Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Total System Services Inc. on Tuesday brought to an end a short-lived joint venture with First National Bank of Omaha by buying the 49% of FNBO unit First National Merchant Solutions LLC it didn’t already own. In the deal, TSYS paid FNBO $169.6 million for the remaining stake, implying a …

The comments are flowing in to the Federal Reserve Board in the wake of the board’s controversial proposals to set a 12-cent cap on debit card interchange, ban exclusive network agreements on debit cards, and give merchants more freedom to direct the routing of debit transactions. To a large degree, …

Consumers brought holiday cheer back to merchants and payment processors in the run-up to Christmas this year, spending 5.5% more during the period than they did last year and giving signs that they are opening wallets and purses again after a long recession and rocky recovery. Especially noteworthy were sharp …

Payments-industry executives and media reports have devoted most of their attention to the big debit card interchange cuts and network-routing aspects of the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed debit regulations that roiled the industry last week. But, given the Fed’s long list of requests for comment, the regulations in final form …

The final rule from the U.S. Treasury Department mandating electronic payment of Social Security and other benefits, which was announced on Tuesday, is likely to greatly expand a federal prepaid card program that has already racked up impressive results. It could also lead Treasury to look for more features and …

Credit cards will continue to dominate online payments for at least the next five years, but they will lose share to debit cards, alternative payments, and prepaid and gift cards, according to new projections from Javelin Strategy & Research. Javelin predicts in its “2010 Online Retail Payments Update and Forecast” …

In a move that could bring millions of new users to a popular prepaid card program, the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Tuesday issued a final rule mandating that Social Security and other government benefits be paid to beneficiaries electronically. Under the new rule, beneficiaries will receive direct deposits …

No matter how you feel about the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed 7-to-12-cent cap on debit card interchange and plans for breaking up exclusive debit-network affiliations, the regulatory process has produced some previously unavailable measurements of the booming debit industry. Ahead of writing the proposed rules that it unveiled last week, …

It’s all over but the shouting, at least for now. France’s Ingenico S.A., which sells point-of-sale terminals in North America and elsewhere around the world, on Sunday rejected a suitor that had offered $1.9 billion for the company. Bloomberg had reported on Friday that the suitor was Danaher Corp., Washington, …

A major Federal Reserve payments study released last week grabbed headlines for documenting a dramatic three-year increase in electronic transactions, but a closer examination this week by officials who worked on the report highlights a number of subsidiary trends in such key areas as remote deposit capture, person-to-person payments, and …

The global market for smart phones with near-field communication technology (NFC) will heat up in 2011, opening the way for contactless payments via mobile phones, according to a new report from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. But while the U.S. is poised to be a breakout market for NFC at some …

Debit card interchange fees would take a draconian cut under two proposals that the Federal Reserve Board floated on Thursday. Both would set caps of 12 cents per transaction, caps that would take most of the profit out of many transactions, especially signature debit. The board also left open the …

Giving the bank card networks a taste of the medicine they’re getting in the U.S., Canada’s Competition Bureau on Wednesday took action against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. rules against surcharging and honor-all-cards requirements intended to prevent discrimination by Canadian merchants against credit cardholders. “Visa and MasterCard’s anti-competitive behavior hurts …

Financial-industry clients of Goldman Sachs & Co. are bracing for cuts of 40% to 60% in signature debit card interchange rates when the Federal Reserve Board releases its draft regulations for the controversial fee, possibly as soon as Thursday. Many of the investment-banking firm’s clients also expect the Fed to …

Google Inc. continues to cement its early grip on mobile payments, as indicated by the disclosure on Monday that the online search giant has acquired a small company in Toronto whose technology purports to enable payments, promotions, and advertising over mobile phones. News of the deal follows in the wake …

Companies are starting to bet that consumer interest in electronically delivered offers and rewards is spilling into the mobile channel. In the most recent example of this trend, Cardlytics, an Atlanta-based firm whose technology lets consumers redeem rewards by using a bank-issued payment card, this week announced a tie-in with …

While the electronic-payments industry waits for the Federal Reserve to come up with new debit card regulations, the Fed on Wednesday released results from its massive, triennial study of U.S. payments. The numbers show a dramatic rise in debit card transactions, coupled with an equally steep decline in check usage. …

Ominous or joyous interchange news, depending on your perspective, just rolled in from Europe. The European Commission, the antitrust authority in European Union nations, on Dec. 8 accepted Visa Europe’s proposal to reduce debit card interchange by up to 60% in nine countries. The EC’s action, while having no legal …

Supporters of WikiLeaks attacked the Visa and MasterCard Web sites on Wednesday after the bank card networks cut off donation transactions to the controversial online anti-secrecy organization that recently disclosed hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. State Department cables. The attacks, which slowed down the networks’ Web sites or made …

As with other recent moves toward contactless payments via mobile phones, Google Inc.’s introduction of a smart phone equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology comes shrouded with question marks, say mobile-payments players. Google’s move, which it announced on Monday in conjunction with the rollout of a new, NFC-supporting version of …