 |
Oct. 19th, 2012
Edition #325
New to NewsFilter? Click here to subscribe.
PaymentsPulse.com
Follow TSG on Twitter
Follow TSG on LinkedIn
Follow TSG on Company.com
TheStrawGroup.com
In this Issue
In Other News
This Day in History 1781
Victory at Yorktown
Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force, effectively bringing an end to the American Revolution.
Lord Cornwallis was one of the most capable British generals of the American Revolution. In 1776, he drove General George Washington's Patriots forces out of New Jersey, and in 1780 he won a stunning victory over General Horatio Gates' Patriot army at Camden, South Carolina. Cornwallis' subsequent invasion of North Carolina was less successful, however, and in April 1781 he led his weary and battered troops toward the Virginia coast, where he could maintain seaborne lines of communication with the large British army of General Henry Clinton in New York City. After conducting a series of raids against towns and plantations in Virginia, Cornwallis settled in the tidewater town of Yorktown in August. The British immediately began fortifying the town and the adjacent promontory of Gloucester Point across the York River.
Click here to read more.
TSG Fun Fact
Check out TSG's blog, PaymentsPulse.com.
Advertisement
Pass it on
Know anyone who might be interested in our newsletter? Click here to forward this email to up to 5 friends at once.
|
|
|
|
|
SLF Buzz According to TSG
Kurt Strawhecker - "Discussion around Square/Groupon impact on traditional payment players, most discount Square's impact on current acquirers, though all admit Square has impacted the industry through marketing model/publicity capability."
Jamie Savant - "Active discussions surrounding M&A vertical opportunities for 2013"
Linda Perry - "The CFPB seems to BE the definition of Government Bureaucracy"
Steve Elefant - "ISIS says it is launching on Monday and the chicken/egg problem has been solved, hmmm...NOT"
Gerritt Kerkstra - "There will be 20 models of secure element handsets avaialble by year-end according to Kim Stapleton of ISIS."
Chuck Fillinger - "Significant buzz around mobile commerce and aggregation."
|
|
|
Isis Mobile Wallet Set to Launch in Austin Oct. 22
10/18/12 SiliconHills  
Ready to leave your wallet or purse at home? Soon smartphone customers in Austin and Salt Lake City, Utah will get that opportunity when the Isis Mobile Wallet launches in a test market trail on Monday, Oct. 22. It is currently available in the Google Play marketplace. The Isis Mobile Wallet puts everything that people carry around with them in their wallets on their mobile phone.
|
|
|
PayPal Fuels eBay's Fire
10/18/12 The Street
If there was any doubt about the burgeoning growth that the mobile payments business is seeing, PayPal proved the doubters wrong. EBay's(EBAY) third-quarter earnings were largely aided by explosive growth at PayPal, where revenue increased 23% year over year. Total payment volume rose 20% over the same period to reach $35.2 billion. It's abundantly clear that mobile payments are seeing explosive growth, and PayPal is at the forefront.
|
|
|
PayPal Now Aims for Consumer Awareness of Its Expanding Merchant Presence
10/17/12 Digital Transactions
With its “PayPal Offline” initiative to sign point-of-sale merchants for PayPal acceptance well under way, the payments subsidiary of eBay Inc. now is turning its attention to consumers, eBay executives told analysts on Wednesday. “PayPal intends to be everywhere consumers need an easy, safe, secure way to pay,” eBay president and chief executive John Donahoe said at the company’s third-quarter earnings call.
|
|
|
Square Ends NYC Taxi Pilot Program Early
10/17/12 PCMAG
Square, the mobile payment company from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has abruptly pulled out of a pilot program to bring its technology to New York City cabs. In an Oct. 12 letter to the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC),obtained by the New York Post, San Francisco-based Square said it was ending its trial after seven months because it needed to revamp its payment solution in light of impending regulations in New York and elsewhere on credit card payments in cabs.
|
|
|
AnywhereCommerce Granted 2 Patents for Mobile Payment Transactions Conducted Through Audio Jack
10/16/12 MarketWatch
AnywhereCommerce has been granted 2 additional patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office covering mobile payments using a dongle in conjunction with a mobile handset, PDA, tablet and all other mobile devices. Patent # 8,281,998 and Patent # 8,286,875 cover transactions using a payment apparatus in conjunction with a mobile phone, smartphone, tablet or PDA. This innovation covers and includes audio jack based payment transactions for magstripe, NFC, IC, EMV, RFID, loyalty rewards, and barcode readers.
|
|
|
Micromerchants Need Tech Support, Too, ISO Says
10/15/12 ISO & Agent
On a fall trip to a Seattle-area corn maze with his son, Sean McGinn couldn’t help but notice that manyof the merchants there were using Square to accept card payments. When McGinn bought tickets, he struck up a conversation with the person at the counter about Square and mentioned a similar product his company has in the works, FrontStream Payments Inc. “They said, ‘I love Square, but whenever I have a problem, there’s no one to talk to,’ ” says McGinn, vice president of operations for FrontStream, an independent sales organization based in Olympia, Wash.
|
|
|
Weekly Jobless Claims Drop Proves to Be Short-Lived
10/18/12 CNBC
Weekly applications for U.S. unemployment benefits jumped 46,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the highest in four months. The increase represents a rebound from the previous week's sharp drop. Both swings were largely due to technical factors. The Labor Department says the four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, fell slightly to 365,500, a level consistent with modest hiring.
|
|
|
FTC Slaps Down Retail Use Of Tracking Software
10/15/12 StorefrontBacktalk
In a case that has potentially significant consequences for NFC and RFID applications, the U.S. FTC is cracking down on so-called “phone home” technologies being used by computer rental companies to monitor consumer behavior. When contemplating the use of any technology that provides use, location or other information about a product, retailers should be careful to ensure consumers know—or are at least able to know—exactly what the product is doing.
|
|
|
MasterCard Is Selling Your Data Just in Time for the Holidays
10/17/12 Wired
Credit card companies make money by taking a cut every time you swipe your plastic at the checkout counter. Now MasterCard has found a way to make those swipes pay over and over again. As the Financial Times first reported, MasterCard is packaging its transaction data — your transaction data — and selling it to advertisers. The story was based on an apparently confidential pitch MasterCard made to potential clients. Not too confidential, we found a copy by googling it.
|
|
|
PNC Bank And Visa's V.me Team Up To Simplify Online Purchases
10/15/12 The Sacramento Bee
PNC Bank, N.A. and Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) today announced the availability of V.me by Visa to more than 1.2 million PNC Virtual Wallet® customer accounts, with a commitment to make V.me available to more than 6.3 million accounts in 2013. PNC is the first U.S. bank to integrate with Visa's new digital wallet service. In addition to PNC Visa cards, consumers are also able to enroll their other U.S. issued payment cards through the V.me site and make online purchases at participating merchants.
|
|
|
TSYS Releases 2012 Research Results On Consumer Payment Preferences
10/17/12 TSYS
TSYS® announced it has made available to the industry the results of its second annual nationwide primary consumer research study, which can be accessed at www.tsys.com/debit. TSYS will also offer a complimentary webinar to discuss the results on Tuesday, November 13, at 2:00 p.m. ET. Interested participants may register for the webinar at the same website address.
|
|
|
First Data Continues to Advance Universal Commerce in Q3
10/18/12 First Data
First Data Corporation, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing, shared highlights from its Q3 2012 U.S. Product Release. In a continuing effort to power a new era of Universal Commerce, First Data has made its solutions even easier to use through updates to the First Data point-of-sale (POS) terminal line and enhancements to integrated applications.
|
|
|
Braintree Raises $35 Million Funding Round Led By New Enterprise Associates
10/17/12 Braintree
Braintree, the fastest growing payments platform for online and mobile commerce, announced it has raised a $35 million Series B round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates with participation from existing investors including Accel Partners. With this round of funding the company has now raised a total of $70 million to help fund its mission to become the payment platform of choice for developers working on the next wave of e-commerce and m-commerce applications.
|
|
|
BB&T Confirms It's the Latest Victim of Cyberattacks on U.S. Banks
10/18/12 BTN
A wave of cyberattacks on some of the nation's largest banks shows little sign of letting up. BB&T (BBT), confirmed Thursday that customers who visited the bank's website Wednesday were unable to log on or experienced delays. Capital One (COF), which was one of three banks targeted by hacktivists last week, also saw its websites disrupted again Tuesday. Both banks said the attacks came as a result of attackers' flooding the lines to prevent customers from retrieving their accounts.
|
|
|
Harbortouch Named Gold Winner at 2012 Golden Bridge Business Awards
10/17/12 HarborTouch
Point-of-sale system provider Harbortouch announced it has been named a Gold Winner by the 2012 Golden Bridge Business Awards for its full-featured POS systems for restaurants and retailers. The Golden Bridge Awards single out the world’s most exemplary companies for organizational performance, innovations, products and services, and leadership teams, and encompasses companies of all sizes from every major industry.
|
|
|
Visa Estimates $109.1 Trillion in Global Commercial Spend in 2011
10/17/12 Visa
Visa Inc. released the annual global Commercial Consumption Expenditure (CCE) index, which estimates that global commercial spending reached $109.1 trillion in 2011. This represents 12 percent growth from the $97.4 trillion spent in 2010 and marks the first time since Visa created the CCE in 2004 that this spending surpassed $100 trillion.
|
|
|
Taylor Zelman named W.net Executive Director
10/18/12 The Green Sheet
Women’s Network in Electronic Transactions (W.net), the leading organization for the development of women leaders in the electronic transactions industry, is pleased to announce Shawn Taylor Zelman as its new executive director. Zelman joined W.net’s management company, Coulter, in 2004 as a consultant and worked closely with Coulter’s non-profit association clients on their organizational needs including overall communications strategy, media relations, and public relations.
|
|
|
Inside PCI's Mobile Payments Guidance
10/17/12 Bank Info Security
The PCI Security Standards Council's PCI Mobile Payment Acceptance Security Guidelines target software developers and mobile device manufacturers with guidance on how to design appropriate security controls that can thwart growing threats such as malware and rootkits. The council focused on two key objectives: securing the payments transaction itself and best practices for securing the supporting environment around it, says Troy Leach, the Council's CTO.
|
|
|
Retail Spending Showed Broad September Gains
10/15/12 The New York Times
Americans spent more money at retailers in September — a surge that reflected growing consumer confidence and Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 5. Retail sales jumped 1.1 percent last month, producing the best two months of sales in two years, the Commerce Department reported Monday. “The consumer is back,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors. “They are not spending money like it is going out of style, but they are spending at a more normal pace.”
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
