Competitive Strategies

After a rough year that saw its momentum slow somewhat, remote deposit capture could be poised for faster growth as banks and non-bank companies move into consumer and small-business markets, according to a new report. Indeed, growth rates for remote capture, a technology that allows businesses and individuals to deposit …

Rested after their recent skirmish over 7-Eleven Inc.'s anti-interchange petitions, the interchange partisans went at it again Thursday in Congress. The battleground this time was a House Financial Services Committee hearing on the bill from U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., that would require more interchange disclosures and demolish most of …

Two research reports released on Wednesday point up emerging opportunities in mobile banking and same-day bill payments, particularly for financial institutions. Banks and billers alike will have to be careful how they price so-called expedited bill payments, or those electronic payments that post with billers on the same day. These …

With the recession driving more transactions to the e-commerce channel, the ability of merchants to deliver a smooth experience from log-in to checkout has been magnified. The good news for online stores is that fewer customers are running into glitches while conducting transactions online. The bad news is that merchants …

Amazon.com Inc. added more territory to its steadily expanding payments empire on Monday when it unveiled a mobile version of its payments service for third-party software developers, merchants, and distributors of mobile applications. Dubbed Amazon Mobile Payments Service, the system includes Amazon's so-called “1 Click” checkout service, which enables users …

Fraud control and data security rank at the top of bank ATM executives' concerns as they try to keep their networks competitive, according to results of an Aite Group LLC survey. A separate survey by Bankrate Inc., meanwhile, shows that ATM surcharges rose over the past year but foreign fees …

American Express Co. turned up the competitive heat in the gift card sector Wednesday by announcing the immediate elimination of monthly fees on all of its gift cards. AmEx also announced an expanded gift card program with shopping mall operator Simon Property Group Inc., the nation's largest public real-estate company …

A delegation from 7-Eleven Inc., including the convenience-store giant's chief executive and a handful of franchisees, cast the card-interchange issue as a matter of grassroots politics on Wednesday by personally delivering to lawmakers in the nation's capital petitions with nearly 1.7 million signatures calling for interchange regulation. The petitions, which …

The year 2012 could mark a milestone for the prepaid card industry. That's when load volume on so-called open-loop, or general-purpose, prepaid cards could surpass load volume on closed-loop cards, if predictions by Mercator Advisory Group Inc. prove true. Maynard, Mass.-based Mercator recently released several prepaid market reports, the latest …

Most payments startups focusing on mobile commerce these days are relying on either direct debit or carrier billing to handle funds transfers. But Billing Revolution, a 2-year-old Seattle-based company, is marketing a system that lets consumers buy products on their handsets with a single click, and charge their transactions to …