Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Noted in recent years for its strategy of buying assets in high-growth processing niches, TransFirst LLC is back in the hunt, this time looking for a bill-payment processor that can help it create a service for small financial institutions that would allow customers to pay bills on the banks' Web …
Read More »Data Breaches, State Laws Drive Encryption Business for Ingrian
Widespread publicity surrounding the huge data breach at CardSystems Solutions Inc., coupled with a movement among the states to require disclosure of data compromises, is driving business for companies specializing in data security. “Consumers are up in arms about enterprises not taking security seriously enough,” says Karim Toubba, vice president …
Read More »Britain’s OFT Says Visa’s Interchange Pricing Is Anti-Competitive
The United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading today said interchange fees paid by Visa acquirers to Visa issuers in the U.K. are anti-competitive, an action that could lead to regulatory action against the fee structure. In what it calls a “statement of objections,” the OFT said Visa's interchange structure, formally …
Read More »Expedited Bill Payments Grow at Double-Digit Rates, Go More Electronic
So-called expedited bill payments are rapidly growing in volume in the U.S., and are also becoming increasingly electronic as remote-payment channels like the Internet gain transaction share from traditional walk-in channels. That's one conclusion TowerGroup, a Needham, Mass.-based payments-research firm, has come to in two studies released this week. Expedited …
Read More »Study: Signature Debit Fraud Runs 15 Times Higher Than on PIN Debit
Financial institutions lost an estimated $546 million to debit card fraud in 2004, with fraud rates running much higher on signature-based cards than on cards secured with PINs, according to study released this week. Banks lost $345 million in fraud committed on ATMs, while fraud on signature-debit cards cost them …
Read More »Businesses Favor Interchange Caps, Agree with Suits, Survey Shows
More than two-thirds of treasury professionals within businesses that sell to consumers favor capping card interchange fees, according to a survey released today by the Association for Financial Professionals. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of these executives would trade rewards programs for lower interchange rates, even if their own companies lost incentives. …
Read More »With Rita Looming, Pulse Moves Switch to Data Center in Dallas
With Hurricane Rita bearing down on the Gulf coast of Texas, Pulse EFT Association Inc. announced today it has moved processing operations from its Houston data center to a redundant center in Dallas. Cindy Ballard, executive vice president for the electronic funds transfer network, called the move “purely precautionary” in …
Read More »Report: Patent Case Threatens to Cripple U.S. Prepaid Wireless Market
The outcome in a patent-infringement case in May is hindering the development of the prepaid wireless business in the U.S. at a time when the market is already behind overseas markets in usage, a report released by a major research firm says. According to the report from the Yankee Group, …
Read More »Hannaford Finds PIN Debit Is Now As Expensive As Checks
Despite the vaunted efficiencies of electronic transactions, at least one regional supermarket chain has found its cost to accept PIN debit transactions is running close to its acceptance costs for paper checks. As a result, says Bryan Croteau, senior business analyst for Hannaford Bros. Co., Portland, Me.,”I don't want to …
Read More »ECOM Readies an Anonymous Prepaid Card for Web and Point of Sale
After five years of development, Boca Raton, Fla.-based startup ECOM Financial Corp. is planning to introduce an anonymous, disposable prepaid card that will clear transactions through the MasterCard network and be usable for purchases on the Internet as well as at the point of sale. The company, which says it …
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