Spotting an opportunity in combining online authentication with contactless technology, a 6-month-old Knoxville, Tenn.-based company plans to have a product on the market by early next year that consumers could use to make payments both on e-commerce sites and at the point of sale. Elemental Knowledge LLC is starting with …

The nascent market for electronic transactions in self-service machines should get a sizable boost from a Federal Reserve rule change set to go into effect Aug. 6, an industry observer notes. The rule change could also foster the development of contactless transactions at these machines, laying the groundwork for payments …

In a deal that will expand its client base of billers by 50%, Online Resources Corp. on Thursday announced it is buying Internet Transaction Solutions Inc. for $45 million in cash and stock. The Chantilly, Va.-based bill-payment processor says ITS, which processes payments for some of the country's largest collections …

Wireless card-payment devices deployed systemwide this spring by Amtrak to sell food and beverage items are making a favorable impression on passengers and boosting sales while cutting chargebacks, an executive with the national railroad says. Amtrak is now planning to start using wireless terminals to sell tickets on trains, adds …

Bank of America Corp.'s announcement this week that more than one-fifth of its deposit-taking ATMs now image checks?and thus don't require deposit envelopes?shows that so-called envelope-less ATMs are starting to catch on with consumers, says an expert observer. “The announcement is significant if only as a sort of marker showing …

Confirming long-standing industry speculation, Columbus, Ga.-based bank-holding company Synovus Financial Corp. on Tuesday said it would consider spinning off its processing subsidiary, Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), to Synovus shareholders. Assuming a spin-off eventually happens, TSYS will have played a key role in 2007's major processing-industry restructuring that will take …

Volume for Internet payment processor PayPal Inc. climbed 21% in the second quarter, to 172.9 million transactions, and the San Jose, Calif.-based company continues to make steady inroads with e-commerce merchants away from eBay Inc.'s online auctions, according to statistics filed last week by eBay, PayPal's parent company. Off-eBay volume …

The two major sides of today's prepaid card industry, branded or general purpose on one side and private label on the other, both still have enormous growth potential, but the branded side has the stronger prospects, according to a new report from Boston-based financial research firm Aite Group LLC. Aite …

The Capitol Hill spotlight shone again on payment card acceptance costs Thursday when a U.S. House of Representatives antitrust panel held a hearing to investigate interchange. At issue is the question whether the federal government should play any role regarding this most controversial aspect of card pricing. Bank interests are …

A startup company managed by former executives from online travel agency Orbitz LLC plans to release in the fourth quarter a software product that will let online merchants manage the gamut of transaction fraud issues, from front-end screening to automated order review to chargeback processing and, eventually, back-end collections and …