows consumers access to payment capabilities on devices other than smartphones. Square Closes $200M Funding Round 9/17/12 Square    One year ago, Square had approximately 150 employees and processed over $1 billion in payments on an annualized basis. Today, Square has over 400 employees and is processing over $8 billion in payments on an annualized basis. Square’s growing revenue and workforce precedes the company’s plans for international expansion later this year. Square’s Rabois: Retailers Will Opt for iPads Over Registers Within 18 Months 9/17/12 All Things D    Square’s COO Keith Rabois is predicting that nearly all retailers will be running their business off an iPad or comparable device in the near future. When pressed for a time frame in a recent interview, Rabois claimed that the transition could take place in as little as 18 months. This would be a very fast pace, given that so many merchants have already invested thousands of dollars in their point-of-sale machines — not to mention other hurdles, such as getting employees up to speed on new systems. Still, Rabois, whose business relies on this happening, is insistent. 'Better Than Cash Alliance' to Push e-Payments in Fight Against Poverty 9/19/12 The Sacramento Bee    The U.N. Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID), The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi, Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network, and Visa Inc. announced the launch of the Better Than Cash Alliance. The new initiative will call on governments, the development community and the private sector to adopt the use of electronic payments for programs that support people living in poverty,and provide resources to those who commit to the transition. Breach Exposes POS Vulnerabilities 9/19/12 Bank Info Security    Two Romanian hackers pleaded guilty to roles they played in the point-of-sale attacks that hit 100 Subway sandwich shops and other U.S. retailers. And details revealed in court expose common POS security vulnerabilities that remain a concern for smaller merchants and their banking institutions. The breach, including Subway, compromised more than 146,000 cards and has been linked to more than $10 million in fraud losses. Online Holiday Shopping Will Increase 17% This Year 9/17/12 Internet Retailer    Online shoppers in the United States will spend $54.47 billion this holiday season, up 16.8% from $46.63 billion last year, according to a new projection from eMarketer. The market research defines the holiday season as November and December; the e-commerce estimates do not include travel purchases. This holiday season will mark the fourth consecutive year of e-commerce spending growth. W.net 2012 Career & Leadership Summit Draws Record- Breaking Attendance 9/20/12 W.net    The Women’s Network in Electronic Transactions’ (W.net) 2012 Career & Leadership Summit had record-breaking attendance. The Career & Leadership Summit is the premiere business conference dedicated solely to women professionals in the electronic payments industry. The conference provides education on key issues with insights and presentations from some of the industry's most influential executives. Element Payment Services Moves to New Headquarters 9/19/12 The Green Sheet    Due to phenomenal growth, Element Payment Services, the industry-leading provider of fully integrated PCI DSS compliant payment processing solutions, is thrilled to announce its move to a new corporate headquarters. Twenty one percent employee growth over the last year has created the need for Element to upgrade to a new, high-tech facility. Giving Apple's Passbook a Real-World Spin 9/19/12 CNET    Does Passbook, Apple's new digital wallet, live up to its lofty expectations? With the first batch of companies just rolling out integration with the feature, we're getting the first taste of just how well it works in the wild. Tonight that's a baseball game here at AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants face off against the Colorado Rockies, a game we got into using Apple's newly released wallet technology. PCI Memo To Mobile Payment App Developers: It’s Up To You 9/19/12 StorefrontBacktalk    One of the highlights of last week’s PCI Community Meeting was the long-awaited release of the PCI Security Standards Council’s guidance on mobile-payment application developers. The document lays out a set of requirements that together form a roadmap for mobile-payment application developers and would-be developers. Currently, retailers have a choice. They can use their smartphones and tablets, sticking on a dongle that reads a payment card’s magnetic stripe. Directory of U.S. Merchant Acquirers – Contribute & Stand Out with Complimentary Listing TSG Metrics is in the process of updating and expanding one of our most prevalent reports among payments industry professionals – the Directory of U.S. Merchant Acquirers. Learn More. Click here for survey. Incentives to Participate: Participants will receive a one-page synopsis comparing their data against all other participants, along with an overall ranking High-growth ISOs will receive recognition in the form of a ‘TSG Emerging ISO of 2012’ emblem for placement on the participants’ website and other marketing materials. A significant discount, gaining access to the report for $950 (normally $2,900) One participant, selected randomly, will receive a complimentary copy of TSG’s Directory.