The steady march toward more secure payment-processing software is likely to force many?possibly thousands?of small software vendors out of the market of serving merchants and card processors. These vendors will find it too expensive to upgrade their existing point-of-sale and related applications to meet specifications set forth in the new …
Read More »Credit Unions Expected to Lead the Charge into Consumer Capture
As many as one-third of U.S. financial institutions could within the next two years adopt a technology that allows customers at home to convert paper checks into imaged deposits that can be transmitted to the bank via online-banking links. The strongest interest in this so-called consumer-capture capability is likely to …
Read More »Eyeing Debit, Visa Posts Its Canadian Interchange Rates on the Web
In another sign of sweeping changes in the Canadian payment card market, Visa Inc.'s Visa Canada unit last week published interchange rates on its Web site for the first time. The posting comes at a time when merchants are complaining about higher rewards-card acceptance costs and expressing fears that possible …
Read More »Why NYCE Plans To Test Two Online PIN Debit Systems in Parallel
The NYCE electronic funds transfer network, which last month said it will pilot PINless purchase transactions online, has become the second EFT system to agree to test Web-based debit card transactions secured by PINs. While Steven A. Rathgaber, president and chief operating officer at Secaucus, N.J.-based NYCE, says many of …
Read More »A New LML Patent Could Bring It a Bonanza in E-Check Fees
A Canadian transaction processor has begun enforcing a recently reissued U.S patent whose long list of claims could potentially allow it to control several of the most popular electronic-check applications on the automated clearing house network. Indeed, if LML Payment Systems Inc. succeeds with an infringement suit it brought last …
Read More »Mobile Banking Appeals More to Small Businesses Than to Consumers
The torrent of press releases promoting this new mobile-banking technology or that new mobile-banking service usually references, either implicitly or explicitly, the consumer as the end user. But small businesses represent a far more receptive user group for mobile-banking services, including bill payments, according to a new report from Boston-based …
Read More »Deal with TRM Unit Gives Select-A-Branch Access to National Market
Select-A-Branch ATM Network LLC, the startup that offers electronic multibank branding on its ATMs, is about to bust out of the Northeast thanks to a new pact with TRM Corp.'s Access To Money network. The exclusive distribution agreement-in-principle deal would give Select-A-Branch potential access to about 3,000 ATMs in convenience …
Read More »Banks Make Strides in Fighting ID Fraud, But Lag in Mobile Alerts
Financial institutions have made big strides in fighting identity fraud over the past year but still lag in preventing the crime by using such technologies as mobile alerts, according to a report released this week by Javelin Strategy & Research. “Despite so many consumers having mobile devices, banks are still …
Read More »Mobile Banking Moves to the Point of Sale with Consumer Incentives
As mobile banking spreads to more banks, the companies that enable the service are getting ready to bring it to the merchant point of sale, along with a bevy of incentives to induce consumers to buy. The move, say some, stems from the recognition that if banks simply enroll online-banking …
Read More »Burden of Final UIGEA Rule May Not Be As Heavy As Some Expected
For a financial-services industry in the throes of economic upheaval, the final rule for implementing the controversial Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA)?issued on Nov. 12 by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve?represents another set of requirements with which to struggle. But for many banks and …
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