With interest in so-called alternative-payments providers running high among merchants and consumers, Moneta Corp. recently announced a new management team and this week unveiled a strategy for capturing online transaction share from both bank cards and other alternative players. Speaking to Digital Transactions News, Guido Sacchi, the Atlanta-based company's newly …
Read More »Downturn’s Headwinds Slow Western Union’s Bill-Pay Business
The Western Union Co. has found out that worsening economic conditions in the United States can take a toll on seemingly sure-fire high-growth products like electronic bill payments. Western Union's third-quarter earnings report out on Tuesday shows that consumer-to-business, or bill-pay, revenues and operating income are down 2% and 10% …
Read More »A Slumping Economy Hits AmEx’s Merchant-Acquiring Machine
With the economy losing steam, American Express Co.'s lucrative merchant business is slowing down. U.S. card-billed business grew only 4% to $120.3 billion in the third quarter from $115.2 billion a year earlier, and many of the other numbers related to AmEx's U.S. merchant-acquiring business showed little growth. AmEx's core …
Read More »Western Union’s Expedited Offering Nears the Starting Gate
It's been a year since wire-transfer market leader The Western Union Co. announced that it would introduce an expedited bill-payment service with technology provider Yodlee Inc. that banks and credit unions could offer their customers (Digital Transactions News, Oct. 10, 2007). With the operational work nearing completion, the first financial …
Read More »Study Shows Growth for E-Payments, But Paper Lurks Under the Hood
Many studies have documented the rise of card, automated clearing house, and other forms of electronic payments, but a new one from Hitachi Consulting and the Bank Administration Institute sheds some light on just how consumers divide their payments behavior. According to the nationwide study of 3,308 consumers who completed …
Read More »Contactless Payment Stickers Appear To Be Set for Prime Time
So-called stickers, or chip-and-antenna inlays that can be affixed to mobile phones or other tokens to turn them into contactless-payment devices, are showing signs of developing from a novelty to a commercial product. CPI Card Group, a card manufacturer in Littleton, Colo., expects to ship “several million” bank-card-branded payment stickers …
Read More »Off-eBay Volume Tops Auction Payments for the First Time at PayPal
After months of steady gains, the merchant-services portion of PayPal Inc.'s transaction volume topped the volume coming from eBay Inc auctions for the first time in the third quarter, eBay reported on Wednesday. In line with this result, the online auctioneer also reported PayPal has been adopted by 35 of …
Read More »Better ATM: Amazon Gift Cards Now, Network-Branded Cards Later
A 3-year-old technology firm called Better ATM Services Inc. that configures ATMs to dispense prepaid cards is moving beyond its Phoenix-area proving grounds with local restaurants and into a test involving Amazon.com gift cards. If it works, distribution of network-branded prepaid cards could be next. During the upcoming holiday-season pilot …
Read More »Citi’s Mobile P-to-P Service Could See Commercial Launch in ’09
A person-to-person payment pilot based on mobile phones, launched on Tuesday by Citigroup Inc. and Obopay Inc., will become a commercial service in the U.S. next year if goals concerning user counts and transaction volumes are met, says a Citi executive. The pilot, which follows a trial the two companies …
Read More »After a Long Delay, NACHA Eyes Mid ’09 As Soonest Start for DCT
While formal bank recruitment hasn't started yet, an 18-month pilot to test the idea of transmitting check data as automated clearing house files is likely to get under way no sooner than the middle of next year, says a senior executive at NACHA, which is sponsoring the project. “[That] would …
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