Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The legal battle over the bank card associations' interchange pricing arrangements, already red-hot, got even hotter today when four retail trade associations slapped Visa U.S.A., MasterCard International, and several major banks with a class-action antitrust suit. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New …
Read More »CardSystems Deal Could Catapult CyberSource High into Acquiring Ranks
CyberSource Corp.'s deal to acquire the assets of CardSystems Inc. would hand the Mountain View, Calif.-based transaction-gateway provider a major sales channel for both card-present and Web-based payment processing, catapulting the company squarely into the ranks of processors for small and mid-sized multi-channel merchants, according to observers. The move also …
Read More »With Rita Looming, Pulse Moves Switch to Data Center in Dallas
With Hurricane Rita bearing down on the Gulf coast of Texas, Pulse EFT Association Inc. announced today it has moved processing operations from its Houston data center to a redundant center in Dallas. Cindy Ballard, executive vice president for the electronic funds transfer network, called the move “purely precautionary” in …
Read More »Rising Demand for Strong Authentication Helps Propel KBA Vendor Verid
The rising interest among banks and Internet merchants in more robust methods to verify that online customers are who they say they are is helping drive business for a form of such verification known as knowledge-based authentication. Verid Inc., a 6-year-old supplier of KBA processing services, says its transaction volume, …
Read More »Report: Patent Case Threatens to Cripple U.S. Prepaid Wireless Market
The outcome in a patent-infringement case in May is hindering the development of the prepaid wireless business in the U.S. at a time when the market is already behind overseas markets in usage, a report released by a major research firm says. According to the report from the Yankee Group, …
Read More »Hannaford Finds PIN Debit Is Now As Expensive As Checks
Despite the vaunted efficiencies of electronic transactions, at least one regional supermarket chain has found its cost to accept PIN debit transactions is running close to its acceptance costs for paper checks. As a result, says Bryan Croteau, senior business analyst for Hannaford Bros. Co., Portland, Me.,”I don't want to …
Read More »Metris Will Issue Credit Cards on Discover’s Network by Year’s End
Metris Cos. Inc. announced today it will begin issuing cards on Discover Financial Services LLC.'s acceptance network by the end of the year. Metris, the nation's 11th-largest issuer of bank cards, said it will issue a new credit card under the Discover banner through its Direct Merchants Credit Card Bank …
Read More »I4 Commerce Reports Bill Me Later Growth, Looks to Debit, Prepaid in ’06
Reporting rapid growth for its payment service and rising interest in a new marketing and finance platform it rolled out last month, I4 Commerce Inc. says it will begin next year expanding into new payment channels, with debit and stored-value ranking as distinct possibilities. The company will end the year …
Read More »New Online Processor GreenZap Looks to Credit Card Funding for Growth
GreenZap Inc., a San Diego, Calif.-based processor of e-mail payments that started up this summer as the latest competitor to PayPal Inc., has added acceptance of Visa and MasterCard cards to fund accounts, a move the company says will help it to more than double transaction volume. “The integration of …
Read More »ECOM Readies an Anonymous Prepaid Card for Web and Point of Sale
After five years of development, Boca Raton, Fla.-based startup ECOM Financial Corp. is planning to introduce an anonymous, disposable prepaid card that will clear transactions through the MasterCard network and be usable for purchases on the Internet as well as at the point of sale. The company, which says it …
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