Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

The share of e-commerce dollars coming from so-called alternative payment methods will grow from 12% in 2005 to 26% in 2009, an electronic-payments expert says. And two such alternatives emerging only now will gain momentum over the coming three years, with PIN debit accounting for about 3% and NACHA's new …

New technical specifications for so-called near-field communication (NFC), released this week by an international rules-setting body backing the technology, should add momentum in the U.S. to the trend toward contactless payments on mobile phones. “A lot's happening behind closed doors,” says Erik Michielsen, director of RFID and M2M research at …

Another indication of the increased trafficking of electronic check images through image-exchange networks has emerged with a report from SVPCO that its Image Payments Network handled 50.8 million items in May, up 44.4% from April's volume. Average daily traffic hit 2.3 million images, a 31.2% jump from the previous month. …

ATM Direct, which this week announced agreements with an electronic funds transfer network and an Internet merchant to process PIN-secured debit card payments on the Web, has signed another online retailer, which will go live on its system in August, Robert Ziegler, senior vice president and general manager of the …

In a bid to meet what appears to be a clear market demand for services to help online merchants satisfy card-data security rules, CyberSource Corp. Tuesday launched a product that removes merchants from the business of handling and storing payment data. The move comes as merchants and processors increasingly find …

In a development that could lead to the first significant use of PIN debit for Internet transactions, the ACCEL/Exchange electronic funds transfer network has agreed to handle PIN-secured debit card transactions processed by ATM Direct, a unit of San Francisco-based Pay By Touch Inc. The network, which is based in …

The drumbeat of data-breach disclosures continued Friday with the news that information linked to about 65,000 individuals?including credit and debit card data–were exposed when a burglar broke into a locked office in a YMCA facility in Providence, R.I., last week and stole a laptop containing the sensitive member information. According …

At a time when image exchanges are reporting dramatic jumps in volume but are struggling to get members to receive as well as send check images, Endpoint Exchange in Oklahoma City is reporting double-digit monthly growth rates as well as a base of 3,000 receiving financial institutions. “The name of …

With electronic payments continuing to eat into paper check volumes, the Federal Reserve Banks announced on Wednesday another in what has become a series of closures of check-processing facilities. Some time next year or in the first six months of 2008, the Fed will shut down check processing in San …

Mobile gambling, which doesn't now exist as a market in North America, will grow to $3.34 billion in revenue by 2011, accounting for 14% of a $23.2 billion world market, according to research released this week. Driving this growth, says Juniper Research Ltd., which published the research, are the rapid …

A multi-faceted marketing partnership between giant Internet portal Yahoo! Inc. and PayPal Inc., announced last week, seems likely to drive a significant flow of transaction volume to online auction provider eBay Inc.'s payment service. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo! is the No. 2 parent company in terms of visited …

National City Corp., Cleveland, has begun selling a so-called non-personalized version of Visa USA's TravelMoney prepaid card, which replaces traveler's checks. National City, which is the sole major bank issuing either personalized or non-personalized versions of Visa's plastic for travelers, is offering instant issue of the new card, embossed with …

A proposal to merge electronic check images with automated clearing house records, which first came to the fore at an industry trade show earlier this month, could become a reality?at least in a limited way–relatively soon. Backers of the plan, which include executives with at least two of the nation's …

The number of unique Web sites hosting phishing attacks, a figure that has been increasing sharply in recent months, took another huge upturn in April, according to the latest statistics from the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The population of such sites jumped 15% last month, to 11,121, the APWG's April report, …

Seeking to broaden its reach as it rolls out to merchants nationally, Vayusa Inc. has begun to recruit independent sales organizations to sell its MobileLime cell-phone-based loyalty and rewards system. MobileLime, which earlier this year signed its first merchant outside the Northeast, this week announced Vision Payments Solutions LLC, a …

There are no specific issuing agreements yet, but private-label credit card issuing giant HSBC Retail Services has teamed up with Debitman Card Inc. in a deal that could result in HSBC retailer clients offering PIN-debit cards to their customers usable on Debitman's network. If the arrangement pans out, it would …

A law firm co-leading the merchant class-action interchange lawsuit against Visa USA, MasterCard Inc. and a number of their large members yesterday filed a supplemental complaint in federal court asserting that MasterCard's imminent initial public offering of stock is an attempt to shield itself from antitrust liability for past interchange …

Hoping to take advantage of the related trends in mobile commerce toward so-called off-portal business and direct-to-bill payments, international m-payments processor Valista Ltd. has introduced a new version of its transaction-processing engine, which is aimed primarily at mobile-network operators and Internet Service Providers. The latest release of the engine, called …

Because of the efficiency, savings, and convenience they bring to a system traditionally choked with paper, debit cards linked to flexible-spending accounts (FSAs) are turning into a hot growth market in electronic payments. Issuers will put 6 million of the cards in circulation in 2006, up 50% over last year …

A small Wichita, Kan.-based software company is getting set to take a big step in bringing image exchange to small financial institutions around the country. Starting with the north central region of the U.S., LendingTools.com Inc., a provider of Web-based systems for image processing and origination of automated clearing house …