Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Proximity payments using mobile phones and micro Secure Digital (SD) cards took an important step toward commercial reality in the U.S. market with the news that Bank of America Corp. will start a pilot next month in the New York area. While the news is of yet another pilot at …
Read More »Blackhawk Makes a Big Jump into Reloadable Prepaid Cards
Blackhawk Network, the supermarket-based prepaid card specialist firmly rooted in gift cards, announced on Monday its first major foray into general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards. The move puts Blackhawk into direct competition with powerhouses Green Dot Corp. and NetSpend Inc., but that’s okay, according to chief marketing officer Teri Llach. …
Read More »Latest ACH Stats Reflect Consumer Shift to Electronic Bill Pay
Overall automated clearing house transaction volumes grew only 1.5% in the second quarter versus the year-earlier period, but most of the electronic-check ACH applications grew faster. The notable exception was ARC, for accounts-receivable conversion of bill payments sent to lockboxes. Continuing a trend that started two years ago and likely …
Read More »Elavon’s New Boss Aims to Strengthen Processor’s Game Plan
Merchant processing is one of the bright stars in U.S. Bancorp’s firmament, and Mike Passilla, the new boss of the Minneapolis-based banking firm’s Elavon merchant-acquiring subsidiary, aims to keep payments shining. Passilla on Monday became president and chief executive of Atlanta-based Elavon, which serves 1.2 million merchants in North America …
Read More »Mobile Deposit Capture Takes Strides with PayPal And a Mitek Patent
Mobile remote deposit capture took a couple of steps forward over the past week, though how big those steps are won’t be known for a while. First, alternative payments leader PayPal Inc. indicated that it was configuring its application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone to handle mobile remote deposit. And mobile …
Read More »Two Years in Coming, an IRS Reporting Rule Takes Effect
While the payment card industry is bracing for debit card interchange and other regulations that will come next year from the Federal Reserve as a result of the new financial-reform law, merchant acquirers on Monday got a long-anticipated reporting rule. Beginning with the 2011 tax year, acquirers must report how …
Read More »A Survey Reveals a Rising Volume of Disputed ACH Debits
Transaction volumes are rising on the automated clearing house, but a recently released survey shows a nasty side effect of this growth is a rise in the volume of disputed transactions. Some 63% of processors and financial institutions reported they handled more disputed, or unauthorized, payments last year than in …
Read More »Eye on M-Commerce: Google Talks to eBay; Apple Hires NFC Expert
In a move that could generate significant incremental sales on its Android Market, Google Inc. is reportedly in talks with eBay Inc. about using PayPal as a payment method for applications that run on its hugely popular Android operating system for smart phones. But the talks aren’t likely to open …
Read More »PCI Council Tweaks Rules to Clarify Issues Like Scope of Assessment
The PCI Security Standards Council on Thursday gave a sneak peek at planned changes in the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI. While a Council document outlines 15 planned changes, the proposals are “relatively minor,” according to a news release. “The No. 1 thing again is greater clarity on …
Read More »Instant Debit Card Issuance On the Rise, But Have Rewards Peaked?
With interchange and overdraft-fee revenues under withering political and regulatory attack, debit card issuers can point to one bright spot in their quest for growth—instance issuance of cards in bank and credit-union branches. Some 35% of financial institutions offered the service in 2009, up from 28% in 2008, according to …
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