Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Off-price retailer TJX Cos. Inc. late Friday announced it had settled the consumer class-action lawsuits it faced in the wake of a security breach that compromised nearly 46 million payment card records in its computers, but big-picture issues facing card networks, processors, and merchants about the best ways to enhance …

Data Insecurity Part 6 The electronic payments industry's continued prowess in holding fraud in check despite the mounting scourges afflicting online transacting is all the more remarkable when you consider that the banking industry, whose fundamental business is risk management, is largely a no-show in this channel. Merchants and their …

With its announcement on Thursday that it has added Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the nation's largest merchant acquirer, to its stable of bank card acquirers offering acceptance to small and mid-sized merchants, Discover Financial Services LLC further reduces what was once a yawning gap between itself and the bank card …

A Phoenix-area company called Better ATM Services Inc. thinks it has a better idea for merchandising prepaid cards: sell them directly at ATMs, with cards dispensed through the same slot that dispenses cash. Founded in 2005, the Mesa, Ariz.-based firm is now implementing its ideas at five local restaurants. Thomas …

For the raft of processors either moving into mobile payments or hammering out business plans to make an entry, the top executive with one company that has been in the market for six years has some advice: Focus on the market made up of people who lack bank accounts, and …

Evidence emerged again this week that Web-site breakdowns are causing more broken transactions online than e-commerce managers might suspect. Indeed, the proportion of consumers who report having had a problem completing an online transaction has remained little changed over the past three years at around 90%, while the fraction that …

First Data Corp. is giving more glimpses of its previously announced plans to tighten up operations as top management and private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. struggle to meet a planned Sept. 30 closing date for KKR's $29 billion leveraged buyout of the No. 1 payments processor. In a …

Data Insecurity Part 5 While absolute dollars of fraud are rising with volume, the payments industry has done a commendable job in managing risk. For every $100 in purchases with signature-based credit cards, only about a nickel winds up as fraud?about one-third what it was 15 years ago?and that rate …

Transactions consumers make online with PIN-debit cards?but without entering their PINs?will soar 40% this year, to an estimated 92 million payments, driven by rising biller adoption, an expansion of eligible biller categories, and increasing availability of the payment option among vendors that handle payments for billers, according to a new …

NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association on Wednesday unveiled pricing for a pilot program it will launch early next year to test automated clearing house payments made by consumers to online merchants and billers, with payments authorized by online-banking programs. For e-commerce merchants, the fees, which will include a straight 1.35% levy …

At a time when companies as big and diverse as Google Inc., eBay Inc.'s PayPal, the bank card networks and others are all moving into mobile banking and payments, a regional bank in Mississippi has emerged as one of the more experienced players in the embryonic market. Tupelo-based BancorpSouth Inc. …

The new chief executive of Merchant Processing Inc. says his independent sales organization is on the road to recovery five months after the Federal Trade Commission accused the ISO and its then president of defrauding merchants and had MPI placed in receivership. James Keller, a certified public accountant with experience …

The payment industry's Wall Street parade continued Monday when non-bank ATM network owner Cardtronics Inc. announced plans for an initial public offering of common stock. The Houston-based operator of 31,000 machines hopes to raise potentially $300 million, before underwriting fees and payments to current owners, to pay down debt and …

Data Insecurity Part 4 Securing transactions at the point of sale seems like child's play compared to the Internet, and since the payments volume is 20 to 25 times the size of online transacting, a natural venue for improved data security. But the rash of data breaches (covered in Part …

Merchants often grumble about the costs and hassles of accepting payment cards, but rarely do they go on strike in protest. But that's what some New York City taxicab drivers started doing on Wednesday, though their gripes involve more than just cards. According to late-morning wire-service accounts, an unknown number …

Though still in its infancy, mobile banking will balloon from 1.68 million to 34.9 million users over the next four years, laying the groundwork for mobile payment channels such as physical-world transactions via near-field communication (NFC) and mobile commerce, a new report argues. Already, report author Nick Holland, a senior …

Phishing fraudsters were exceptionally busy in June, with a near-record number of unique online attacks hitting consumers' PCs during the month, according to the latest report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group, which tracks the fraud. The group recorded 28,888 unique phishing reports, up 23% from May and just shy of …

Despite the frenzy of media speculation it unleashed over the Labor Day holiday weekend, Google Inc.'s application for a patent covering mobile payments draws little comment from the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant beyond a cautionary note that the mobile service may not progress beyond the drawing board. “We file …

Discover Financial Services LLC for the first time is selling its gift card to non-Discover customers and at retail locations through a new agreement with Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., the nation's second-largest regional shopping mall developer and manager. Under the program, consumers will be able to buy Discover gift …

Data Insecurity Part 3 For as long as we've had threats to transacting online, there's been a data-security industry poised with a vast array of solutions to protect us, anxiously awaiting evidence of a compelling business case to get things started. But for just as long, it's been axiomatic that …