One year after its launch, an option that lets merchants deposit checks electronically in centralized locations by converting the paper items into automated clearing house debits is growing more slowly than expected, according to a payments executive who led the effort to write the rules for the new option. Back-office …

Visa Inc.'s current slogan is “Life Takes Visa,” but now it's “Wall Street Takes Visa.” After raising a record $17.3 billion late Tuesday by pricing its initial public offering of stock at $44 per share, above its target range of $37 to $42 per share, Visa's stock opened on the …

Bankrupt Solidus Networks Inc., which does business under the Pay By Touch name, is ending all of its fingerprint-based biometrics operations effective late Wednesday, the company announced Wednesday afternoon. In a news release, the San Francisco-based firm said that at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time March 19, one second before midnight, …

Not only do mobile payments between individuals constitute a strong market opportunity in themselves, but they also lay the groundwork for mobile payments to merchants, according to James Van Dyke, founder and principal of Javelin Strategy & Research, which this week released a research report on the mobile person-to-person (P2P) …

Fraudsters obtained payment card data originating with Hannaford Bros. Co. while the regional supermarket chain was compliant with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI. The disclosure may mark the first publicly known breach of a PCI-compliant merchant. “We were certified [as PCI-compliant] last spring and we were recertified …

Metavante Corp. on Tuesday announced software that the Milwaukee-based processor and NACHA, the rules-setting organization for the automated clearing house network, say will make it possible for more banks to participate in a new online payment product NACHA plans to start piloting in less than a month. “This [software] is …

News of the first big data breach of 2008 broke Monday afternoon when Scarborough, Maine-based grocery chain Hannaford Bros. Co. acknowledged a data intrusion into its computer network that resulted in the theft of a reported 4.2 million customer credit and debit card numbers. The disclosure came only after the …

Talks under way between processor First Data Corp. and banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. indicate Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the world's largest merchant acquirer, might be split between its two owners, according to documents filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data, which …

Companies that accept checks and electronic payments were victimized by fraud at virtually the same rate in 2007 as in 2006, but those that experienced fraud saw more incidents of it, according to a survey by the Association for Financial Professionals released this week. The Bethesda, Md.-based AFP is a …

Online merchants implementing payment alternatives to bank cards are beginning to report significant results. Since it started to accept PayPal in November, for example, online closeout retailer Overstock.com Inc. has seen the alternative payment method soar to 10% of its revenues and 12% of its orders, according to Alan Johnson, …