Among all the types of merchants that accept card transactions, coffee shops, pizza parlors, burger places, and food stores might need to keep an extra-careful watch on their card data. If they’re operating as a franchisee and part of a chain, they might want to be especially wary. And if …
Read More »MasterCard Sees Durbin Gains But Draws the Line at Credit Card Interchange Cuts
MasterCard Inc. posted strong debit card growth in 2011’s fourth quarter, and the No. 2 card network’s top executive told analysts on Thursday that MasterCard is picking up some new business because of the Durbin Amendment. At the same time, however, MasterCard president and chief executive Ajay Banga said the …
Read More »Durbin Produces Contracts for First Data’s Star, But Results Are Months Away
Leading payment processor First Data Corp. reported on Wednesday that its merchant-acquiring operations are enjoying a temporary profit lift and its Star electronic funds transfer network has won more than 20 new contracts from financial institutions as a result of the Durbin Amendment. But whether those new contracts actually …
Read More »Shazam Announces Network-Wide Availability of Mobile Acceptance Including PIN Debit
The Shazam electronic funds transfer network on Wednesday announced it is making available across its network a mobile-payments service that lets stores, tradesmen, and other merchants accept PIN-debit transactions as well as credit and signature-debit payments. With the rollout, the service is available to nearly 1,500 member financial institutions and …
Read More »How Banks’ PR Fiascoes Compromise Their Ability to Recoup Revenue Lost to Durbin
The banks’ defeat on the Durbin Amendment—followed by their hamhanded efforts to recover lost revenue with explicit debit card fees—may have done more than tarnish their image with consumers. It may also have damaged their ability to deploy revenue-generating programs linked to debit cards, according to Beth Robertson, director of …
Read More »With No Credit Card Cushion, TCF Sees Debit Card Revenue Drop 51%
Yet another big debit card issuer, TCF Financial Corp., weighed in with results from the first full quarter of Durbin Amendment debit card interchange price controls, and they weren’t pretty. The Wayzata, Minn.-based regional bank said on Tuesday that card revenue fell 51% to $13.6 million in the fourth quarter …
Read More »Holiday Post-Mortems Show Healthy Volume Gains, Sagging Average Tickets, Shift to Debit
The post mortems on the holiday shopping season are arriving from major processors, and the emerging picture appears to be one of strong consumer spending but drooping average tickets online, in physical stores, and on merchant-branded gift cards. At least one report also found a switch in consumer preferences in …
Read More »The Durbin Amendment’s Early Toll on Big Banks: $1.1 Billion And Counting
Ouch. The Durbin Amendment, which slapped debit card interchange price controls on big banks beginning Oct.1, cost some of the nation’s largest financial institutions more than $1.1 billion in reduced fourth-quarter revenue. Digital Transactions News calculated that figure based on what seven national or large regional banks disclosed over …
Read More »Though Zappos Case Gets ’12 off to Gloomy Start, Number of Card Records Breached Fell in 2011
Despite a seemingly non-stop parade of headlines about data breaches last year, the number of credit and debit card records compromised actually fell, according to new figures from the Identity Theft Resource Center. The ITRC says it identified 111 data breaches that exposed 3.38 million records in 2011. n In …
Read More »It Did Turn Out To Be a Very Merry Christmas Online for Merchant Processors
The strong increases in online payment transactions noticed by merchant acquirers and others in November continued through the entire holiday shopping season, according to recently released data. Leading e-commerce acquirer Chase Paymentech reported on Thursday that its Cyber Holiday Pulse Index recorded nearly 360 million transactions valued at approximately $14.5 …
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