An integrated device that would allow plumbers, maid services, pizza-delivery people, and other mobile merchants to perform electronic check conversion as well as accept cards will be commercially available by the end of the first quarter of 2006, according to Commerciant LP, the Houston-based company that makes the terminal. The …

An image-exchange network controlled by some of the nation's largest banks says volume in the network reached 8.8 million items in November, up 38% over October and nearly 500 times greater than in January, when the system began commercial operation. SVPCO, a unit of New York-based The Clearing House Payments …

In the debate between advocates of software-based authentication and backers of hardware devices, the former are winning, and this week's acquisition of Cyota Inc. by RSA Security Inc. proves it, says PassMark Security LLC. “To have the largest token provider in the world recognize no-hardware, two-factor authentication, it clearly endorses …

Two bitter rivals in the biometric-payments arena have merged to helped spur adoption of the technology among merchants. Tim Robinson, chief executive of BioPay LLC, which will shortly become part of its largest competitor, Pay By Touch Solutions, as the result of a deal announced today, says the longstanding rivalry …

The willingness of U.S. consumers to use credit or debit cards to buy things like cups of coffee or cans of soda is rising fast, according to a survey being released this week at a conference in New York on micropayments, or transactions for less than $5. Some 21% of …

In a move that could herald a thrust into the rapidly growing point-of-sale stored-value payments market, PayPal Inc. is processing prepaid accounts behind cafeteria payments for its own employees as well as for those of two other technology companies in Silicon Valley. For the past year, the online-payments processor, a …

Has the explosion in consumer usage of signature-based debit cards created a bonanza for banks in fees charged for insufficient funds? At least one analyst thinks so. “It's the dirty little secret in the industry,” says Steve Mott, a former MasterCard executive and principal at BetterBuyDesign, a Stamford, Conn., consultancy. …

ATM-owning banks are earning $4.3 billion annually on charges they levy on transactions cardholders perform on so-called foreign machines?ATMs owned by banks where the cardholder is not a customer, according to a semi-annual study released today by Bankrate Inc., North Palm Beach, Fla., an aggregator of financial data. The average …

The new chief executive of First Data Corp. is likely to bring renewed focus to the processing giant's merchant-acquiring business and move quickly to resolve the drag on growth represented by the company's processing business that supports card issuers, say industry observers. At the same time, Henry C. (Ric) Duques, …

Both transaction volume and site performance overall gave online merchants reasons to smile in the weekend leading up to “Cyber Monday,” the day experts say is the busiest shopping day of the year online. Merchants appear to have souped up their servers to meet increasing traffic, as well as rising …