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Remote deposit capture by mobile phone, a recent technology still considered experimental by many bankers, has proven itself in deployments so far, a banking researcher said on Monday. “The technology is demonstrably ready for broad adoption,” Robert Meara, a senior analyst at Celent LLC, told attendees at a banking conference. …
Read More »UATP Books a Hotel As Its Airline-Card Network Diversifies
Processing volume hit some turbulence last year, but that didn't stop Universal Air Travel Plan Inc. from pursing its goal of adding merchants to its airline-owned network. Washington, D.C.-based UATP last week reported that LQ Management LLC's La Quinta Inns & Suites has become the first hotel chain in the …
Read More »Prepaid Card Mall Pioneer Blackhawk Moves into Online, B2B
Less than a decade after launching its first gift card mall, the Blackhawk Network Inc. is looking for new frontiers of prepaid card growth in the online world and the business-to-business market. “I think we've learned a few things on how to serve the customer better,” Teri Llach, chief marketing …
Read More »Opportunity Comes With Risk for Public-Sector Prepaid Cards
Government represents one of the biggest opportunities out there for prepaid card issuers and processors, but the market is fraught with pricing, operational, and other hurdles, according to executives who work with the public sector. About $65 billion currently is loaded onto prepaid card programs for federal and state benefits …
Read More »PayPal’s Facebook Deal Could Open Big Transaction Potential
With the announcement on Thursday that PayPal Inc. will process payments for Facebook, the massive social network has found a major-brand payments partner and PayPal has established a tie to what could become an enormous online marketplace with equally big transaction potential. The two companies said PayPal will process payments …
Read More »Heartland Restructures Its Sales Force to Jumpstart Productivity
While hoping that it's seeing the light at the end of its long data-breach tunnel, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. also is restructuring its sales force in an effort to boost flagging productivity. The Princeton, N.J.-based merchant acquirer fired 98 low-performing relationship managers in November, but is in the process of …
Read More »Consumers Show Surprising Affinity for Mobile Remote Capture
While many bankers and even technologists may regard handset-based electronic deposits as esoteric, consumers seem not only familiar with the product but favorably inclined toward it, according to a survey by Mercatus LLC, a Boston-based consulting firm that follows mobile banking and payments. The survey, conducted in December among more …
Read More »A French Processor Sets Its Sights on U.S. Micropayments
The explosive growth of social networks and online games in the U.S., which in the past year or so has drawn the attention of a number of micropayments startups, has now attracted a foreign processor with deep pockets and the ability to offer a wide array of payment options. France's …
Read More »Flat-Fee Pricing on PIN Debit Hurts Acquirer Margins, Expert Says
Americans now spend more than half a trillion dollars a year on PIN-debit cards, but the merchant-acquiring industry is still adjusting to consumers' embrace of point-of-sale debit. At the same time, debit card pricing is shifting from a simple, flat-fee model to a more complex one, which is raising the …
Read More »Ex-MasterCard Execs Get Processor Set for U.S. Web Gambling
In expectation that legislation regulating online gambling in the U.S. will pass, the United Kingdom-based payments-processing company UC Group Ltd. has opened a U.S. subsidiary, SecureTrading Inc., headed by three former MasterCard Inc. senior executives. UC Group, a provider of online payment-processing services, is an advocate for regulated Internet gambling …
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