Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Few people would deny that a law Congress enacted in 2003 mandating payment card receipt truncation had a noble aim?to prevent criminals from getting enough data when they obtained other people's transaction receipts to steal identities or commit card fraud. But some merchants, while complying with the truncation provision that …
Read More »The Bell Is About To Ring for an Independent Metavante
A representative of Metavante Corp. will ring the opening bell Friday at the New York Stock Exchange in a ceremony that will cap seven months of work since Marshall & Ilsley Corp., the bank-holding company that founded Metavante in 1964, announced in April the banking services and payment processor's planned …
Read More »Upon Further Review, Accounts Exposed in TJX Breach Double
Sources reached by Digital Transactions News aren't surprised at the news that the number of credit and debit card accounts affected in the TJX Cos. breach has doubled, as disclosed by court filings and reported this week by The Boston Globe. Although the off-price retailing chain reported in March that …
Read More »Report: Debit Card Outlook Bright, But Banks Failing on Activation
Debit cards remain the fastest-growing payment devices and they seem likely to endure a possible economic slowdown better than credit cards, according to a new report from TowerGroup Inc. Nevertheless, financial institutions have a propensity to pump out many more debit cards than consumers want. According to the report, “Crediting …
Read More »With Volumes Rising, Pulse Joins Trend to Upgrade Fraud Detection
As fear of fraud climbs at electronic-funds transfer networks along with PIN debit traffic counts, the networks are adopting a variety of technologies to detect fishy transactions. The latest is Pulse EFT Association LP, a Houston-based unit of Discover Financial Services Inc. Pulse on Tuesday announced it is rolling out …
Read More »Key PCI Deadline Passes With Half of Big Merchants Compliant
The Sept. 30 deadline for large merchants to certify compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI, passed quietly over the weekend with an estimated half of so-called Level 1 merchants meeting the card industry's guidelines for protecting card data from fraudsters. And, according to experts contacted by …
Read More »First Data Cuts Data Centers As Its Road Show Starts
First Data Corp. is giving more glimpses of its previously announced plans to tighten up operations as top management and private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. struggle to meet a planned Sept. 30 closing date for KKR's $29 billion leveraged buyout of the No. 1 payments processor. In a …
Read More »The New Irony of Signature Cards: Good at Fraud, Bad at Risk
Data Insecurity Part 5 While absolute dollars of fraud are rising with volume, the payments industry has done a commendable job in managing risk. For every $100 in purchases with signature-based credit cards, only about a nickel winds up as fraud?about one-third what it was 15 years ago?and that rate …
Read More »New Biller Categories, More Vendors Spur PINless Debit Growth
Transactions consumers make online with PIN-debit cards?but without entering their PINs?will soar 40% this year, to an estimated 92 million payments, driven by rising biller adoption, an expansion of eligible biller categories, and increasing availability of the payment option among vendors that handle payments for billers, according to a new …
Read More »Discover Expands Its Gift Card Franchise Through a Big Mall Operator
Discover Financial Services LLC for the first time is selling its gift card to non-Discover customers and at retail locations through a new agreement with Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., the nation's second-largest regional shopping mall developer and manager. Under the program, consumers will be able to buy Discover gift …
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