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This week, Worldpay, a global payments technology company based in London, announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Austin-based SecureNet, a market leader in multi-channel commerce technology. The acquisition price was undisclosed. The transaction is expected to close in December 2014, pending regulatory approval. SecureNet serves more than 17,000 merchants, with processing volumes exceeding $19 billion annually and is principally owned by Chicago-based Sterling Partners.  SecureNet's merchant count and dollar volumes likely include clients served via card processing, ACH, and its virtual terminal services and products. 

Meanwhile, Worldpay is expected to process a total of nearly 10 billion transactions with a value of nearly half a trillion dollars in 2014. Worldpay is owned by private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital. The acquisition of SecureNet by Worldpay was executed in order to leverage the company's merchant cloud-based solutions which integrate point-of-sale (POS), mobile and eCommerce payment processing into Worldpay's direct acquirer ecosystem, providing a distribution advantage. SecureNet's multi-channel inventory management system will also enable Worldpay to offer the ability to provide actionable, SKU-level data insights to clients to help them grow their business.

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Mastercard and Visa have announced plans to ditch the need for customers to enter passwords as a means of confirming their identity. Current systems - MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa - are both based on the 3D Secure protocol, which was developed by Visa to reduce fraudulent credit and debit card transactions online.It works by forcing people to enter a password into a pop-up window, so that the card issuer can confirm their identity before the transaction completes.  

The U.S. consumer watchdog on Thursday proposed new rules requiring prepaid product companies to disclose fees and offer other protections to people who buy their cards. Consumers use prepaid products to load money into accounts that can be used to make payments or get cash. Some people use the products because they do not have a bank account, while others use them to control their spending.

 Click here to read the 870 pages of proposed regulations.

The war of words between retailers and banks over cyber-security failures has moved to the political stage, as lobby groups for both parties petition the political elite on Capitol Hill for legislative action to curb future data breaches. The first salvo in the ongoing skirmishes between banks and retailers was fired last week by the Retail Industry Leaders Association, National Retail Federation, and National Association of Convenience Stores, which accused banking bodies of using misleading arguments on data security in the media and before Congress.

Some industries are riper for disruption than others. And if there was any doubt about the vulnerability of banks, then Square Capital's 

announcement that it has now advanced $75 million in financing to small businesses over the last year serves as a not-so-subtle reminder. To be fair, Square Capital is still in its infancy. While its latest milestone is an achievement, particularly when you consider that Square's cash-advance service is only a year old, it pales in comparison to the bank industry's nearly $8 trillion in outstanding loans.

ETA held its third annual Silicon Valley Day at the PayPal Campus in San Jose, CA. This at-capacity networking event, co-sponsored by PayPal and Discover, helped senior level payments executives representing financial institutions, technology companies, investment and VC firms, as well as analysts and industry consulting firms to understand the new payments paradigm and to prepare for the exciting industry changes ahead. 

Related: ETA: The Life of a Payment

Want to know where the chargebacks are coming from? Chargebacks911 has ranked the top five U.S. cities in terms of chargeback rates, placing a ZIP code in Show Low, Ariz., with a 2.2% rate, at the top. The study of 500,000 chargebacks of e-commerce transactions made in 2013 indicates the percentage of disputed transactions, long a troublesome element for merchants. Chargebacks can happen for a number of reasons, including identity theft, pricing errors, or failure to receive a good or service as specified. 

The card networks have come under pressure to lower interchange rates in number of countries, providing ammunition for retailers demanding similar cost adjustments in the U.S. After years of pressing the card brands to lower rates, the Canadian government announced Visa and MasterCard would cut interchange to 1.5%, under a 5-year standard taking effect in April 2015. "I think from a policy perspective, we watch pretty closely what happens in other countries," said Douglas Kantor, a lawyer who has represented the National Association of Convenience Stores in the swipe-fee antitrust case in the U.S. against the major card brands.

Merchants may have some difficulty switching to EMV cards next year, but at least they'll have a range of options when it comes to payment terminals. Square is debuting its affordable chip card reader for preorder today. The announcement comes nearly a year in advance of Visa and MasterCard's 2015 time frame for merchants to begin accepting chip cards or else incur the costs associated with fraudulent charges on traditional magnetic swipe cards. Square is using signatures to authorize chip card transactions, which some may say is less secure than a chip-and-pin code framework.

Well, no one can say Facebook is hiding its privacy policies any more. The network just proposed updates to clarify the information it collects on you and how it uses that data to sell ads. Facebook also turned its privacy check-up into an animated interactive tour in a new section called Privacy Basics designed to guide confused users through every available setting. 

There are three things that I think we'd all agree are irrefutable outcomes of the launch of Apple Pay. Apple Pay has dominated just about conversation about mobile payments since 9/9, Apple Pay was the kick in the pants that everyone in the ecosystem needed to get the mobile payments flywheel focused and moving in high gear, Apple Pay's ignition is tied to its ability to get merchants on board. Okay, so maybe I need to make my case for the third one.

Off the top of your head, what would you guess is the single biggest mobile payment system in the world? PayPal? Square? Maybe Google Wallet? The answer is Alipay, the mobile payment wallet owned by Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba. In February, Alipay became the single biggest digital payment platform in the world. In 2013, Hong Kong newspaper the Standard reported that Alipay processed nearly $150 billion in mobile transactions, which makes the platform larger than PayPal and Square combined.

One evening last May, Mark Zuckerberg invited David Marcus to dinner.

It wasn't the first time PayPal's soft-spoken French CEO had been over to Zuckerberg's house for a meal, and Marcus figured it was just another social-business kind of thing. But he hardly had time to dig into his salmon before Zuckerberg began the hard sell. Facebook's single-minded founder explained how important the social network would be in the years to come, and what a big part messaging would play in its evolution.

In a world filled with payment processors for dealing with online in-app purchases, Google has decided to step out of the game. The company quietly announced today that it's sunsetting Google Wallet for digital goods. The service was launched in 2012 as a way to purchase virtual items on the web and inside online games.

Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry says "it's only fair" that merchants should be responsible for some of the expenses that result when their systems are breached. "These recent [retail breach] incidents highlight the need for improved cybersecurity," Curry said during a recent speech at a community bankers' forum in Chicago. "But they also demonstrate why we need to level the playing field between financial institutions and merchants.

RSA, The Security Division of EMC, released the results of a new survey in conjunction with the Ponemon Institute highlighting consumer attitudes toward online security. Surveying more than 1,000 consumers in the United States, the survey found that nearly half of respondents had fallen victim to at least one data breach and 45% say they are not confident they know all instances of when their personal information has been leaked.    

With the threat of customer data breaches always looming, Kevin Burns highlights the importance of Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance in minimizing this risk, and how businesses can best adhere to its regulations. Customer payment data is vulnerable and under constant attack. In fact, Verizon found that almost three-quarters of attacks on the retail and hospitality sector are linked to customers' card payment information. Many such attacks have hit the headlines, with the likes of Kmart Sears and Staples investigating issues.

There are few matters more pressing to retailers than that of security. FierceRetailIT sat down with the PCI Security Standards Council's incoming Manager Stephen Orfei to discuss his plans for the group and what retailers should be focused on during the holiday season. 

This year, holiday shoppers are showing they are not spooked by spending, as a Friday Halloween helped boost spending growth in October. While a weekend of trick-or-treating and Halloween parties helped contribute to the 3.8% spending growth, a healthy uptick from September's growth of 3.1%, early holiday shopping also spurred the increase, according to the monthly SpendTrend� report from First Data Corporation, the global leader in payment technology and services solutions. 

American consumers are going to enjoy a more bountiful Christmas this year, thanks in part to a most unlikely source: Saudi Arabia. The steepening drop in gasoline prices in recent weeks - spurred by soaring domestic energy production and Saudi discounts for crude oil at a time of faltering global demand - is set to provide the United States economy with a multibillion-dollar boost through the holiday season and beyond.

In 1929, a businessman and economist by the name of Jerome Levy didn't like what he saw in his analysis of corporate profits. He sold his stocks before the October crash. Almost eight decades later, the consultancy company that bears his name declared "the next recession will be caused by the deflating housing bubble." By February 2007, it predicted problems in the subprime-mortgage market would spread "to virtually all financial markets." In October 2007, it saw imminent recession -- the slump began two months later. 

Worldpay, a leading global provider of payments technology and services to merchants, partners and developers, announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SecureNet Payment Systems for an undisclosed price. SecureNet is principally owned by Sterling Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm.

JetPay� Corporation, a leading provider of debit and credit card processing, payroll, and prepaid card services, today announced the closing of the acquisition of ACI Merchant Systems, LLC ("ACI"), a Langhorne, Pennsylvania based debit and credit card processing company. The combined company will process approximately $20 billion in payments for approximately 14,000 businesses throughout the United States. 

Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison has had a lot of high-profile wins in the past few months. His three-year-old payments company is powering the "buy" button on Twitter, it's behind a similar "buy" button on Facebook, and it's the backbone of a majority of apps using Apple Pay. 

But the deal he thinks is the coolest is also the one that got the least attention: Stripe's partnership with Alipay.

Prepaid cards have become an increasingly popular payment option but it can be challenging for consumers to determine which cards are the most affordable and easiest to use. That's the conclusion of a new Consumer Reports investigation which offers tips to help consumers make smarter choices and rates prepaid cards based on value, convenience, safety, and how well fees are disclosed.

One startup's cash register is overflowing now. Revel Systems announced Tuesday that it has raised "around" $100 million in a Series C funding round, with the goal of using that capital to expand its iPad point of sale platform to retailers abroad. "The goal is for expansion globally, not just the U.S. - to get on as many clients as we can," Chris Ciabarra, CTO of Revel, told Mashable in an interview. "Is it a race? It's always been a race. It's a marathon. It's a 10-year race."

Heartland Payment Systems, the nation's fifth largest payments processor and a leading provider of merchant business solutions, has acquired leading foodservice industry enterprise-level POS (point of sale) software provider, XPIENT Solutions. XPIENT provides advanced technology to 11 of the top 25 quick service and fast casual restaurant brands, including Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, Panera Bread, and Panda Express. 

TransFirst Inc., a leading provider of secure payment processing services, announced today that it has been acquired by Vista Equity Partners. The acquisition will allow TransFirst to accelerate investments in its end-to-end technology platform, strengthen relationships with partners, and grow its network of over 200,000 merchants. 

TSYS announced that it has been ranked No. 11 on the 2014 FinTech Forward 100 list of the leading technology providers of the world. The list, a collaboration of American Banker and the Bank Administration Institute (BAI), was released today at the BAI Retail Delivery Conference in Chicago. The rankings are based on a company's revenue derived from financial services technology. 

Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced today that Kevin Schultz has been named group president. In this role, Schultz will oversee a newly formed group that includes the company's consumer-focused electronic payment platforms and digital channel solutions.       

Harbortouch, a leading national supplier of touch-screen point-of-sale (POS) systems, has unveiled Harbortouch Tableside, a new tableside ordering service using Apple iPads. Harbortouch Tableside is an add-on solution that integrates seamlessly with the company's existing POS systems. Harbortouch Tableside enables restaurant servers to input customer orders directly from the table via an Apple iPad. A dedicated iPad app mirrors the interface of the actual POS software. The app is integrated with the existing POS system to automatically sync with the restaurant's existing menu. 

VendScreen, the leading developer of vending industry cashless payment technology, announced that the company's retrofit touchscreen devices are verified to support Apple Pay, now available in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. Accepting Apple Pay will incur no additional costs for vending operators with current VendScreen touchscreen device installations, and no hardware upgrade is required. The update will be rolled out to all devices over the next several weeks. 

Global payments conglomerate NCR has announced that one of its merchant point-of-sale (POS) systems will soon offer bitcoin support. The integration of bitcoin into the NCR Silver POS is expected to happen sometime before the end of this year. The system will also support mobile bitcoin wallet payments and will be a free service attached to its POS platform. NCR is one of the world's largest payments companies. Founded in 1884 as a cash register maker, NCR offers a number of hardware and software solutions and reported more than $6bn in revenue in 2013.

Mocapay, a merchant-centric, mobile marketing and payments solution provider, and Merchant Link, a leading provider of payment gateway and data security solutions, announced the formation of a business alliance that will empower merchants seeking innovative mobile payment and payment security offerings. As a result of the announcement, Merchant Link will leverage Mocapay's patented mobile payment and marketing technology to expand its product suite with value added solutions.      

Financial Transmission Network Inc. (FTNI), a leading provider of payment processing solutions, announced that ETran Mobile, the newest component of FTNI's award-winning integrated receivables processing solution suite, ETran, has been released for general availability. ETran Mobile, built upon the ETran receivables platform, enables companies to unlock the power of mobile payments and work toward the strategic goal of simplifying receivables to process and post from a single platform.

Optimal Payments Plc, announced that it has partnered with Pala Interactive, LLC , an emerging leader in the online, real-money gaming space, to provide them with payment processing services for the U.S. regulated online gaming market. Earlier this month, Pala Interactive successfully obtained authorization, via its partnership with Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, from the New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement to provide real-money online gaming in the state. 

TrustCommerce, a leading provider of secure payment solutions, has partnered with Allscripts to enable providers to securely accept online payments through the Allscripts FollowMyHealth™ patient engagement platform. Allscripts FollowMyHealth enables patients to actively participate in their care, and empowers consumers to monitor and optimize health status. Allscripts FollowMyHealth is EHR-agnostic and integrates seamlessly with all systems across the enterprise, providing patients with a single point of access regardless of the individual provider's software.