Consumers' willingness to pay credit card bills online is rising rapidly, with 524 million transactions in 2006, a 27% jump over 414 million payments in 2005, according to survey data from comScore Inc. The most recent online payment volume, which represents payments consumers make at card issuers' Web sites, is …

Data Insecurity (Editor's Note: This is the first of a 10-part series by noted electronic-payments-industry analyst Steve Mott on the current crisis in transaction security?its causes, its costs, and its possible solutions?ranging from the point of sale to the Internet to mobile commerce. After eight weekly articles, the series moves …

The $29-billion leveraged buyout of payment processor First Data Corp. will proceed as planned, a spokesperson for the huge processor says, even though the private-equity firm leading the buyout acknowledged Monday that recent market events could make its future prospects riskier. New York City-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.'s statement …

Extending its reach into emerging mobile-banking and payments markets, First Data Corp. on Thursday announced an agreement with mFoundry Inc. under which the leading payment processor will offer mFoundry services to the thousands of bank and credit-union members of First Data's Star electronic-funds transfer network. The First Data agreement marks …

Payment-processing software specialists hoping to find new business through independent sales organizations may have a new way to reach those often-elusive customers. The channel comes in the form of an agreement between Denver-based technology provider IP Commerce Inc. and eProcessing Network LLC, a gateway with links to major payment processors, …

Capital One Financial Corp.’s decision to buy prepaid card processor NetSpend Corp. comes at a time when the network-branded prepaid card market is rapidly expanding and close on the heels of Cap One’s market-changing move into debit cards that can be held by consumers with accounts at any bank (Digital …

Traditional private-label credit cards steadily lost ground over the past two decades to general-purpose payment cards that have much greater utility. Despite the retreat, retailers still like private-label cards because their key attribute?holders tend to shop more often and buy more than non-cardholders?apparently is still valid. Now a new service …

In a development that ViVOtech Inc. is touting as a major vote of confidence in contactless payment and mobile transactions via near-field communication (NFC) technology, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based maker of contactless readers and mobile wallet software has closed a $22.5 million funding round. ViVOtech had announced the so-called Series …

With its official unveiling on Friday of an early version of an online payments system, e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. has launched itself into head-on competition with established players like PayPal Inc. and well-funded upstarts like Google Checkout. The service, called Amazon Flexible Payments, is in a so-called beta stage with …

Electronic bill-payment and presentment technology may be CheckFree Corp.’s sexiest products, but bank processor Fiserv Inc. will be get access to other fast-growing markets when its planned $4.4 billion cash acquisition of CheckFree, announced Thursday, closes. Most notable, perhaps, is that CheckFree just happens to be the leading provider of …