MoneyGram International Inc.'s deal with Cardtronics Inc. to process remittances and bill payments on more than 2,000 sophisticated kiosks Cardtronics operates in 7-Eleven Inc. convenience stores may extend MoneyGram's reach, but at least one observer questions whether the service will get the traffic the Minneapolis-based money-transfer company is expecting. “I …
Read More »Downturn’s Headwinds Slow Western Union’s Bill-Pay Business
The Western Union Co. has found out that worsening economic conditions in the United States can take a toll on seemingly sure-fire high-growth products like electronic bill payments. Western Union's third-quarter earnings report out on Tuesday shows that consumer-to-business, or bill-pay, revenues and operating income are down 2% and 10% …
Read More »Western Union’s Expedited Offering Nears the Starting Gate
It's been a year since wire-transfer market leader The Western Union Co. announced that it would introduce an expedited bill-payment service with technology provider Yodlee Inc. that banks and credit unions could offer their customers (Digital Transactions News, Oct. 10, 2007). With the operational work nearing completion, the first financial …
Read More »Study Shows Growth for E-Payments, But Paper Lurks Under the Hood
Many studies have documented the rise of card, automated clearing house, and other forms of electronic payments, but a new one from Hitachi Consulting and the Bank Administration Institute sheds some light on just how consumers divide their payments behavior. According to the nationwide study of 3,308 consumers who completed …
Read More »An ACH-Based Bill-Pay Pilot Promises Fee Income to Banks
An electronic bill-presentment and ?payment system that uses the automated clearing house network picked up some momentum recently with the addition of a second participating bank to its pilot program and could gain more as processors serving thousands of banks start linking to the system. Dollar Bank, a Pittsburgh-based thrift, …
Read More »PDFs Offer Promising New Opportunity for Online Fraudsters
The rising popularity of so-called rich-content files is providing cybercriminals a fertile opportunity to spread malicious software that lets them steal passwords, PINs, and other sensitive information on the Internet, according to a report released on Tuesday. Whereas before viruses, Trojans, and other such malware tended to be found on …
Read More »Electronic Bill Pay Growing, But No Bonanza in Expedited Payments
Yet another bill-payment study is out, and this one not surprisingly predicts electronic channels will continue displacing mail and other forms of manual payment. More surprising is how soon electronic payments will surpass physical forms of payment: next year, according to Aite Group LLC. Aite forecasts consumers will make 10.2 …
Read More »Mobile Access, Rising Fees Lift Potential in Expedited Payments
A new study by Javelin Strategy and Research has a bit of good news about last-minute, or expedited, bill payments and about another hot topic, mobile payments. Some 45% of the consumer group Javelin calls “mobile bankers” make an expedited payment at least once a month compared with only 30% …
Read More »A Hot Item for Years, NACHA’s ARC Begins to Cool off
After years of torrid growth, the automated clearing house's electronic-check code for lockbox payments has seen its expansion slow almost to a halt. The second-quarter numbers in the accounts-receivable conversion (ARC) standard entry class (SEC) could be just a blip, or they may reflect a permanent shift toward non-paper bill …
Read More »Fiserv Scores Mobile ‘Triple Play,’ But No POS Payments Soon
Although processor Fiserv Inc. dived in to mobile banking and payments head first on Tuesday with its announcement that it would offer mobile services through three channels on one platform, it will be some time before mobile point-of-sale payments become available on the new product. Dubbed Fiserv Mobile Money, the …
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