Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Banks and processors looking for a way in to the potentially lucrative market for health-care payments could do worse than to cultivate that market for remote deposit capture, says an expert in electronic check processing. But while hospitals and clinics represent a wide-open opportunity for banks, it's not one that …
Read More »Merchant Signings Help Fuel Fourth-Quarter Gains for PayPal
E-commerce sales increases outpaced those at brick-and-mortar merchants during the 2007 holiday shopping season (Digital Transactions News, Jan. 14), and that strong growth along with the recruitment of new online merchants gave a fourth-quarter lift to Internet transaction processor PayPal Inc. The San Jose, Calif.-based company handled 203.9 million transactions …
Read More »Nova’s Deal for Southern DataComm Gives It a Hospitality Gateway
U.S. Bancorp's Nova Information Services Inc. merchant-acquiring subsidiary is diving headfirst into the increasingly competitive payment-gateway business with its pending acquisition of Southern DataComm Inc., a gateway with a big presence in the hospitality sector. Largo, Fla.-based Southern DataComm handles an estimated $50 billion-plus in annualized payment volume, according to …
Read More »Visa Reports Mid-Sized Merchants Are Making PCI Progress
Merchants accounting for two-thirds of Visa Inc.'s U.S. transaction volume have validated compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI, Visa reported on Tuesday. This latest report from Visa comes in the wake of a Dec. 31 deadline for so-called Level 2 merchants?mid-sized merchants that submit 1 million …
Read More »Final Numbers Show Robust Increases in Holiday Spending Online
While 2007-08 holiday-season spending overall fell short of expectations, e-commerce sales soared, according to final numbers compiled by Dallas-based processor Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC. Ten online merchants for which Chase Paymentech processes transactions saw their total traffic jump 29% for the season, to 108.4 million transactions. Dollar volume grew at …
Read More »A Pared-Down Pay By Touch Takes Bids for ‘Non-Core’ Units
Biometric-authentication and loyalty-services technology provider Pay By Touch is in bankruptcy, has cut costs drastically, and is shopping some of its subsidiaries, but the company's former chief executive–who is now a member of the firm's newly constituted board of directors–says Pay By Touch is solid at its core. “This company …
Read More »EC Ruling on MasterCard Interchange Could Foster Regulation in the U.S.
A European Commission ruling that MasterCard Worldwide's interchange-fee structure is illegal in that region will affect relatively few transactions in Europe but could encourage regulators?including those in the U.S.?to act on interchange, among other bleak implications for bank and network executives. “On balance, the EC decision is negative,” says Eric …
Read More »Eye on Gift Cards: A First Data Glitch Strikes the Day After Christmas
A day-after-Christmas processing glitch at First Data Corp.'s ValueLink unit, a processor of prepaid card transactions, delayed gift card authorizations at some stores belonging to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other, unnamed merchants. While statements released by both Wal-Mart and First Data indicate the problem was fixed Wednesday, the snafu couldn't …
Read More »A New Web Site Seeks to Broaden the Market for Merchant Portfolios
Seeking to create a more fluid market for merchant portfolios, two entrepreneurs have created a Web site to showcase assets and broker deals. Boston-based Merchantportfolios.com, which went live about a month ago, is attracting what Lane Gordon, one of the partners, refers to as a “double-digit” number of users browsing …
Read More »AmEx Takes a Leaf from Discover’s Acquiring Strategy?with a Twist
Taking a cue from Discover Financial Services, travel-and-entertainment card leader American Express Co. on Monday said that it had enlisted processor First Data Corp. to book new small and mid-size merchants. But unlike Discover's recent pacts with First Data and other big merchant processors that involved sales of Discover-owned merchant …
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