VeriFone Systems Inc. this week announced the launch of its first handheld EMV-capable payment terminal, the VX 690, which features Bluetooth, 3G radio and Wi-Fi connectivity.
The terminal maker also announced that some 100 independent sales organizations and acquirers are now offering its GlobalBay Merchant software platform.
“The rapid expansion in the number of partners offering GlobalBay Merchant is due to increasing competition from merchant-direct mPOS solutions, which do not come with the expertise and support demanded by merchants,” Shan Ethridge, VeriFone vice president and general manager, North America Financial Services Group, said in a company announcement.
Ethridge’s comments may have been directed at newcomers such as Square, which do not use ISOs to sell its card-acceptance products. But even some traditional merchant processors, such as Global Payments, have started pursuing direct-to-merchant strategies instead of relying mostly on ISOs as distributors and merchant-relations managers.
Earlier this week, point-of-sale tablet maker Leaf launched the Payment Apps marketplace, through which merchant acquirers and ISOs can market their payment-processing services directly to merchants.
“What’s Hot” is aggregated content. PYMNTS.com claims no responsibility for the accuracy of the content published by the original source.