Capital One Financial Corp. ended a pair of merchant pilots involving its decoupled debit card product because the tests were scheduled to end, a spokesperson for the financial-services company tells Digital Transactions News. “They were initiated as pilot programs and they've run their course. That's it,” says the spokesperson in …

Some recent statistics indicate banks are making significant headway in their ability to receive and clear electronic check images. PaymentsNation, a major clearing house for checks and check images, reported this week that the number of routing and transit numbers (R/Ts) receiving check images reached 5,275 at the end of …

Some high-profile payment-industry technology providers are reporting increases in their operating measures but are still struggling to make a profit in 2008 as they expand or try to compete in a tough market. –Boosted by demand in North America for countertop terminals and more networking and other services revenues, point-of-sale …

NACHA's online-payments pilot went live March 31 with one bank and one merchant and expects to have three to five more financial institutions, three to five more merchants, and between three and five billers participating by the end of the year, an official with the Herndon, Va.-based organization says. “The …

Best known for its focus on restaurant merchant acquiring, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is about to become a major force in acquiring card transactions for petroleum retailers and convenience stores thanks to its pending, $77.5 million acquisition of Alliance Data Systems Corp.'s Network Services unit. Alliance Data recently put that …

While some observers have been predicting for some time that alternative-payment processors that handle transactions for online merchants will soon extend their services to the physical point of sale, Moosejaw Mountaineering's decision to start accepting PayPal at cash registers in its seven stores does not represent a conscious plan to …

Perhaps the hottest payment product going for the past several years, debit cards are showing signs of cooling off. “It's almost become a broken record that debit transactions are growing at double-digit rates, but we're seeing a slowing in that rate,” Tony Hayes, a partner at research and consulting firm …

Google Checkout, the payment service of Internet search leader Google Inc., continues to add merchants and charge volume, according to a Google executive. But Google remains guarded about revealing exactly how Checkout is faring with merchants, especially after the reintroduction of acceptance pricing in February marked the end of more …

With its acquisition of prepaid card transaction processor and program manager InComm Inc., First Data Corp. is picking up one of only a few major distributors of prepaid card products, a move that hands the Denver-based processing giant a substantial stake for the first time in the crucial retail distribution …

A veteran of previous efforts to turn driver's licenses into payment cards is working with the operator of an online consumer-loyalty network on a plan intended to introduce automated clearing house transactions tied to shoppers' driver's licenses at brick-and-mortar stores by 2009. Linda Bryant, who has formed a processor called …