Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The recent surge of interest by banks in allowing customers to view accounts, pay bills, and perform other functions via mobile phones is paving the way for mobile payments to merchants at the point of sale, according to a new research report. In particular, the report argues, mobile banking will …
Read More »Banks Are Starting To Go Mobile, But Consumers Are Ho-Hum
Just as banks are starting to jump back into the mobile-banking market, a research report has emerged to indicate consumers may still not be ready to use their handsets for transaction services. Only 8% of online users who own a cell phone say they are interested in using the device …
Read More »CheckFree’s Market Grows, But Biggest Customer Could Bolt
Never wanting for hype, the electronic bill-payment industry may actually have something solid to crow about. Bill-pay processor CheckFree Corp. released a survey this week saying that for the first time, Internet-connected households are paying more bills electronically than by paper check. Tempering the good news for the Norcross, Ga.-based …
Read More »Fraudsters Are Starting to Score Successes Against Online Banking
Most banks report that their online-banking and bill-pay channels are experiencing no or only modest increases in fraud, according to a new survey from Boston-based research firm Aite Group LLC. But that's no reason to rest easy, says the researcher who oversaw the survey. Aite surveyed 21 of the top …
Read More »Having Snagged 2Checkout, ATM Direct Aims at More Merchants
A processor that allows consumers to pay online with their PIN debit cards signed its second merchant this week and expects 18 more by the end of the year, including two more this quarter. “I feel good about the conversations we're having now with top online merchants,” says Robert Ziegler, …
Read More »Citi Expects New Mobile Service to Reach More Than Half of Accounts
The new mobile-banking application unveiled by Citigroup Inc. this week will penetrate more than half of the banking giant's U.S. consumer accounts within five years, an executive at Citi says. The application, dubbed Citi Mobile and set to debut Friday in California, represents the first rollout of an electronic-banking and …
Read More »If Spun off, Would Metavante Remain Independent for Long?
Barely a day after industry-leading processor First Data Corp. announced that it was going private comes word that the Milwaukee bank-holding company that owns Metavante Corp. is dusting off plans to spin off its fast-growing payments subsidiary. According to The Wall Street Journal, Marshall & Ilsley Corp. is planning a …
Read More »Eye on M-Commerce: Firethorn, Metavante, ViVOtech, MobileLime
It has been a busy week for mobile banking and payments, with an announcement from Firethorn Holdings Inc. about new bank and carrier signings; from Metavante Corp. about a joint venture to launch a U.S. mobile-payments service; from ViVOtech about a new service to allow over-the-air provisioning of event tickets; …
Read More »FDC Exits Money Orders As Prepaid Cards, Walk-in Bill Pay Make Gains
Leading payment processor First Data Corp. said on Thursday it would gradually exit the money-order and official-check businesses, a move some analysts see as a landmark in the growth of prepaid cards and electronic bill payment by consumers lacking traditional bank accounts. “Money orders are in big trouble,” says research …
Read More »Getting Over the Inevitability of Alternative Payments
10 Tipping Points for the Payments Industry Part 8 From the way alternative-payment options are treated by the big players in the electronic- payments industry, you would think these options carried infectious diseases. Not long ago, a payments executive on the treasury side of a major national retailer lamented that …
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