Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A startup called Openbucks this week introduced a service that lets consumers use merchants’ gift cards to buy goods online from other merchants. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company, which has been working for five months with gift cards issued by the Subway sandwich-shop chain, claims its “gift card payment …
Read More »Buoyed by Gift Cards, Closed-Loop Prepaid Grew Faster Than Expected in 2010
Closed-loop prepaid cards held their own in 2010, growing by 13% in loads to $261.2 billion from $230.3 billion in 2009, according to Mercator Advisory Group Inc.’s newly released industry study. In fact, the closed-loop market, which while bigger in loads but slower growing than the newer, general-purpose or …
Read More »Online Banking Catches a Tidal Wave of Consumer Popularity
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Read More »Consumers May Not See Much Durbin Benefit from Card-Not-Present Merchants
n Some 41% of card-not-present merchants responding to the survey at the Direct Response Forum’s annual conference earlier this month said they do not intend to pass on lower debit card costs to consumers, according to results announced on Thursday by the DRF. Fully 56% said they don’t know …
Read More »U.S. Bank Adds to the Roster of Secure Vault Payments Acceptors
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Read More »A Technical Glitch Short-Changes Developers Selling Apps on Android Market
A technical gremlin has caused thousands of developers to be short-changed on payments they are due for applications they sell through Google Inc.’s online Android Market. The glitch, which developed some time in July, has created a mismatch between customers’ orders on Google Checkout, the Mountain View, Calif.-based Web …
Read More »Malware And Spear-Phishing Soar, Helping To Drive Rise in Breaches
While the payments business continues to fret about data breaches, new information emerged this week that helps explain how such pernicious leaks happen, and why they’re happening with increased frequency. While notable breaches like the one at Sony earlier this year steal headlines, cybercriminals are plundering accounts at organizations …
Read More »Isis Backer Verizon Wireless Agrees to Add AmEx’s Serve to Phones And Tablets
n n n n n n n New York City-based Payfone uses a consumer’s mobile-phone number to authorize purchases. AmEx led a $19 million investment in Payfone in April that included the investment arm of Verizon Communications, n
Read More »First Checks, Now Cards: How Entrepreneurs Are Harnessing Cameras for Payments
n Jumio Inc., a startup based in Mountain View, Calif., this week introduced a system that lets consumers scan credit and debit cards using the Webcam built into many PCs. The launch follows a similar application introduced earlier this year by Card.io, San Francisco, that lets mobile phones scan …
Read More »Brand Protection, Internal Threats Emerge Among Chief PCI Preoccupations
Fear of the damage that a data breach can inflict on a brand, rather than of network fines, drives organizations to invest in compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), a study released on Tuesday says. Some 69% of the mostly online organizations surveyed cited brand protection …
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