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In relaunching a debit rewards card for the QuikTrip Corp. convenience-store chain this week with a new issuer and new payment card network, specialty debit processor Tempo Payments Inc. plugged Discover Financial Services into the decoupled-debit market. And after concentrating on non-profits for the past year, Tempo says more Discover-branded …
Read More »Study: About One-Fifth of Breached Entities Were PCI-Compliant
Supermarket chain Hannaford Bros. Inc. stunned the electronic-payments world when it revealed that it had passed its most recent audit for compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) before hackers breached its computer systems and compromised more than 4 million card numbers (Digital Transactions News, March 18, 2008). …
Read More »Merchant Resistance Could Hobble the Carrier-Led NFC Venture
The carrier-led mobile-payments consortium, news of which became publicly available on Monday, may break new ground in bringing payments based on near-field communication (NFC) to market. But it could confront major issues in attracting merchants, especially the big chain retailers looking to chop transaction costs, says one expert observer who …
Read More »Portfolio Defections Hurt Quarterly Debit Results for MasterCard
The profits rolled in for MasterCard Inc. in the second quarter despite a lackluster performance by the No. 2 payment card network’s U.S. operations. Several portfolio losses hurt MasterCard’s debit results in both the United States and the United Kingdom, though top executives said at a Tuesday morning conference call …
Read More »Merchants Get More Aggressive About Gift Card Reloads
A provision in the new Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 that exempts some reloadable prepaid cards from interchange regulation could make such cards an attractive option for retailers. But merchants were heavily promoting reloadable gift cards long before the legislation appeared for another reason: to …
Read More »Visa Hopes It Can Come to Terms with the Justice Department
Barely a week after Congress landed a hard left punch on the card networks, the U.S. Department of Justice might be about to land a right in the form of a lawsuit challenging network rules aimed at preventing merchants from surcharging for credit card payments or otherwise steering customers toward …
Read More »Acculynk Scores Again, This Time with Its MasterCard Pact
Just two weeks after announcing its biggest EFT network partnership with the Discover Financial Service-owned Pulse network, online PIN-debit technology provider Acculynk Inc. landed an even bigger fish. Under a deal announced Wednesday, MasterCard Inc.’s approximately 8,500 U.S. Debit MasterCard issuers will have the option of offering Acculynk’s PaySecure service …
Read More »The Emerging Case for a Rules Change to Force Same-Day ACH
With the Federal Reserve set to begin offering on Monday same-day clearing of automated clearing house transactions (Digital Transactions News, July 13), some industry observers are starting to push for a rules change that would mandate banks’ participation in this or a like service. “We either need a core [of …
Read More »Some NFC Consensus Emerges, Thanks to Fed Mediation
Executives with a number of the leading players in telecommunications and electronic payments have managed to reach a consensus on at least some of the issues that have divided them for years over the shape and direction of mobile payments in the U.S. While participants say they are not yet …
Read More »The Dodd-Frank Interchange Haircut Could Exceed $10 Billion
Visa and MasterCard debit card issuers stand to lose up to $10.7 billion in interchange income a year in a worst-case scenario under new federal interchange controls that will take effect next year, according to a Digital Transactions News analysis. Smaller reductions are more likely as the Federal Reserve Board …
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