Category Archives: industry news

credit card processing and merchant payment industry news including VISA & MasterCard association news, interchange rates, risk management and retailer security requirements

Vantiv US EMV certified terminal solutions

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Which US EMV certified terminals can be used with Vantiv today? Merchants have two choices, countertop terminal or multilane terminal. The latter is available only with CenPOS, a merchant centric end to end payment engine. On October 1, 2015, retail merchants that don’t support chip cards will be liable for counterfeit credit card fraud.

Vantiv announced a partnership with Ingenico in 2013, to distribute Ingenico EMV ready terminals. While Vantiv did not specifically state which terminals would be certified, the official PR from Ingenico includes, “The portfolio of Ingenico EMV certified devices includes iCT220 & iCT250 countertop terminals, and iWL220 wireless terminal.”

ict250 ingenico emv terminal

iCT250 ingenico emv terminal

To enable EMV at the merchant level, the following steps are needed:

  • Acquirer completes requirements to process EMV
  • Hardware (each terminal) certified to accept EMV
  • Hardware certified to acquirer
  • Gateway certifies hardware to acquirer (if applicable; required for all multi-lane terminals and integrated solutions)
  • Merchant account enabled for EMV

In May 2015, Vantiv announced, “Ingenico Group Adds Vantiv’s EMV-certified Application to Smart Terminals for Small- and Medium-sized Businesses“. Because every terminal is to individually certified, it’s unclear which terminals have been certified to date since they’re not specified, but the iCT250 is definitely on the list.

With CenPOS, Vantiv merchants can also use the Verifone MX 915, a multilane, signature capture terminal, and enable EMV immediately. To process transactions, merchants use a virtual terminal with a web browser and high speed internet, or optional integrated solution. Additional multi-lane terminal options will be available in the future, including the Ingenico ISC250.

verifone MX915 EMV terminal

Verifone MX915 multilane signature capture terminal

CenPOS is a merchant-centric, end-to-end payments engine that drives enterprise-class solutions for businesses, saving them time and money, while improving their customer engagement. CenPOS’ secure, cloud-based solution optimizes acceptance for all payment types across multiple channels without disrupting the merchant’s banking relationships. CenPOS is available globally. For additional information, contact Christine Speedy, 954-942-0483.

Payware PC End of Life and Replacement Options

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Like PCCharge® Software end of life, Verifone also announced the official End Of Life for PAYware PC in May 2015. Company’s that have PC based payment solutions are quickly shutting them down in order to move to cloud based payment gateways, supporting a wider array of newer technology and compliance needs, including EMV.

What does Payware PC end of life mean?

Product development has ended. Verifone has a timeline to stop selling and stop supporting Payware PC. The product owner does not have to immediately change, but should review the timeline and consequences for future business decisions.

PAYware PC Key Dates:

  • Final Order Date: After May 22, 2015, Verifone will no longer take orders for new PAYware PC licenses for new customers. Existing customers may elect to purchase new MID/TIDs or add on services to existing licenses through September 24, 2015.
  • Final Shipment Date: After May 29, 2015, Verifone will no longer ship orders for new PAYware PC licenses. Verifone will ship to existing customers electing to purchase new MID/TIDs or add on services to existing licenses (as set forth above) no later than October 1, 2015.
  • End of Development Date: Effective immediately, there will be no new Verifone sponsored software development with respect to PAYware PC.
  • End of Support Date: Effective October 1, 2015, subject to the following paragraph, Verifone will no longer provide support for PAYware PC. Until October 1, 2015, support will be limited to phone troubleshooting and suggested changes to configurations or third party components in PAYware PC; support will not extend to product code changes.

“This is an ideal time to examine long term omnichannel payment needs to avoid transitioning to other outdated technology,” according to Christine Speedy, a cloud payments expert. “At their core, all payment gateways enable merchants to process web based transactions securely with cloud solutions. Beyond that, there are many differences, and even bleeding edge solutions could lead to further disruption, if the new technology disappears when ideas don’t catch on or venture capital dries up.”

TIPS FOR NEW PAYMENT GATEWAY VENDOR SELECTION:

Is 3-D Secure (Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure) for card not present transactions supported?
Does it have any EMV certifications? If not, what is the roap map time frame? (note- EMV certified is not the same as EMV ready or EMV capable)
Is the gateway processor neutral to provide maximum financial flexibility? (Critical for integrations.)
If business to business, for which sales channels does the gateway support level III processing? (mobile, retail, EBPP, kiosk, online payments, ecommerce, other) Can the user bypass submitting level III data on eligible transactions?
Is ACH supported? (If no, this is a red flag as lagging in innovation.)
What type of audit trail is available for PCI 3.0? How long is the data accessible?

CenPOS differentiator examples:

  • Level III processing all sales channels, even retail
  • Least cost routing and interchange management reduces merchant fees
  • US EMV certified signature capture terminals today, including Verifone MX915; works with your processor and a secure web page, or mobile app or integrated solution
  • Available in over 100 countries

Do you need a new payment gateway for your application? Or to replace your Payware PC account? CenPOS is a flexible omnichannel gateway with EMV, 3-D Secure, tokenization, and Level III processing. CenPOS solutions, including virtual terminal, mobile, and electronic bill presentment and payment, can significantly impact EBITDA, PCI Compliance, and efficiencies. Contact Christine Speedy at 954-942-0483 for integrations and new accounts.

Merchants permitted to steer customers from American Express

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The result of a federal antitrust case could change the way merchants treat acceptance of American Express. In short, merchants complained of substantially higher fees to accept American Express, but were not allowed to steer customers to lower cost card brands. A judgement was entered April 30, 2015 in favor of the plaintiff. An open ended stay of the permanent injunction pending appeal was denied.  However, the court allowed for a 30 day temporary stay of the permanent injunction on May 19, which just expired.

Excerpt from the American Express Anti-trust judgement

As reflected in § III.A of the Permanent Injunction, the court has determined that in order to implement an effective remedy in this case—in other words, “to allow Merchants to attempt to influence the General Purpose Cards that a Customer uses by providing choices and information in a competitive market”—merchants must be allowed to steer toward particular brands of debit cards, in addition to steering between brands of credit cards. (Permanent Injunction § III.A.)
The Permanent Injunction does not, however, expressly protect steering to other forms of payment, such as cash and check, although other sources of law provide such protection in certain circumstances…

Finally, the court expressly does not include brands of debit cards within the scope of
§ III.A.7 of the Permanent Injunction. Thus, while a merchant has the right under the Permanent Injunction to communicate to customers the cost of accepting American Express, or the relative costs of accepting different brands of credit cards (and the merchant may do so on an average, rather than transaction-specific, basis), American Express can prohibit merchants from including costs associated with acceptance of debit cards in this calculation, since blending the costs of accepting credit cards and debit cards would likely overstate the difference between the merchant’s overall cost of accepting American Express and its cost of accepting other brands, such as Visa and MasterCard, that have both credit and debit cards.

Keys for merchants who want to adopt steering

  • Merchants can offer discounts or rebates to customers
  • Merchants can display signs stating ‘preferred’ card brand
  • Merchants cannot blend debit and credit rates to communicate cost of acceptance differences
  • Other laws are applicable, including the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. “Retailers can encourage their customers to use other forms of payment, such as cash and checks, and can discount for PIN debit, cash and checks.”

Merchant Card Brand Steering Challenges

Under the Durbin amendment, customer receipts must include a subtotal, discount amount, and final total. Merchants need a software or cloud based solution that can make the calculations and output the correct receipt.

If offering discounts for steering, removing decision making and calculations from cashiers is critical for both compliance and cash management.

CenPOS Steering Solutions

CenPOS is a merchant centric, cloud based payment engine with fully compliant steering technology, including the ability to identify which cards qualify for discounts, and automatically calculating the discount.

  • Analyze transaction data by user/department, day of week, and hour of day, to determine if and when steering is cost effective.
  • Offer steering discounts only when and where it’s financially beneficial instead of 24/7 in all locations.

 

REFERENCES

United States of America, State of Arizona,    State of Connecticut,    State of Idaho,    State of Illinois,    State of Iowa,    State of Maryland,    State of Michigan,    State of Missouri, State of Montana,    State of Nebraska,    State of New Hampshire,    State of Ohio, State of Rhode Island,    State of Tennessee,    State of Texas,    State of Utah, and    State of Vermont
v.
American Express Company, American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., MasterCard International Inc., and Visa Inc.
http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/americanexpress.html

* http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f313600/313609.pdf

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amex-to-stop-merchant-curbs-2015-06-18-231034750

http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2015/02/19/antitrust-lawsuit-loss-puts-amex-among-the-dows-worst-performers/