Rejected by many retailers, the point-of-purchase electronic-check code has one fan that really counts: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart expects the last 300 of its approximately 3,400 U.S. Wal-Mart locations to go live with the automated clearing house payment option next Monday. Wal-Mart's push behind …
Read More »The Clearing House Prepares for Consumer Use of Payment Codes
Electronic transactions using unique numerical identifiers to mask account and routing data are rising fast, and now the company behind the technology expects it will be commercially available for consumer payments in about a year. The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC says corporate users made 80,459 transactions in 2006 using …
Read More »Processors Report Major Leaps for Image Exchange So Far in ’07
After months in which banks struggled to cope with the technology and rules surrounding image exchange, check processors so far in 2007 are reporting remarkable leaps in image-exchange volume. The nation's largest image-exchange network reported Monday its March volume hit 177.4 million items, up 507% over March 2006. Volume was …
Read More »Current ACH Risk-Management Proposal To Be Followed by Two More
Proposals to print originators' names on statements and to make compliance audits hinge on the kind of transactions banks are originating are set to follow a current proposal from NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association to increase penalties for unauthorized transactions on the automated clearing house network, according to a NACHA official. …
Read More »POP Continues Its Rebound, But Will BOC Take a Bite?
The automated clearing house's point-of-purchase electronic-check code in 2006's fourth quarter once again posted the highest growth rate among the various e-check codes, but the new back-office conversion (BOC) application that went live March 16 could soon claim POP's place in the sun. According to new data from Herndon, Va.-based …
Read More »NACHA Greets Debut of BOC with Cautious Expectations
Today, the much-heralded back-office conversion electronic-check code goes live on the automated clearing house network. But rather than throw a huge birthday party, executives of the ACH's governing body, NACHA?The Electronic Payments Association, and banks are marking BOC's debut in a decidedly low-key manner. BOC will allow retailers and other …
Read More »Study Finds ‘Pervasive And Increasing’ Fraud in Payments
A survey released this week by a major trade association for corporate treasury officials raises an alarm about fraud in check and electronic payments and points to vulnerabilities in newer transaction channels, such as the Internet. “Payments fraud last year was pervasive and increasing,” says a report from the Association …
Read More »Image Exchange Kicked into a Higher Gear in January, Stats Show
Image exchange and image clearing kicked into a higher gear in January, with more than half a billion items flowing through image-exchange networks for the first time. Just over two years since the Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century (Check 21) became effective, the volume of checks converted to …
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 …
Read More »Community Banks See ‘Survival,’ New Business in Remote Capture
Some 16% of community banks offer remote deposit capture of checks to business customers, and nearly one-third of these say they have adopted the electronic check technology as “an essential survival strategy,” according to a survey released on Monday by the American Bankers Association. At the same time, 65% of …
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