Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

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  Major financial institutions are prepared to make bigger investments in mobile payments next year, but may not be moving fast enough to ward off non-bank competition, according to a report issued earlier this week. The chief type of mobile payments these institutions will be pouring money into in 2012 …

  The data-breach Grinch is stealing Christmas from a big restaurant supplier and Lucky Supermarkets, a major West Coast grocery chain, both of whose payment card acceptance systems were compromised recently by fraudsters using different techniques. The breach at Queens, N.Y.-based Restaurant Depot LLC, which also does business under the …

  With mobile payments based on near-field communication (NFC) technology struggling to gain acceptance, new figures from Starbucks Corp. provide yet another example of how non-NFC systems are jumping to a fast lead in the mobile race. The Seattle-based coffee king this week reported that it has handled a total …

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  Payments startup Dwolla Corp. eliminated its transaction fee last week on all payments under $10, a bold move in itself, but it apparently has much bigger things in store. For one thing, the Des Moines, Iowa-based company is testing a system that co-founder Ben Milne says will make automated …

  A mobile comparison-shopping app that launched a digital wallet late last month says it has signed up more than 10,000 wallet users and is adding new ones at the rate of 2,500 a week in a nascent business that has attracted major players like Google Inc. and Visa Inc. …

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In a marked escalation of a conflict that began when MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. raised small-ticket debit card interchange rates, USA Technologies Inc. has stopped accepting MasterCard debit cards in its wireless network of 100,000-plus vending machines and other unattended card-accepting locations. The Malvern, Pa.-based operator turned off MasterCard …

The promise of mobile devices to generate new payment transactions and better service for bank customers comes with a big potential downside. Risk-control executives strongly believe fraudsters have their eyes on smart phones and related mobile devices, according to new research from Aite Group LLC. Asked if “mobile fraud is …

In a move that could bring mobile payments based on near-field communication (NFC) to a wide array of financial institutions, MasterCard Inc. on Thursday announced it will provide its PayPass contactless-payment technology to mFoundry Inc., a Larkspur, Calif.-based vendor of mobile-banking software. MasterCard also invested an undisclosed sum in mFoundry, …

  With the increasing popularity of smart phones and other mobile gadgets, major brick-and-mortar retail chains like Home Depot and Nordstrom began adopting mobile point-of-sale systems this year. And now smaller chains have begun equipping floor personnel with mobile devices that can scan merchandise and help customers look up out-of-stock …

If the best present for a merchant acquirer is more transactions to process, 2011’s Christmas has already arrived. Various reports from acquirers, payment processors, and research firms indicate that electronic transaction volumes are up sharply over 2010’s levels despite the gloom that still colors most economic news. Dallas-based Chase Paymentech, …

  n Online sales for the year will reach $309 billion, up 16% from $266 billion in 2010, according to the report. That volume will grow to $346 billion next year and $444 billion 2016, the report forecasts. General-purpose credit cards will capture 40% of online spending in 2011 and …

The prepaid card industry is marching to new frontiers as November heads toward a close. Intuit Inc. on Tuesday is expected to launch a prepaid Visa card for new merchants in its GoPayment smart-phone-based service, and the Federal Reserve Board approved prepaid card program manager Green Dot Corp.’s plan to …

  With the holiday-shopping season set to kick off on Friday, a startup in San Diego has launched a Web site that lets consumers buy gift cards at 10% of face value. The remaining balance, the company says, comes due only when the cards are redeemed. The site, from Moola …

  Only a handful of the nation’s 13,000 financial institutions today offer remote deposit capture to consumers, but, riding the wave of smart-phone popularity, the number is poised to mushroom, according to new research findings from Celent LLC, Boston. Some 66% of 187 banks and credit unions Celent surveyed in …

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  n As with Chase’s previous two EMV deployments, the new Visa card will allow cardholders to sign for transactions rather than enter a PIN, which is a far more common form of authentication for EMV in markets like Europe and Canada where the smart card technology has been rolled …

  Open-fare payments for public transportation got a big boost when the Chicago Transit Authority announced it had awarded a $454 million, 12-year contract to Cubic Transportation Systems to build and maintain a payment system that accepts contactless cards. The CTA, which provides about 500 million rides a year, thus …