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Citigroup Inc.'s government-assisted takeover of Wachovia Corp.'s banking assets, announced Monday morning, holds a debit card silver lining for MasterCard Inc. in a deal that otherwise symbolizes the radical reshaping of the banking industry after the mortgage meltdown. Citi is a predominantly MasterCard issuer while Wachovia is a big Visa …
Read More »Chase’s WaMu Deal Puts MasterCard on the Debit Defensive
MasterCard Inc., the distant No. 2 in the U.S. signature-based debit card market, scored a big win in 2005 over rival Visa Inc. when Washington Mutual Inc. said it would convert its Visa-branded debit portfolio of more than 10 million cards to MasterCard. But that gain is now in jeopardy …
Read More »Visa Plans Launches for Google’s Android, Nokia, And Money Transfer
Visa Inc. on Thursday said it will introduce transaction alerts and other services that will work with Google Inc.'s new Android operating system for mobile phones. The world's largest payments network also said it has developed contactless-payment and money-transfer applications for a new handset from Nokia that features near-field communication …
Read More »A Bill Moves Ahead That Would Limit Scope of Online-Gambling Law
Congress is preoccupied with bailing out Wall Street and mortgage-loan holders, but a bill quietly passed the House Financial Services Committee last week that payment-industry interests hope will become law before the 110th Congress adjourns. That's H.R. 6870, “The Payments System Protection Act of 2008,” a measure that would clarify …
Read More »Electronic Bill Pay Growing, But No Bonanza in Expedited Payments
Yet another bill-payment study is out, and this one not surprisingly predicts electronic channels will continue displacing mail and other forms of manual payment. More surprising is how soon electronic payments will surpass physical forms of payment: next year, according to Aite Group LLC. Aite forecasts consumers will make 10.2 …
Read More »Moneris Fills a Gap With Its Pending Humboldt Acquisition
Merchant acquirer Moneris Solutions Inc. reported on Thursday that it has an agreement with the federal government to buy the assets of Humboldt Merchant Services, a Eureka, Calif.-based acquirer with nearly $2.5 billion in annualized charge volume, 18,000 merchants concentrated in California and other western states, and a strong network …
Read More »Funding in Hand, eBillme Zeroes in on Consumer Cash Preference
Sensing a strong shift among consumers away from credit and toward cashlike payment, ModaSolutions Inc.' s eBillme online-payment system plans to pump a large share of its resources into recruiting new merchants and funding promotions with those merchants to attract more buyers, the company's top executive says. Much of the …
Read More »An Over-the-Air Test Could Move NFC Closer to Commercial Use
A successfully completed test of specialized mobile technology developed jointly by a U.S.-based maker of contactless-payment readers and software and a German smart card manufacturer could bring closer the commercialization of mobile phones that make point-of-sale payments in the same way contactless cards do. The test, whose results were announced …
Read More »Latest DataTreasury Settlements Add to Pressure on Defendants
A small software company that has sued big banks and processors for years over patents it holds that relate to check-imaging and image exchange scored a series of victories in recent weeks as three banks settled with the company and agreed to license its technology. A settlement between Bank of …
Read More »Fiserv Scores Mobile ‘Triple Play,’ But No POS Payments Soon
Although processor Fiserv Inc. dived in to mobile banking and payments head first on Tuesday with its announcement that it would offer mobile services through three channels on one platform, it will be some time before mobile point-of-sale payments become available on the new product. Dubbed Fiserv Mobile Money, the …
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