Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008 has gotten lots of press for its plan to regulate interchange, but merchant-acquiring industry lawyers say that bill has little chance of passage. The far greater threat is a tax proposal for finding merchants' supposedly underreported cash receipts?a proposal that could forcibly …
Read More »Authorize.Net Rolls out Simple Checkout for Small Online Sellers
In an effort to reach very small online merchants seeking a streamlined way to process payments, Authorize.Net on Tuesday unveiled a service it calls Simple Checkout. The new service allows the merchant to use a Web interface to automatically create the code necessary to place a “Buy Now” button on …
Read More »Shell Lowers MasterCard, AmEx Pricing for Its Jobbers And Retailers
While big oil companies at times have temporarily lowered card-acceptance costs in recent years to help gas stations cope with spikes in the price of oil, Shell Oil Co. today said it would permanently lower the price of card processing as well as speed up settlement times for its jobbers …
Read More »Bankrupt Frontier Airlines Claims First Data Tried To Clip Its Wings
Leading card processor First Data Corp. on Friday found itself cast as the villain in the bankruptcy of Denver-based Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc., which claimed it sought Chapter 11 reorganization in order to prevent its card processor, First Data Corp., from increasing the so-called “holdback” on card charges and thereby …
Read More »Bigger Volume Jumps Are in Store for BOC E-Checks, NACHA Says
It grew 267% in just one quarter, yet the new back-office conversion (BOC) electronic-check code still isn't getting any respect. But it will, according to officials at NACHA, governing body of the automated clearing house network. NACHA reports that the ACH handled 3.08 million BOC transactions in 2007's fourth quarter …
Read More »Discover Triples Its Acceptance Network with Diners Club Deal
Seemingly trapped in North America after shedding its money-losing British credit card operation in March, Discover Financial Services LLC suddenly is a global payments player with its pending deal to buy Diners Club International from Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank N.A. for $165 million in cash. The deal adds 8 million merchant …
Read More »Pay By Touch Selling Merchant Business to Merrick for $2 Million
After first trying to sell its merchant-processing business as a single unit, bankrupt Solidus Networks Inc., which does business as Pay By Touch, is expected to sell half of it to a big Utah-based merchant acquirer, Merrick Bank Corp., for $2 million, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court …
Read More »First Data Filing Points to Break-up of Chase Paymentech
Talks under way between processor First Data Corp. and banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. indicate Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the world's largest merchant acquirer, might be split between its two owners, according to documents filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data, which …
Read More »Overstock.com Says PayPal Yields Triple Expected Volume
Online merchants implementing payment alternatives to bank cards are beginning to report significant results. Since it started to accept PayPal in November, for example, online closeout retailer Overstock.com Inc. has seen the alternative payment method soar to 10% of its revenues and 12% of its orders, according to Alan Johnson, …
Read More »Interchange Bill Raises Questions About Role of Government
A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives late last week that proposes to lay down new rules for how payment card interchange would be set raises many questions beyond whether the banking or retail lobby carries more clout in Congress. The questions can be summed up in one: …
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