E-Commerce

Prepaid card processors paired up with partners ranging from Facebook to Western Union to the MoneyPass surcharge-free ATM network in deals this week that expand the processors' distribution channels and transaction sources. In a cutting-edge deal that further opens up an Internet parallel to gift card giving, grocery chain Safeway …

Paper-based bill payments continued their decline in the third quarter while Internet bill payments gained more ground, according to the latest automated clearing house data. The accounts receivable conversion (ARC) code for paper checks sent to billers' lockboxes and then converted into electronic checks had 583.8 million transactions in the …

Secure Vault Payments, an online-payments program that lets consumers pay merchants from their checking accounts via the automated clearing house network, is catching on as a way to pay tuition and other costs at the University of Georgia, which began using the method in July in time for fall-semester tuition …

Electronic payments are showing signs of life as consumers open up their wallets and purses early in this holiday spending season. But just how wide they'll open those wallets and purses as the season goes on is uncertain. The early take is that volumes are up from 2008's anemic levels, …

A comparison-shopping application that works on mobile phones will soon tie into PayPal Inc.'s payment platform, blurring the distinction between online commerce and brick-and-mortar retailing and setting the stage for potentially big transaction volumes. Alexander Muse, co-founder of Dallas-based Big in Japan Inc., says he expects his company's ShopSavvy app …

Although implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) begins Tuesday, the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services next week will hold a hearing on two bills that would replace or set a new date for implementation of the controversial gambling legislation. A hearing on the new …

U.S. financial institutions have made considerable progress in fighting identity fraud, but still lag in their use of one of the most potent weapons in their arsenal: putting anti-fraud controls in the hands of the consumer. That's according to research released on Tuesday by Javelin Strategy & Research. The Pleasanton, …

With one week to go until Cyber Monday, the e-commerce equivalent of the day after Thanksgiving in physical stores, the early read on the 2009 e-commerce holiday-shopping season is that it will probably continue 2008's trends. Last year was most notable for its decline in average tickets as consumers put …

It often seems impossible to thwart online fraudsters, but e-commerce merchants made headway in the past year, according to CyberSource Corp.'s 11th annual study of e-commerce fraud. For the first time in four years, U.S. and Canadian merchants reported a decline in the average percentage of online revenues lost to …

Coming off a tough year in 2009, independent sales organizations and other acquirers rank merchant attrition and shrinking margins as their top challenges as they look ahead to next year. Acquirers also rank mobile-related products as their biggest emerging market for next year, while they plan to invest more in …