Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The Pulse electronic funds transfer network on Monday announced it will test transactions in which consumers use PIN debit cards to pay online merchants. The Houston-based network is the third EFT system to agree to run such a pilot using technology from Acculynk Inc., an Atlanta-based software company. The Accel/Exchange …
Read More »With Antonini’s Abrupt Departure, Cardtronics Looks for a New Boss
Cardtronics Inc. chief executive Jack M. Antonini has left the company, the big non-bank ATM network operator announced on Wednesday. The company didn't give a reason for the sudden departure of Antonini, who has been its top officer since 2003, though a short press release indicated its board of directors …
Read More »To Cut Fraud Losses, Don’t Wait for Chargebacks, Apple Says
Online merchants shouldn't wait for chargebacks to indicate a problem with fraudulent orders. Instead, they should pay attention to other indicators, such as the volume of canceled orders, to anticipate whether a wave of chargebacks is about to hit. That's the argument Dave Moriarty, director of data mining at Apple …
Read More »Higher Fees Could be Rainmakers for the Bank Card Networks
More information is trickling out about new transaction fees planned by Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. While the main ones are slightly under 2 cents per affected transaction, when applied to the vast stream of bank card purchases they could produce more than $600 million in new revenues for the …
Read More »Breach-Related Woes Continue to Pile up for Beleaguered Heartland
The breach-related troubles just keep piling on for merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc., according to the acquirer's annual report filed on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In the filing, Heartland revealed the data breach it sustained last year is under investigation not only by the U.S. …
Read More »While Google Checkout Reprices, eBay Eyes Big Growth for PayPal
Announcements last week from two of the major online payment systems, PayPal Inc. and Google Inc.'s Google Checkout, show the two are taking differing roads: PayPal is getting ready for a big growth spurt, while Google Checkout is changing its longstanding pricing plan with tiered rates that amount to price …
Read More »Visa Acts Against Heartland, RBS?But Some Say It’s Not Enough
Visa Inc. has kicked breached merchant acquirers Heartland Payment Systems Inc. and RBS WorldPay Inc. off of its list of processors compliant with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI. That action sent the acquirers to a netherworld known as probation and triggered a debate in the payments industry …
Read More »Reload Competition Heats up with Visa’s MoneyGram Deal
Visa Inc. will quintuple the size of its Visa ReadyLink prepaid card reload network when the big money-transfer firm MoneyGram International Inc. enables its 40,000 U.S. locations to add funds to prepaid cards under a deal Visa announced Tuesday. The MoneyGram locations will make Visa's reload network nearly as big …
Read More »Hypercom Sees a Hit from the Recession, Exchange Rates
Hypercom Corp. anticipates that the drop in its first-quarter revenues may be larger than in the past due to volatile currency exchange rates, the deteriorating economy, and a tightening credit market, said Philippe Tartavull, chief executive and president. “It is quite clear that our industry as a whole will contract …
Read More »A Cautious Chase Paymentech Signs Up for Online PIN Debit
The nation's largest processor of e-commerce transactions this week announced its commitment to a test involving PIN debit payments on the Internet. Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, which processes for merchants that control more than half of all U.S. transactions on the Web, expects to sign between three and five sizable …
Read More »