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 …

Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. is investigating a network glitch that caused “duplicate postings” Tuesday of debit card transactions secured by personal identification numbers at its stores, according to company representatives. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based supermarket chain, which operates 1,070 stores across 12 states in the Southeast, says the problem occurred from late …

TNS Inc. has acquired the primary asset of U.S. Wireless Data Inc., which in March filed for bankruptcy protection. Reston, Va.-based TNS, formerly Transaction Network Services, says its acquisition of New York-based U.S. Wireless Data's Synapse point-of-sale processing system strengthens the company's efforts to build its business in emerging transaction …

Vendors in the ATM industry are beginning to move ahead with systems that would allow machine owners to remotely install and manage encryption keys mandated by a new security standard set by the bank card networks. The introduction of solutions for remote administration of Triple DES keys comes even as …

Demand from corporate clients?combined with a deadline that's only five months away–is a major factor pushing banks into check imaging, according to a top executive with one major supplier of check-processing software. Although many banks are poised to begin accepting so-called image replacement documents when the Check Clearing for the …

The criminal activity known as phishing soared to new heights last month, according to statistics released today by the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The consortium of Internet companies and law-enforcement agencies reported that the number of unique phishing incidents recorded by the group rose 180% to 1,125 in April, more than …

Deploring the extent to which banks have turned over key functions in consumer payments to non-bank companies, a leading figure in the payments industry on Thursday called on banks to “seize back” leadership in the industry. In a keynote address delivered at the Bank Administration Institute's TransPay trade show in …

Viewpointe Archive Services LLC announced this week it will begin sharing check images among banks participating in its image-exchange in September. The company has worked out a tentative pricing schedule and is working on systems to perform such value-added functions as checking image quality and translating images from one bank's …