A spin-off of Discover Financial Services Inc. by its parent, Morgan Stanley, won't likely change the card network's strategy, but an acquisition of the newly independent company would likely occur soon after the spin-off, leading to probable changes in direction at the 20-year-old card company, including a possible break-up, according …

In a vote of confidence for smart card technology in North America, a leading producer of chip-embedded plastic cards has achieved full production of the technologies necessary for smart cards at a plant outside Baltimore. Axalto Holding NV, a France-based card manufacturer, says this is the first time such full-scale …

With hackers, phishers, and other criminals undermining the trust all transaction networks depend on for their survival, some experts say the time has come to fight back. In the following excerpt from “The Myth of Invincible Encryption,” an article that will appear in the May-June 2005 issue of Digital Transactions …

With credit card fees having become one of their biggest operating expenses, airlines are turning to alternative, lower-cost payment options. The aim is to reduce the collective $1.5 billion in card-acceptance costs airlines pay annually, according to a recent study by Edgar, Dunn & Co. Houston-based Continental Airlines has moved …

A Manhattan-based startup company is bringing the concept of check guarantee to the business of processing card-not-present payments. Precharge Risk Management Solutions, founded less than two years ago, has only in the past few months been actively marketing its service but has already signed up more than 1,000 online merchants, …

With transaction-data security a top-of-mind concern these days in the wake of such breaches as the ChoicePoint case and the theft of card data from the DSW Shoe Warehouse chain, executives for two leading security-audit firms say their merger couldn't have come at a more propitious time. Chicago-based Ambiron LLC …

After a year of trying to sell itself as a transaction gateway for brick-and-mortar merchants, Authorize.Net Corp. says it has learned one important lesson: when it comes to the point of sale, any Internet-enabled device is capable of being a POS terminal. As a result, the American Fork, Utah-based processor, …

First Data Corp. has begun to process MasterCard transactions at 123 Burger King Corp. outlets in Canada. The processing deal expands on one the Denver-based processor has for card processing at Burger Kings in the U.S. The card transactions at the Canadian Burger Kings are part of MasterCard's Quick Payment …

E-commerce fraud is beginning to make itself felt in the markets for voice-over-IP (VoIP) services and in digital-content downloads, both of which are high-potential markets that many processors are counting on for transaction growth, according to Retail Decisions Inc., the U.S. unit of Retail Decisions PLC, a provider of online …

Having recently agreed to standardize their protocols for transaction-data protection primarily at online merchants, the card networks are beginning to push for improved security of stored data at brick-and-mortar retail locations, as well. The move comes in the wake of alarming breaches of card-transaction data at physical retail stores, including …