Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

The back-office conversion e-check code has been live for nearly two months now, and, as many predicted with its March 16 debut, it came in like a lamb. There have been few, if any, high-profile product launches or other splashy events associated with the new automated clearing house payment option. …

Total image-exchange volume quintupled in the 12 months through March, while the percentage of items clearing at paying banks as images rather than as paper substitute checks grew to 64% from 36%, according to the most recent statistics compiled by the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization. In a further sign …

A Seattle-based startup that translates merchant sites to the mobile Web in a matter of minutes has doubled the number of sites it has signed up for its service in the last six weeks, according to the company's top executive. The company, mPoria Inc., now has about 30 sites signed …

Surging U.S. debit card traffic is helping to propel revenues and profits for MasterCard Inc. as the Purchase, N.Y.-based network marks its first full year as a publicly held company. Point-of-sale debit card activity for the company hit 1.5 billion transactions in the first quarter, up fully 48% over the …

ViVOtech Inc., the Santa Clara, Calif.-based maker of contactless point-of-sale card readers and mobile-wallet applications, is raising $20 million in its third round of venture-capital funding. The lead investor in this latest round announced this week is none other than First Data Corp., the No. 1 payment-card processor. ViVOtech, First …

NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association expects to release pricing details in about two weeks for its long-awaited online-payments pilot, an official working on the project says. The details will set out a form of interchange fee merchants' banks will pay to banks that will authorize transactions and authenticate consumers, as well …

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that appears to rein in the ability of certain technology patent holders to press their claims against alleged infringers is likely to have little or no impact on what has been a highly effective enforcement campaign by a company that holds patents bearing on check …

Just as banks are starting to jump back into the mobile-banking market, a research report has emerged to indicate consumers may still not be ready to use their handsets for transaction services. Only 8% of online users who own a cell phone say they are interested in using the device …

Amid highly publicized data breaches at major chains like TJX Cos. Inc. and Stop & Shop Supermarket Cos., large merchants are making progress in achieving compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), though nearly two-thirds of them have still not been certified as meeting the standard. Some 35% …

Fledgling PIN-debit network Tempo Payments Inc. this week reported that Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the nation's largest merchant acquirer, is now offering Tempo acceptance. With Chase processing for more than 500,000 merchants, the agreement opens a huge new acceptance base to San Mateo, Calif.-based Tempo, though whether that potential is …

Reversing a marketing decision it made two years ago, Visa USA has attached a brand name to its contactless-payment platform. The name, payWave, will identify Visa's contactless technology around the world, serving the same function as MasterCard Worldwide's PayPass and American Express Co.'s ExpressPay contactless brands. Although the bank card …

Bolstered by its recent acquisition of Carreker Corp., CheckFree Corp. is working on a product that will allow banks to view and manage both check and automated clearing house data in one integrated file. The new system, which will also permit long-term storage of ACH data, will be linked to …

If regulation can't be avoided, national trade groups often prefer federal regulation over regulation by states on the theory that one set of rules is less costly and easier to comply with than 50 different sets of rules. But when it comes to interchange, the National Retail Federation is challenging …

The rapidly increasing importance of electronic payment channels is behind the recent surge in membership at NACHA-The Electronic Payment Association, according to the Herndon, Va.-based association's chairman. Four financial institutions have joined NACHA as direct members?meaning they get a vote on rules governing the automated clearing house?so far this year, …

With its first top executive in place, an industry consortium formed last year to promote the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) is getting set to elect a board of advisors, launch educational programs for merchants, and conduct a meeting aimed at updating the security rules. The announcements come in …

PayPal Inc. saw its transaction volume swell 19% in the first quarter, to 177 million payments, while its non-auction business expanded to 39% of all transactions in a performance widely credited with boosting parent eBay Inc.'s financial results for the period. News of the e-commerce transaction processor's performance comes just …

With the aim of expanding the debit card's reach into the booming world of Web-based micropayments, the Star electronic funds transfer network plans to start testing PIN-less online debit payments within a few weeks. The test will run about four months and involves Solana Corp., which will act as an …

Chockstone Inc., a provider of customer loyalty marketing programs and stored-value solutions acquired Peppercoin Inc. for its card-processing and transaction-aggregation expertise, Chockstone’s top executive tells Digital Transactions News. The acquisition of Peppercoin, which will be merged into Chockstone, will allow the loyalty-marketing company to expand its offerings, says Jeff Lipp, …

Rejected by many retailers, the point-of-purchase electronic-check code has one fan that really counts: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart expects the last 300 of its approximately 3,400 U.S. Wal-Mart locations to go live with the automated clearing house payment option next Monday. Wal-Mart's push behind …

Electronic transactions using unique numerical identifiers to mask account and routing data are rising fast, and now the company behind the technology expects it will be commercially available for consumer payments in about a year. The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC says corporate users made 80,459 transactions in 2006 using …