Morgan Stanley's Discover Financial Services LLC today launched a signature-based debit card, dubbed Discover Debit, as the second major prong in its debit card offensive. Because signature-based debit delivers higher income to issuers than PIN debit, observers have looked for such a product from Discover ever since the Riverwoods, Ill.-based …

Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a publicly held acquiring processor based in Princeton, N.J., announced today it has acquired Debitek, a provider of closed-loop stored-value systems based in Chattanooga, Tenn., from terminal maker Ingenico Corp. Terms of the transaction, which was structured as a stock purchase, were not disclosed. The deal …

In building out a network of point-of-sale readers to accept their contactless cards and tokens, banks and their card associations could be creating an infrastructure that will also support payments based on new mobile-payment technologies like Motorola Corp.'s M-Wallet software that could bypass the lucrative credit card interchange system, one …

Motorola Inc.'s new payment software for mobile phones, called M-Wallet, will begin commercial rollout within three to six months with wireless carriers, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based technology company tells Digital Transactions News. A test of M-Wallet is already in progress, officials say, though they can't give details. The company is in …

When the Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century (Check 21) went into effect in October 2004, experts predicted it would be years before banks weaned themselves from the so-called image-replacement documents provided for in the law. These IRDs are paper printouts of check images that travel the last mile …

Merchants upset about interchange pricing may or may not ultimately prevail in their pending litigation against the bank card networks, but any outcome is likely to be years away. For now, there are practical steps retailers and service providers can take to cut acceptance costs, an executive with a major …

The promise of Check 21 may be unfolding more slowly than enthusiasts would like, but the country's largest image-exchange network recorded another gain in volume in January. New York-based SVPCO, part of the The Clearing House Payments Co., which is owned by many of the nation's largest banks, handled 13.9 …

Pay By Touch Solutions, which has spent the past several years building out a point-of-sale network for its biometric-payment service, is now joining the rush to bring electronic payment alternatives to the Internet. Its new Pay By Touch Online product, which it is announcing today, is set to go live …

Merchant litigation against bank card interchange may end up benefiting bank card network competitors like American Express Co. more than retailers, a Wall Street analyst who has followed the interchange controversy cautioned this week. If successful in forcing Visa USA and MasterCard International and their members to cut interchange rates, …

A consolidated complaint arising from some 47 interchange lawsuits filed by merchants and merchant groups against the bank card associations over the past seven months will likely emerge within 60 days, with certification of a class coming by fall, a lawyer representing some of the merchants said today. The various …