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In a move aimed at addressing widespread fears about e-commerce security, MagTek Inc. has launched a company to commercialize its card-based authentication technology and leverage it for both online and point-of-sale transactions. Magensa LLC, a subsidiary of the Carson, Calif., maker of check scanners and card-terminal components, officially began operation …
Read More »Order-Review Efficiency Rises for Online Sellers, But So Does Fraud
Online merchants' fraud losses will hit $3 billion in 2006, up 7% over last year, but the overall growth in e-commerce means fraud as a proportion of sales will dip slightly, to 1.4% from 1.6%. This mixed news comes as Web merchants adopt an increasing array of alternatives to bank-issued …
Read More »Visa Admonishes Merchants To Segment Electronic Traffic
In the latest of its so-called Data Security Alerts aimed at strengthening merchant payment card security, Visa USA is putting the spotlight on point-of-sale systems that provide electronic on-ramps for fraudsters. In particular, Visa wants merchants to remedy the vulnerabilities of what it calls “improperly segmented network environments.” Merchants can …
Read More »PayPal’s off-eBay Campaign Begins to Register in Its Numbers
PayPal Inc. 2-year-old campaign to diversify its transaction-processing business beyond the online auction marketplace of its parent, eBay Inc., is starting to show results. Some 37% of the processor's payment volume in the three months ended Sept. 30 came from merchants outside of eBay, up from 32% in the year-earlier …
Read More »FDC Spiffs up Merchant Service, Deploys 11,000 FD-100 Terminals
First Data Corp. chairman and chief executive Henry C. “Ric” Duques on Tuesday painted a rosy picture of the downsized card processor during his first earnings conference call since the recent spin-off of First Data's largest division, remittance kingpin Western Union Co. Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data posted net income …
Read More »First Data Hopes New Box Will Help It Plug Into Smaller Merchants
Beyond a recent press release, First Data Corp. hasn't made a huge public splash about its new payment terminal, the FD-100. Yet the terminal is not just a box that processes payment card transactions. It's an element of First Data's multipronged strategy to get more business from small and mid-sized …
Read More »Rewards Account for 44% of Interchange Cost, Report Concludes
The costs of air miles and other perks and rewards account for 44% of bank card interchange, while card issuers' cost of funds and profit margins take 35%, and network branding efforts account for 3%, according to a new report issued this week. Just 13% of the acquirer-paid fee goes …
Read More »TSYS Battered But Not Broken, Top Execs Say, Citing New Business
Top executives of card processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) on Wednesday portrayed a company that may be a bit bruised but is heading for better times. Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS even upped its 2006 profit projections and says earnings next year won't decline as much as previously forecast. TSYS late …
Read More »Visa: Too Early to Tell How Restructuring Will Impact Interchange
The reorganization of the Visa bank card association will allow the resulting company to invest in new payments technologies and cultivate promising new acceptance markets, but the ultimate impact on the way the business sets interchange pricing is unknown, says a spokesperson for Visa International, the umbrella organization that has …
Read More »CheckFree Leverages Existing POS Gear for Walk-in Bill Payments
Looking to bolster its business with retailers, Atlanta-based CheckFree Corp. this week unveiled its CheckFreePay Link service aimed at helping stores draw more walk-in traffic by offering bill-payment services for local utilities and other billers. CheckFree Pay's existing CheckFreePay network has 11,000 agent sites located in check-cashing outlets, grocery stores, …
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