Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

When it comes to information about the uncertain future of Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the world's largest merchant acquirer, the analysts just weren't taking no for answer. The occasion was processor First Data Corp.'s first-quarter earnings conference call on Friday, during which the company also revealed that it had spent …

The opponents and defenders of bank card interchange had their say on Thursday before the U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee. What's next for the controversial Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008, however, is uncertain. The bipartisan bill introduced by panel chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and Rep. Christopher …

French chipmaker Inside Contactless this week announced it has shipped more than 50 million MicroPass chips for contactless payments since introducing the product in November 2005. And, though the company used the occasion to promote its optimism about contactless payments in North America particularly, a number of observers remain skeptical …

The rules for protecting cardholder data will be updated in October, the PCI Security Standards Council announced on Wednesday. The PCI Council, the organization the payment card networks set up in 2006 to oversee the so-called Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI DSS, is billing the coming changes more …

Major-brand credit card acceptance is a given, but the alternative payment forms are gaining traction among mid-sized e-commerce retailers, according to a recent survey by First Annapolis Consulting Inc. Some 41% of the merchants surveyed reported accepting at least one alternative payment form, and nearly half of those accept at …

Payment card interchange will be in Congress's spotlight again on Thursday when the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing about the controversial Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008, a bill that would put price controls on card-acceptance costs. Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the assistant majority leader, is working …

Janet O. Estep, who will succeed Elliott C. McEntee at the end of the year as president and chief executive of NACHA, will be the first person to head the Herndon, Va.-based payments organization who has a background in cards and merchant acquiring. Estep, whose appointment was announced on Tuesday, …

Non-bank ATM network operator Cardtronics Inc. has been trying to pump up transaction volume on its advanced-function Vcom machines ever since it bought them last July from 7-Eleven Inc. as part of the 5,500-machine ATM fleet the convenience-store giant unloaded for $137.3 million. Next week, part of that strategy takes …

Capital One Financial Corp. ended a pair of merchant pilots involving its decoupled debit card product because the tests were scheduled to end, a spokesperson for the financial-services company tells Digital Transactions News. “They were initiated as pilot programs and they've run their course. That's it,” says the spokesperson in …

Some recent statistics indicate banks are making significant headway in their ability to receive and clear electronic check images. PaymentsNation, a major clearing house for checks and check images, reported this week that the number of routing and transit numbers (R/Ts) receiving check images reached 5,275 at the end of …

Some high-profile payment-industry technology providers are reporting increases in their operating measures but are still struggling to make a profit in 2008 as they expand or try to compete in a tough market. –Boosted by demand in North America for countertop terminals and more networking and other services revenues, point-of-sale …

NACHA's online-payments pilot went live March 31 with one bank and one merchant and expects to have three to five more financial institutions, three to five more merchants, and between three and five billers participating by the end of the year, an official with the Herndon, Va.-based organization says. “The …

Best known for its focus on restaurant merchant acquiring, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is about to become a major force in acquiring card transactions for petroleum retailers and convenience stores thanks to its pending, $77.5 million acquisition of Alliance Data Systems Corp.'s Network Services unit. Alliance Data recently put that …

While some observers have been predicting for some time that alternative-payment processors that handle transactions for online merchants will soon extend their services to the physical point of sale, Moosejaw Mountaineering's decision to start accepting PayPal at cash registers in its seven stores does not represent a conscious plan to …

Perhaps the hottest payment product going for the past several years, debit cards are showing signs of cooling off. “It's almost become a broken record that debit transactions are growing at double-digit rates, but we're seeing a slowing in that rate,” Tony Hayes, a partner at research and consulting firm …

Google Checkout, the payment service of Internet search leader Google Inc., continues to add merchants and charge volume, according to a Google executive. But Google remains guarded about revealing exactly how Checkout is faring with merchants, especially after the reintroduction of acceptance pricing in February marked the end of more …

With its acquisition of prepaid card transaction processor and program manager InComm Inc., First Data Corp. is picking up one of only a few major distributors of prepaid card products, a move that hands the Denver-based processing giant a substantial stake for the first time in the crucial retail distribution …

A veteran of previous efforts to turn driver's licenses into payment cards is working with the operator of an online consumer-loyalty network on a plan intended to introduce automated clearing house transactions tied to shoppers' driver's licenses at brick-and-mortar stores by 2009. Linda Bryant, who has formed a processor called …

Their networks continue to handle ever-increasing transaction volumes, but the chief executives of both MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. warn of “challenging” times for the U.S. payments market, particularly credit. Still, both bank card networks in the past 24 hours reported strong profit growth for their quarters ended March 31. …

In its first move toward a software application for mobile commerce, PayPal Inc. has launched its mobile-payments service on a new product from Sprint Nextel Corp. The Sprint product, called MyMoneyManager, is a downloadable mobile wallet allowing customers to perform banking functions from their handsets. So far, regional banking companies …