There are 25 million people in the U.S. who have a regular income but don't have a bank account, says Vero Financial Group, Lake Oswego, Ore., and now the 2-year-old company has developed a card-based, biometric system to cash checks for this market that cuts transaction time and cost while …

About 14% of financial institutions that issue debit cards charge fees for PIN debit transactions, and in the past year 15% of debit card holders were subject to the fees, with somewhere between 10% and 15% of customers actually paying them. Fewer than 1% of banks, meanwhile, assess fees to …

With a month to go until Christmas, holiday spending by consumers is driving double-digit increases in electronic transactions, according to the latest report from Visa USA, which is tracking spending on its cards each week from early November until early January. Total spending on all Visa-branded cards hit $23.1 billion …

Recent survey statistics document a continuing rise in both phishing sites and attacks, and underline the toll such security problems are taking on consumer confidence when conducting online transactions. In its latest report, the Anti-Phishing Working Group says the number of unique Web sites engaged in phishing fraud jumped to …

American Express Co. Inc.'s decision to include eight banks as defendants in the lawsuit it filed earlier this week against Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. may be a power play to weaken the bank card networks by widening policy differences between the networks and their major members, some …

In a bid to accelerate growth in its merchant base and in its transaction volumes, United Bank Card Inc. says it will give card terminals, check readers, and signature-capture devices free to merchants signed on by independent sales organizations contracted with the Hampton, New Jersey-based processor. The company, which says …

With concern mounting about the adequacy of commonly used authentication technologies in online transactions, a technique devised by a major credit-reporting agency to secure the sale of consumer credit reports online is finding adoption among financial institutions and could appeal to Internet merchants. Equifax Information Services LLC is actively licensing …

Discover Financial Service's Inc.'s proposed acquisition of the Pulse EFT network, announced yesterday (Digital Transactions News, Nov. 15), hands the Riverwoods, Ill.-based card company instant credibility in the business of PIN debit, but it also may propel Discover's efforts to break into the high-growth signature-debit card arena. Discover, apparently encouraged …

In an announcement with far-reaching implications for the electronic payments business, Discover Financial Services Inc. announced today it is buying the Houston-based Pulse EFT Association for $311 million “and other strategic value.” The deal, which the parties say will close by mid January pending approval from regulators and Pulse members, …

America Online Inc. will begin offering packages of premium content on its Internet service through new software from Valista Ltd., an Ireland-based payment software company, the companies announced today. The new solution allows AOL to target and price particular packages, or bundles, to particular audiences, with special promotional pricing and …