With the traditional lines between e-commerce and the point of sale blurring, a Boston-based startup on Tuesday introduced a mobile wallet that lets consumers shop at multiple stores, both brick-and-mortar and online, and skip past checkout lines. AisleBuyer LLC’s app, which works on iPhones and handsets running Google Inc.’s Android …
Read More »Consumer Interest Makes Mobile Capture a ‘Hot Product,’ New Study Reports
Mobile remote deposit capture is poised for a boom, and when it happens it just might be an opportunity for banks and credit unions to capture fee income that, for payment services at least, so far has mostly eluded them. That’s one of the conclusions in a new Javelin …
Read More »PayPal’s Mobile Plans: POS Payments This Year And $7.5 Billion in Volume by 2013
PayPal Inc. is dropping any pretense of not pursuing point-of-sale payments directly. The eBay Inc. subsidiary now promises that it has new services coming for paying at physical locations using smart phones. Third-party software developers for several years have been designing various apps that have blurred the line between …
Read More »Debit May Have Dethroned It, But King Cash Retains Its Allure
Cash: the merchant’s friend or foe? Two of the nation’s largest merchants on Thursday expressed surprisingly favorable views about the ancient payment method while an executive with the Chicago Transit Authority, the nation’s second-largest public-transportation system, wished it would go away as soon as possible. The comments came during the …
Read More »Online Fraud Losses Show Two-Year Drop for Airlines, Survey Says
The world’s airlines are seeing less fraud these days in their online bookings, thanks to more experience with Web-based ticket sales and wider usage of fraud-fighting tools, according to a study released on Wednesday. Overall, online fraud for air carriers dropped 31%, from $1.7 billion to $1.4 billion, between …
Read More »As Banks Rally, the NRF Escalates the Debit Card Interchange Lobbying War
With bank opposition to the Durbin Amendment growing, the National Retail Federation on Wednesday launched what it calls a major, 60-day advocacy campaign to “preserve swipe-fee reform” for debit cards. The multipronged effort, according to an NRF news release, includes an “intensive grass-roots” campaign to mobilize retailers through NRF …
Read More »A Private Investment Firm Picks up Regulus, J&B for $137 Million
In a deal that underscores the growing importance of electronic billing and presentment, New York City-based private-investment firm Cerberus Capital Management has agreed to buy the Regulus and J&B Software payments units from India-based 3i Infotech Ltd. The deal, valued at $137 million, is expected to close within about …
Read More »Pummeled in the Recession, Credit Cards Get Back on a Growth Track
After taking a nasty hit in the recession, credit cards are back on their feet, though somewhat wobbly. Figures from First Data Corp., the largest U.S merchant processor, show that credit card usage is sustaining growth after returning to positive territory in early 2010. Data from the bank card …
Read More »Durbin Regs Will Take Effect, Though Possibly a Little Late And with Caps ‘Modified’
Like them or not, the Federal Reserve Board’s controversial debit card regulations to implement the so-called Durbin Amendment will take effect, though possibly a little late, according to Capitol Hill observers speaking at the Electronic Transactions Association’s annual conference Wednesday. In the meantime, a proposed 12-cent cap on debit interchange …
Read More »Justice Department Seeks to Block VeriFone-Hypercom Merger on Antitrust Grounds
The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit Thursday to stop VeriFone Systems Inc. from buying Hypercom Corp., saying the proposed $485 million stock deal “would substantially reduce competition in the U.S. point-of-sale terminal market.” The DoJ said the current plan to sell most of Hypercom’s U.S. assets to the North …
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