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Bling Nation Ltd. on Wednesday said it has completed a 10-day test of its alternative-payment platform, known as the Community Payment Service. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company also said it plans to continue testing its system preparatory to a rollout. Bling Nation's platform creates closed-loop transaction networks linking local merchants …
Read More »Tempo Plans Some Noise for a Quiet Decoupled Debit Card Market
The market for decoupled debit cards, which has been eerily silent for about a year, may soon be making waves again. An executive with Tempo Payments Inc., a non-bank processor with the only network-branded product on the market currently, said this week the company plans to launch a new product …
Read More »Recession Is Boosting Some Prepaid Cards, But Profits Are Lagging
Prepaid cards branded by one of the national payment card networks are benefting most from the recession, but prepaid profitability overall is suffering, according to a survey of prepaid card executives whose results were released in a report this week. The survey, conducted by payments-research firm Aite Group LLC at …
Read More »Pulse Becomes Third EFT Network to Agree to Test Online PIN Debit
The Pulse electronic funds transfer network on Monday announced it will test transactions in which consumers use PIN debit cards to pay online merchants. The Houston-based network is the third EFT system to agree to run such a pilot using technology from Acculynk Inc., an Atlanta-based software company. The Accel/Exchange …
Read More »With Antonini’s Abrupt Departure, Cardtronics Looks for a New Boss
Cardtronics Inc. chief executive Jack M. Antonini has left the company, the big non-bank ATM network operator announced on Wednesday. The company didn't give a reason for the sudden departure of Antonini, who has been its top officer since 2003, though a short press release indicated its board of directors …
Read More »Hypercom Sees a Hit from the Recession, Exchange Rates
Hypercom Corp. anticipates that the drop in its first-quarter revenues may be larger than in the past due to volatile currency exchange rates, the deteriorating economy, and a tightening credit market, said Philippe Tartavull, chief executive and president. “It is quite clear that our industry as a whole will contract …
Read More »A Cautious Chase Paymentech Signs Up for Online PIN Debit
The nation's largest processor of e-commerce transactions this week announced its commitment to a test involving PIN debit payments on the Internet. Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, which processes for merchants that control more than half of all U.S. transactions on the Web, expects to sign between three and five sizable …
Read More »Retailers Form Association To Defend Closed-Loop Gift Cards
The Retail Gift Card Association is recruiting new members with the aim of building a positive image of closed-loop gift cards, getting members to follow an ethics code, and countering the bad publicity directed at gift cards in recent months by consumer groups and legislators monitoring marooned cards whose sponsor …
Read More »Web-Based PIN Debit Picks up Momentum with a Pilot and New Deals
The Accel/Exchange electronic funds transfer network has signed up a handful of issuers for an Internet-based PIN debit pilot that processed its first transaction, for $9.49, on Wednesday, according to Michael Kelly, general manager of the Morris Plains, N.J.-based network, a unit of Milwaukee-based bank processor Fiserv Inc. Kelly says …
Read More »VeriFone Hopes to Counter Worldwide Slump with Security Push
Reduced buying from merchant acquirers, the stock-market downdraft, and currency fluctuations teamed up to take a big bite out of payment card terminal maker VeriFone Holdings Inc.'s latest financials. VeriFone late Tuesday reported a $182 million loss for its first fiscal 2009 quarter ended Jan. 31, and its boss predicts …
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