TXN360

Enterprise payment acceptance intelligence

Know What Is Changing Before It Changes the Plan.

TXN360 gives enterprise retailers, payment companies and investors an independent view of hardware providers, supply chains, financial health, regulation and geopolitical change across North America and Europe.

Request an executive briefing Read this week’s State of Hardware
Payment hardwareVendor riskSupply chain and tariffsSecurity and post-quantumSourcing and channel strategy

Weekly on LinkedIn

State of Hardware

Five things that mattered in payment acceptance hardware last week, with the question to ask your vendor. Published every Monday.

Week ending October 4, 2026

This Week’s Five

  1. Australia ends the card surcharge. The fee moved off the terminal and into the POS software.
  2. Forced-labor tariffs in court. A 10 to 12.5 percent layer on terminals from Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and China is under challenge.
  3. PCI brings AI into the software lifecycle. Secure SLC v2.0 adds requirements on AI tools in vendor development.
  4. Open apps on Android terminals. Merchant apps are splitting from the payment software.
  5. Forecourt and unattended before NACS. Toast Fuel, Nayax and IPS, ID TECH and SFEY.

Also this week

Quantum: Washington has a date. Payments doesn’t. The NSA set 2027 for new national security systems. PCI has set no date for payment terminals.

Go Deeper

Get It Every Week

State of Hardware is published on LinkedIn every Monday. Follow TXN360 to see each issue.

Follow TXN360 on LinkedIn

Recent Issues

  • Sep 27 Tap to Pay on iPhone adds eight markets; face payments at the counter; the brand is not the builder
  • Sep 20 Ingenico clears Brussels; the terminal as a software platform; memory as the hidden line item

What we cover

Decision Support for Teams Carrying Enterprise-Scale Consequences

We connect market signals that are usually reviewed in isolation, then show what they mean for your operating plan.

01

Vendor and Counterparty Intelligence

Independent monitoring of payment hardware providers, ownership structures, financial health, leadership changes, strategy shifts and the operating signals behind vendor continuity.

  • Financial health
  • Ownership and leadership
  • Continuity risk
02

Supply-Chain and Geopolitical Exposure

Analysis that reaches beyond the brand on the terminal to who designs it, who builds it and where, component costs, tariff classification, trade policy and proposed restrictions on Chinese-connected equipment.

  • Country of origin
  • Tariffs and classification
  • Component economics
03

Regulatory and Security Horizon Scanning

Practical interpretation of Payment Card Industry (PCI) requirements, point-of-interaction security, state biometric privacy law, surcharging rules and post-quantum readiness for retail technology leaders.

  • PCI and PTS
  • Post-quantum planning
  • Biometrics and surcharging
04

Technology and Capital Planning

Five-year decision support for terminal estates, security change, vendor concentration, replacement cycles and the budget consequences of waiting or moving early.

  • Scenario planning
  • Budget timing
  • Executive alignment
05

Hardware Sourcing and RFPs

End-to-end support for choosing a terminal vendor: requirements, competitive process, vendor diligence, commercial terms and the supply agreement. We ran a ten-vendor process from strategy through signature for a private-equity-backed payments platform.

  • RFP design
  • Vendor selection
  • Supply agreements
06

Diligence for Acquirers and Investors

Company assessments and indicative valuations for buyers, lenders and investors looking at payment hardware and acceptance businesses, built on public filings and labeled channel intelligence.

  • Company assessments
  • Indicative valuation
  • Channel checks

How we help

Turn Outside Signals Into Decisions Across the Enterprise

Payment acceptance choices cross technology, security, procurement, finance and operations. We give each group a shared view of the facts, implications and available moves.

  1. 01

    Find the Signal

    We track the financial, operational, regulatory, personnel and geopolitical changes most likely to affect your acceptance environment, every day.

  2. 02

    Translate the Implication

    We connect each development to vendor exposure, architecture, security, budget timing and operational resilience.

  3. 03

    Frame the Decision

    Your leaders receive a concise view of the options, tradeoffs, time horizon and questions that require action.

Research library

Research Built Around the Decisions Teams Are Making Now

TXN360 publishes about one paper a week. Ask for any of them by name.

Vendor continuity series

Ingenico: The Window to 2029

Five papers following Ingenico from debt crisis to default, the PIMCO-led recapitalization, the new leadership bench and the clock now running to 2029.

Request the paper

Vendor assessments

The 2026 Terminal Vendor Series

Independent assessments of Verifone, PAX, LANDI, Newland, SUNMI and Castles: recent filings, US channel position, certification and continuity risk.

Request a vendor paper

Security and five-year planning

EO 14412: The Quantum Deadline Reaches Payments

What the post-quantum executive order means for terminals, key injection and host systems, and what to ask for in your next purchase.

Request the paper

Policy watch

Chinese-Connected Terminals and Defense Retail

How H.R. 8787 and the NDAA language on Chinese-connected point-of-sale equipment could affect retailers and technology providers.

Request the paper

Market economics

Memory, Tariffs and Terminal Cost

How the DRAM shortage, tariff layers and country of origin are setting the price of the terminal on your counter.

Request the paper

Channel and leadership

Selling Through the ISO Channel

How US ISOs and sales agents buy, sell and get paid, written for hardware and software vendors. Companion paper: The Modern Payment CPO/CTO.

Request the paper

Also tracking: x402 and machine-initiated payments, state biometric privacy law, surcharging rules, PCI software security standards and North American market structure.

About TXN360

Boutique by Design. Broad Enough to Connect the Full Picture.

TXN360 is a specialist research and consulting firm focused on payment acceptance hardware. Our work reaches deep into the supply chain, the financial and operational health of major solution providers, personnel and strategy shifts, and the macroeconomic and geopolitical forces shaping North American and European markets.

CEO Ben Love brings 28 years across the payment hardware value chain in 36 countries, from engineer to product manager to CEO. That includes leadership at Castles Technology North America, Newland NPT North America, First Data and Clover East, plus senior roles at Bank of America, Visa/CyberSource, Vantiv and Ingenico. Ben writes the weekly State of Hardware.

Recent work includes acting as embedded advisor to Valor PayTech, a private-equity-backed payments platform, where TXN360 owned hardware sourcing from strategy through signature: a ten-vendor competitive process, the selection of LANDI Global, and the multi-year master supply agreement negotiated to completion, announced in June 2026.

Ben is the co-author, with Holly Love, of the US Payment Handbook (third edition, 2026), a one-hour guide to how money actually moves, and the author of Approved: The Hidden Psychology of How We Pay, Oil Tanker Water Skiing: The Five Principles Behind the Acquisitions That Work, and East to West: Beyond Guanxi.

Ben is supported by Claire Love, COO, who leads operations and client engagement, and Holly, product analyst, focused on primary research, company intelligence and competitive analysis.

BenCEO · Industry strategy and executive advisory
ClaireCOO · Operations and client engagement
HollyProduct Analyst · Company and market intelligence

The book

New to Payments, or Onboarding Someone Who Is?

The US Payment Handbook follows a $100 card payment from the tap to the deposit two days later, and names everyone who takes a cut along the way. Paperback, Kindle and Audible.

Get the book

Work with us

Start Where You Are

Most clients start by reading. Some want a conversation. A few need us inside the decision.

  1. 01 · Follow

    State of Hardware

    The weekly five-item briefing on LinkedIn. Free.

    Follow TXN360
  2. 02 · Read

    Research Papers

    Vendor, policy and security papers, shared on request. Some vendor work is reserved for clients.

    Request a paper
  3. 03 · Talk

    Executive Briefing

    A focused session on your vendors, your estate and the dates that matter to your plan.

    Book a briefing
  4. 04 · Engage

    Advisory

    Vendor diligence, sourcing and RFPs, channel strategy and acquisition support.

    Discuss an engagement

In development

TXN360 Terminal Index

One place for the terminal database, PCI PTS expiry alerts, country-of-origin screening and the daily hardware briefing behind State of Hardware.

Ask for early access

Start here

Bring Us the Decision While There Is Still Room to Shape the Outcome

If you are assessing vendor exposure, planning payment technology and security investment, or briefing executives on market change, we can begin with a focused conversation.

Request a focused briefing Or ask for a paper