Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
With the unrelenting rise of phishing attacks, banks and merchants are hunting for new ways to secure the identity of consumers in online transactions. That's creating opportunities for companies like LexisNexis, proprietor of one of the world's largest databases of public-record information. Now the company's RiskWise unit is looking at …
Read More »Viewpointe’s Image on Demand System Goes Live with First Bank Duo
Viewpointe Archive Services LLC became the latest image-exchange venture to go live today when First Horizon and SunTrust Banks became the first banks to clear checks through the service. Earlier this fall, the Small Value Payments Co., New York, began moving check images for client banks, and Endpoint Exchange Inc., …
Read More »AmEx-Citi Is Great PR for AmEx, But How Profitable Will It Really Be?
Citigroup Inc.'s decision to issue American Express cards may turn out to be a more symbolic than substantive victory in the credit card wars for AmEx, according to some observers. “It's clearly a victory, but more a marketing victory,” says Gwenn Bezard, a payments-industry analyst at New York-based research firm …
Read More »BitPass Rolls out a Hosted Service for Small Sellers of Digital Content
Bitpass Inc., a 2-year-old processor of micropayments on the Internet, has rolled out a new service allowing individuals and small businesses to sell music, photos, or other digital content without creating an e-commerce site. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Bitpass says it will host the content for sellers and handle payments, “from …
Read More »Apple’s iTunes Begins Accepting PayPal for Song Downloads
Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store has announced it is accepting PayPal in the U.S. for payment of song downloads, audiobooks, and gift certificates, effective today. The development represents a major breakthrough for the San Jose, Calif.-based payments unit of eBay Inc. and comes a year after the company slashed …
Read More »A Startup Says It Can Merge RFID Payment with Biometrics
A startup company says it is probably 12 to 18 months away from piloting a contactless payment card that will incorporate both chip-based radio-frequency identification and biometric authentication technology. Up to now, RFID-based payment pilots and programs have not included PINs or any other means of authenticating users. But 2-year-old …
Read More »VeriFone Pays $13 Million Plus for GO Software to Expand POS Market
Leading point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Inc. has announced it is buying GO Software from Return On Investment Corp. for $13 million in a deal expected to close next month. With the acquisition, San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone expands its presence in the market made up of so-called integrated point-of-sale devices, such …
Read More »Stripped of Counsel, iPayment Names New Lawyers in Fraud Case
Nashville, Tenn.-based iPayment Inc. this morning said it has appointed White & Case as its counsel of record in litigation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles, in which it and certain of its officers and directors are defendants against allegations of fraud. The processor also repeated earlier assertions it …
Read More »Visa Adds Chargeback Rights to Its Rapidly Growing Interlink Card
Visa USA announced it is now offering chargeback rights to consumers holding its Interlink PIN debit card. The bank card network sees the extension of chargeback protection to PIN debit as a response to consumer expectation and a competitive edge for Interlink issuers. “As debit usage continues to grow, consumers …
Read More »Hypercom’s Networking Unit Wraps up a Promising First Year
An upstart supplier of transaction-networking infrastructure that was set up by a major maker of point-of-sale terminals has signed a dozen contracts since it began U.S. operations in April and is carrying transactions at the rate of 65 million a month. “It's been a very busy and successful last six …
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