Competitive Strategies

Nashville, Tenn.-based iPayment Inc., a publicly held independent sales organization processing for 125,000 small merchants, reported strong results for the fourth quarter of last year and for all of 2004, driven mainly by increased economies of scale from merchant-portfolio acquisitions. Revenue jumped to $101.4 million for the quarter and $364.2 …

The ATM Exchange, a supplier of ATM parts and service, will begin selling next month a retrofit product for older ATMs that upgrades them to run on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. The product, called 3DES Plus XP, also renders ATMs compliant with so-called triple-DES encryption requirements laid down by …

The advent of ATMs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system is making it easier for banks, retailers, and other machine deployers to add revenue-generating features to the machines, including advertising. PNC Corp., a Pittsburgh-based bank, has found success in introducing advertising and couponing capability as it swaps out older ATMs …

Any signature-based debit card product that banks in the Pulse electronic funds transfer network may issue with Discover Financial Services Inc. will most likely offer interchange income equal to what they earn on Visa and MasterCard signature debit, the top executive at Pulse says. “Any [signature-debit] fees will have to …

Prepaid wireless service is surging in the U.S in large part because of the efforts of so-called mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which re-sell airtime from the major wireless networks, experts said at an industry conference yesterday. Indeed, the prepaid wireless market in the U.S., counting both airtime and carriers' …

First Data Corp. may have become the first third-party processor to achieve certification on Discover Financial Services Inc.'s network, but it almost certainly won't be the last as the card company uses its newly won freedom to win over issuers of the bank card brands, according to the top executive …

A simmering patent feud between rival biometric transaction processors BioPay LLC and Pay By Touch has taken another twist with Pay By Touch's acquisition of a patent covering check-cashing services, BioPay's core business. In a news release it issued last week, Pay By Touch claimed its competitor had tried to …

North American Health Plans Inc., one of the country's largest third-party administrators of self-funded health-care plans, has begun using Visa- and MasterCard-branded debit cards from Evolution Benefits Inc., an Avon, Conn.-based processor. North American, Buffalo, N.Y., began Jan. 1 issuing Evolution Benefits' cards linked to flexible-spending accounts for its own …

ClearCommerce Corp.'s hopes to better its chances of winning business by becoming part of a publicly held company played a major role in its decision to merge with eFunds Corp., according to a senior executive at ClearCommerce. The Austin, Texas-based provider of transaction gateway and anti-fraud services to Internet merchants …

Pharmacy giant Walgreen's Co., which a month ago announced it would stop accepting American Express cards effective today, has reversed itself, announcing it will continue taking AmEx cards after reaching a new multi-year deal with the card company. Terms of the new arrangement were not released. “We were able to …