The volume of checks processed by the Federal Reserve dove nearly 6% in the first quarter, reflecting the impact of various electronic payment methods on the nation's usage of paper checks. According to the latest data released by the Fed, the number of checks it cleared in the first quarter …

When TNS Inc. announced late last month that it had bought U.S. Wireless Data's Synapse processing gateway, it said it was planning to use the gateway's non-wireline transaction capability to help open high-potential markets like fast food (Digital Transactions News, May 27). But equally important to the company's strategy is …

The first U.S. parking meters equipped to process online authorizations for credit cards have gone live in Seattle. Moorestown, N.J.-based Parkeon Inc. has shipped the first 80 of its so-called pay-and-display parking terminals, which run wireless credit card transactions, for street parking in Seattle. Parkeon's contract calls for it to …

UniRush Financial Services, a unit of UniRush LLC, New York, today announced an agreement with Milwaukee-based processor Metavante Corp. that allows holders of its prepaid Rush Visa card to use cash accounts linked to the card to make electronic bill payments. The service went live Friday, UniRush says, and is …

CyberSource Corp. says it has introduced a so-called PIN-less debit card payment option for online transactions at the urging of merchants looking for ways to cut their transaction costs. The Mountain View, Calif.-based payments gateway for e-commerce merchants claims to be the only major vendor offering the service, which would …

E*Trade Financial Corp. today announced it agreed to sell its ATM network to Cardtronics Inc., an ATM deployer based in Houston, for $106 million in cash. E*Trade, a New York-based online banking and brokerage company, operates a network of 15,000 ATMs in an operating unit called E*Trade Access Inc. The …

Brother International Corp., Bridgewater, N.J., a maker of office equipment such as computer printers and fax machines, has announced it is marketing a wireless device for use by mobile merchants and salespeople looking to be able to process credit card transactions in the field. The device, a Samsung SPH-i700 Pocket …

The stunning success of such ventures as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes music service, coupled with a huge, untapped potential in transactions, has many expert observers becoming more and more optimistic about the prospects for micropayment processing. That may bode well for recent startups such as BitPass Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., …

Woodside, Calif.-based PassMark Security LLC, which incorporated only in February to attack phishing and other online transaction fraud, says it has attracted interest in its solution from banking and retailer Web sites. The company is now in serious discussions with “eight to ten major sites,” says Bill Harris, chief executive, …

Pay By Touch, a San Francisco-based company that has been marketing a point-of-sale payment system that relies on fingerprint scans rather than cards or other devices to authenticate transactions, scored a sweeping victory today in litigation over the central patents to its technology. Judge Maxine Chesney of the U.S. District …