Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A small, privately held company based in the outskirts of Chicago figures it has the platform on which mobile payments will take off in the U.S., a market that up to now has not been favorable for handheld-based transactions. By the end of the year, C-Sam Inc. plans to have …
Read More »Scoring Models Get Results, Make Gains with Online Merchants
Automated risk-scoring systems are starting to assume a higher profile among online merchants as they struggle to control transaction-fraud losses, rejection of valid orders on suspicion of fraud, and the costs of manual order review. David A. Glaser, director of professional services at CyberSource Corp., a Mountain View, Calif.-based transaction-processing …
Read More »Top Australian Bank Regulator Defends Interchange Regulation
In testimony today before a committee of the Australian house of representatives, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia stoutly defended the RBA's action last year to regulate credit card interchange rates in that country, claiming it has saved merchants some $447 million (US) in the past year and …
Read More »FDC May Emerge As Bigger Winner in Merchant Deal with Citi
Citigroup Inc.'s decision to bail out of the merchant-acquiring business, which was announced yesterday, could benefit both the banking kingpin and the buyer of the 15,000-location portfolio, processing giant First Data Corp. But Denver-based FDC may emerge as the bigger winner, some observers say, now that Citi has decided to …
Read More »MasterCard Stats Show Continued Double-Digit Rise for Signature Debit
Signature-based debit continued to grow at double-digit rates in the second quarter, as indicated by statistics released today by MasterCard International. Total MasterCard signature, or off-line, debit volume hit $48 billion in the U.S., up 32.3% over the same period last year. The point-of-sale component of this activity was $29.1 …
Read More »Data-Breach Cases Begin to Spawn Legal and Regulatory Fallout
As the number of headlines about database breaches grows, so too does the number of lawsuits filed in response, as well as the amount of legislation aimed at better protecting consumer data. Several suits have already been filed in the wake of recent thefts of card data at Columbus, Ohio-based …
Read More »Hacking Incidents Are a Boon for Payment-Industry Gumshoes
The increase in thefts of personal and financial information from databases, highlighted by the recent security breach at payment processor CardSystems Solutions Inc., is causing other processing entities to enhance security efforts beyond just fortifying computers and telecommunications links. For instance, Vital Processing Services LLC, a big merchant processor based …
Read More »Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Argue Kendall Won’t Sink Their Interchange Cases
The lead attorney in a recently filed small-business class action against Visa, MasterCard, and a number of their member banks over interchange is optimistic his lawsuit will succeed even though a suit by some California small businesses challenging interchange on antitrust grounds was dismissed this week. In separate statements, Visa …
Read More »AmEx: So Far So Good with MBNA, Though It’s Still Early in BofA Deal
American Express Co. has so far seen no change in its relationship with MBNA Corp., which last year began issuing cards on AmEx's network in the U.S. but is now in the process of being acquired by Bank of America Corp. in a $35 billion deal that was announced late …
Read More »iPayment Board Rejects $38-Per-Share Offer from CEO As Undervalued
An offer from Gregory S. Daily, chief executive of Nashville, Tenn.-based processor iPayment Inc., to buy the company has been rejected by the company as too low. A special committee of iPayment's board of directors announced Friday that Daily's offer to buy all outstanding stock for $38 per share, which …
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