Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A multi-faceted marketing partnership between giant Internet portal Yahoo! Inc. and PayPal Inc., announced last week, seems likely to drive a significant flow of transaction volume to online auction provider eBay Inc.'s payment service. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo! is the No. 2 parent company in terms of visited …
Read More »National City Begins Selling ‘Non-Personalized’ Visa Travel Card
National City Corp., Cleveland, has begun selling a so-called non-personalized version of Visa USA's TravelMoney prepaid card, which replaces traveler's checks. National City, which is the sole major bank issuing either personalized or non-personalized versions of Visa's plastic for travelers, is offering instant issue of the new card, embossed with …
Read More »An ACH-Image Proposal for Checks Roils Banks And Networks
A proposal to merge electronic check images with automated clearing house records, which first came to the fore at an industry trade show earlier this month, could become a reality?at least in a limited way–relatively soon. Backers of the plan, which include executives with at least two of the nation's …
Read More »Debitman’s HSBC Deal Could Help It Corral More Merchant Issuers
There are no specific issuing agreements yet, but private-label credit card issuing giant HSBC Retail Services has teamed up with Debitman Card Inc. in a deal that could result in HSBC retailer clients offering PIN-debit cards to their customers usable on Debitman's network. If the arrangement pans out, it would …
Read More »Merchants Hit MasterCard IPO on Anticompetitive Grounds
A law firm co-leading the merchant class-action interchange lawsuit against Visa USA, MasterCard Inc. and a number of their large members yesterday filed a supplemental complaint in federal court asserting that MasterCard's imminent initial public offering of stock is an attempt to shield itself from antitrust liability for past interchange …
Read More »Wal-Mart Claims Its Bank Could Stop Transactions for PCI Non-Compliance
Critics blasted away at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s plan to open a Utah industrial loan corporation for most of three days in late April, and now the world's biggest retailer is firing back. Wal-Mart filed a 14-page letter earlier this month with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. addressing the major concerns …
Read More »Home Depot: No Designs on Payments with Deal to Buy ILC
In sharp contrast to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., leading home-improvement retailer Home Depot Inc. professes no intentions of getting into the payments business even though, like Wal-Mart, it plans to operate a Utah-chartered industrial loan corporation, or ILC, that would give it an entrée into financial services. Less than a month …
Read More »Image Volume Ramp-up in ’06 Beats SVPCO’s Own Projections
A faster-than-expected ramp-up in transaction volume is forcing the country's largest image-exchange network to refigure its growth projections. The Image Payments Network, operated by SVPCO, a unit of New York-based The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC., handled 35.2 million check images in April, up 20.6% from March, according to statistics …
Read More »ORC Chief Says Princeton eCom Play Will Help Build Scale
The deal may be expensive, but Online Resources Corp. expects its definitive agreement to buy bill-payment provider Princeton eCom Corp. to position the combined firm for future growth as electronic bill payments gain favor with consumers and companies. Chantilly, Va.-based Online Resources announced the $180 million cash deal this week …
Read More »In Wake of Big PIN Breach, Visa Tightens Debit-Fraud Controls
At a time when debit card fraud is generating unwelcome headlines, Visa USA is taking two new steps to enhance its information about fraud involving payment cards that rely on personal identification numbers for security. With the goal of spotting fraud trends early and keeping overall fraud under control, Visa …
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