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Alternative-payments processor Moneta Corp. this week announced the addition of three online merchants to its roster of clients and next week will sign a major Internet housewares retailer, says Guido F. Sacchi, chief executive of the Atlanta-based company. In all, some 20 merchants will be signed by month's end, he …
Read More »New Intuit Payment Service Could Vie for Consumer Transactions
Intuit Inc. has quietly introduced an online-payment product that may be aimed initially at small businesses looking for ways to let other businesses pay them electronically, but could move into consumer payments later on. The new service, called Intuit PaymentNetwork, charges a flat 50 cents per transaction, with no set-up …
Read More »With Walk-in Bill Pay, Wal-Mart Adds More Payments Muscle
It's now official: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has become a major distributor of walk-in electronic bill-payment services. Processor Fiserv Inc. announced that 3,755 U.S. Wal-Mart locations now offer standard and next-day bill payments from Fiserv's CheckFreePay service. The service enables customers to pay 2,500 utility, credit card, phone, insurance, and other …
Read More »Report: Consolidation, Security, Debit Are Top Challenges for Acquirers
The merchant-acquiring industry can expect more market consolidation and more attention to security, and it also will have to adjust to the secular shift away from credit and toward debit, according to a new assessment of market trends from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. Portfolio sales and acquisitions of smaller processors …
Read More »With Goldleaf, Jack Henry Beefs up Its Remote-Capture Business
Bank technology provider Jack Henry & Associates Inc. on Monday said it would buy Goldleaf Financial Solutions Inc. in a $19.1 million cash deal that will bring two of the leading deployers of remote deposit capture services under one roof. The pending acquisition will be Monett, Mo.-based Jack Henry's 17th …
Read More »Network Rivalry Sparks 10-Year Quadrupling of PIN-Debit Pricing
Merchants increasingly are complaining about the rising cost of accepting PIN-debit transactions, once by far the cheapest payment they could process from any piece of plastic. Now, data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City show why: the cost of accepting PIN-debit cards rose 305% between 1996 and …
Read More »How the Recession Could Push up Fees for Expedited Bill Payments
The severity and length of the recession makes it likely banks will be able to raise fees for last-minute online bill payments, recent research says. That will mean more revenue for financial institutions that have been seeking ways to make money from electronic bill payments, a service they've generally been …
Read More »Single-Branch USAA Looks to iPhone App to Capture More Deposits
USAA, one of the pioneers of remote deposit capture, leaped to the technological frontiers again on Tuesday with the addition of remote deposit capture capabilities to its three-month-old mobile-banking application for Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The new feature enables customers to snap a picture of a check's front and back, and …
Read More »Zong’s Growth Heats up Rivalry in Mobile Payments for Downloads
If mobile-payments services are finding a niche anywhere right now, it appears to be in the market for digital goods like games and social-network applications. Palo Alto, Calf.-based Zong Inc., which began operations last year, announced this week that the processing platform it shares with its parent company, Echovox Inc., …
Read More »A Mitek-Fiserv Deal Lifts Prospects for Mobile Deposit Capture
Mitek Systems Inc., whose software allows users to create check images with their camera phones and then use the handsets to send the images to banks for deposit, signed its biggest processor to date this week for the six-month-old technology. Milwaukee-based Fiserv Inc. agreed to adopt Mitek's Mobile Deposit product …
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