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The slow but steady pace of consolidation of regional automated clearing house associations continued this week when Kansas City, Mo.-based Mid-America Payment Exchange (MPX) merged with Columbus, Ohio-based Payments Central. The new entity, dubbed Epcor, serves more than 2,300 financial institutions in all or parts of 12 states stretching from …
Read More »Canadian Legislative Report Echoes U.S. Card-Pricing Proposals
A sweeping new report from a Canadian Senate committee recommends the federal government create a payment-system oversight board, ban percentage-based debit card interchange for three years, and permit merchants to surcharge for card transactions. Those are just some of the proposals in the report as Canada confronts many of the …
Read More »NYCE Looks to 2010 for SafeDebit Rollout, Pilot Later This Year
NYCE Payments Network LLC expects to start testing Internet-based debit transactions by the end of the year and to start a commercial service some time next year, says Steven A. Rathgaber, president and chief operating officer of the Secaucus, N.J.-based electronic funds transfer network. The service will rely on single-use …
Read More »MasterCard Puts the 13-Year-Old Wal-Mart Case in the Rear-View Mirror
MasterCard Inc. plans to pay off its remaining $400 million settlement obligation to retailers over debit card acceptance early for a discounted $335 million, according to a filing the card network made on Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Attorneys for the retailer plaintiffs have signed on to the …
Read More »Travel Agents Prepare to Fight United on New Card-Acceptance Policy
A move by United Air Lines Inc. to shift to certain travel agents the costs and other responsibilities for ticket sales on credit cards has the industry in an uproar and has prompted a leading trade association to file a letter with the U.S. Department of Justice asking the agency …
Read More »Yankee Group: NFC Transactions Will Soar into the Millions Next Year
Despite tests and innumerable press releases, the number of payment transactions from cell phones barely registers. But payments from mobile devices are about to take off thanks to a convergence of factors on the demand and supply side, according to a new report from Yankee Group Research Inc. The “Dialing …
Read More »Price Tag for End-to-End Encryption: $4.8 Billion, Mercator Says
Demand is booming for better payment card security as a result of the many data breaches of recent years, and the solution being touted more than any other is “end-to-end encryption.” But a new report from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. asserts that the term is imprecise and implementing the technology …
Read More »Acquiring Deal with BofA Lets First Data Renew Its Alliance Model
Bank of America Corp. and processor First Data Corp. launched a merchant-acquiring joint venture Monday, a move that marks the third major change in BofA's acquiring business in five years. First Data will own 48.5% of the new Atlanta-based Banc of America Merchant Services LLC. BofA will own 46.5%, and …
Read More »Bling Nation’s Community Payment Platform Goes Live in Colorado
Bling Nation Ltd., which late last year unveiled a private-label payment network intended for local transactions (Digital Transactions News, Nov. 19, 2008), this week announced it has signed up its first financial institution and has been processing transactions for it in Colorado. The State Bank, La Junta, went live on …
Read More »One to Many: Visa Gets a Single Connection to Multiple Carriers
Visa Inc. has a struck an agreement with NeuStar Inc., a key player in the wireless telecommunications industry, that could enable financial institutions to develop more payment services for mobile devices. Created in 1998, Sterling, Va.-based NeuStar plays a unique role in the phone business. It acts as a neutral …
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