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Canadian Merchant Industry News

Get daily updates about the Canadian merchant industry. From news about merchant accounts and credit card processing, to security issues and point-of-sale terminals, you'll always be up-to-date.

Industry News

Visa postpones fining merchants that do not upgrade POS terminals

By Pivotal Payments

Gas stations were particularly happy about the changes to the Visa fine timeline

15/10/2009 - After some resistance from merchants, especially in the petroleum retailers sector, Visa has announced that it extended the deadline for fining non-compliance with the new Triple DES (TDES) mandates for PIN debit card processing.

This mandate requires that merchants with payment processing capabilities that include PIN debit card processing upgrade their POS terminals to comply with this new security technology.

Visa did not officially change the deadline for compliance - which still stands at July 1, 2010 - but said that acquirers and merchants would not face fines for not upgrading until August 1, 2012, calling it the "'drop dead' date for upgrading POS to TDES.

"I recommend taking a sooner, rather than later approach," said Michael Davis, vice president of member services for the National Association of Convenience Stores in the U.S. "The popularity of PIN debit with consumers looking to protect their data and get away from living on credit makes upgrading POS [terminals] a no-brainer. It's usually less than $500 per POS [terminal] to serve this consumer segment."

The Canadian debit card market will also be influenced by the recent announcement from finance minister Jim Flaherty, proposing a "voluntary code of conduct" for debit card payment processing. ADNFCR-2514-ID-19411870-ADNFCR

Canadian Bankers Association develops blueprint for mobile payments

15/05/2012

The number of smartphone owners in Canada now represents half of all wireless users, and many retailers have already installed point-of-sale terminals enabled with the technology that can accept mobile payments.

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EMV payments cards more widely circulated

11/05/2012

Merchants that have not yet invested in point-of-sale terminals capable of accepting EMV-chip cards might feel more pressure soon, since the number of cardholders is growing. Data recently released by EMVCo reported that 45 percent of all cards in the world contain EMV microprocessing chips

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Retailers want mobile POS systems, study shows

02/05/2012

The surveyed merchants believe the mobile credit card processing devices will help them provide better customer service and greater payment convenience since they won't be restricted to the front of the store.

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