With at least four separate efforts under way to build national image-exchange networks, some banking officials are starting to ask whether the substantial investment banks and processors are making in these new networks to carry check images between financial institutions is really necessary. The systems required to achieve transfer of …

Sales of prepaid gift cards soared 47% last year as the 8-year-old product picked up momentum that will lead to a doubling of usage by 2007, the research firm TowerGroup Inc. reports in research released today. The largest beneficiary of the trend will be banks, the firm says. While bank-issued …

While the race is on to hammer together electronic networks to carry what is expected by many to be a huge volume of check images between banks, the only network that has gone live so far reports it is achieving fast growth. Endpoint Exchange, a network owned and operated by …

Although the decision by fast-food king McDonald's Corp. to shut down its test of ExxonMobil Corp.'s Speedpass contactless payment product seems to be a setback for the technology, not all observers agree. Indeed, some are convinced transactions based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) still have a bright future at high-throughput locations–maybe …

A transaction processor that targets high-volume online merchants is winning adherents among merchants and consumers alike for its product, which allows consumers to buy on credit without entering sensitive account data. I4Commerce Inc.'s “Bill Me Later” service, which became commercially available two years ago as an alternative to credit cards …

Bi-Lo LLC, a supermarket chain based in Mauldin, S.C., has announced a biometric-based authentication system has cut its payroll-check fraud losses by 60% since it was installed last fall. The grocer says almost 40,000 customers are now signed up for the system, called Paycheck Secure, and that it has done …

U.S. Wireless Data Inc., a 13-year-old payment gateway specializing in wireless and vending-machine transactions, has announced it has filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The New York-based company also announced it is selling “substantially all” of its assets. It has reached an agreement with …

In anticipation of the swelling of check-image volume that Check 21 is expected to unleash, Viewpointe, a national image-exchange network and archive for electronic checks serving 10 banks, has engaged Accenture, a technology-services and consulting firm, to help prepare the company's platform to handle large image-exchange volumes. Viewpointe's archive stores …

The automated clearing house system handled more than 10 billion electronic transactions in 2003, and the conversion of checks into ACH debits helped fuel the growth, according to statistics released today by the National Automated Clearing House Association at its annual conference in Seattle. Total ACH transactions reached 10.017 billion …

Bank card acquirers are increasingly tacking on fees to handle American Express Co. transactions at terminals they deploy for merchants, a tactic that may work in their favor as AmEx signs on more banks as issuers of the T&E company's products. That's among the major findings of the most recent …