Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Less than a year after launching a commercial, handset-based banking and bill-payment program in the U.S., Citigroup Inc. announced it is working with a major South Korean telecommunications company to offer mobile banking around the world. The San Francisco-based joint venture, Mobile Money Ventures LLC, will be equally owned by …
Read More »Pay By Touch Auctions off ATM Direct, BioPay Paycheck Secure
Bankrupt Solidus Networks Inc. has sold two of the three major subsidiaries that it identified this winter as non-core assets, Digital Transactions News has learned. Next up is a March 14 auction of the core biometrics payment business of Solidus, which does business as Pay By Touch. On Thursday, a …
Read More »Wal-Mart Exec Happy with MoneyCard, But Stays Mum on Details
Jane Thompson, the head of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Financial Services unit, revealed some interesting tidbits on Tuesday about the No. 1 retailer's payment services, but she didn't answer one question many in her audience of 2,200 was asking regarding the widely watched Wal-Mart MoneyCard: how many of the prepaid cards …
Read More »An Acquiring Paradox: Discounts Are Squeezed, But Spreads Are up
Counter-intuitive though it may be, independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers in general are seeing their spreads increase while simultaneously facing margin compression. The reason, according to a new report from Aite Group LLC assessing trends in the acquiring industry: acquirers are generating new revenues from their merchants outside of …
Read More »Euronet Far from Certain It Will Renew Its Pursuit of MoneyGram
Although the door is still open for Euronet Worldwide Inc. to renew its bid for rival remittance processor MoneyGram International Inc., Euronet's chief executive says it's by no means certain his company will press ahead, despite a determined effort it made to acquire the larger processor just two months ago. …
Read More »Visa Looks for a Record IPO in Defiance of Wall Street Headwinds
Facing financial markets that have been roiled by troubled subprime mortgages and a weakening economy, Visa Inc. on Monday said it is seeking to raise $15 billion to $17 billion in its upcoming initial public offering of common stock?an amount that even on the low end would be a record …
Read More »Beleaguered Pay By Touch Looks To Sell Itself in Two Auctions
With potential buyers so far proving to be no more than tire kickers, bankrupt biometrics payment company Solidus Networks Inc., which does business as Pay By Touch, is looking to sell itself in separate auctions of what it calls its core and non-core assets. The core assets center on Pay …
Read More »With $20.5 Million in Fresh Capital, IPP Prepares To Execute
Walk-in bill-payment provider IPP of America Inc. on Tuesday announced it had raised $20.5 million from three institutional investors, capital that will enable the fast-growing company to expand its physical presence and add more billers to its network. The investment also represents the first round of venture-capital financing arranged by …
Read More »An APWG Panel Lobbies Web Registries to Shut Down Phishing Sites
A potent new technique that phishing fraudsters have started using to thwart efforts to shut down their bogus Web sites has inspired a panel at the Anti-Phishing Working Group to hammer out a new policy that would get domain registries to disable criminal sites. The new policy, called the domain …
Read More »Intrigue Envelops Hypercom As It Mulls Ingenico Buyout Offer
Point-of-sale terminal maker Hypercom Corp. on Monday said it is talking with France-based Ingenico about the $332 million buyout offer Ingenico made last week, an offer that came at a time when Phoenix, Ariz.-based Hypercom is trying to buy the POS terminal unit of another French company, Thales S.A. Ingenico …
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