Issuing/Originating

Within minutes of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision this morning to let stand a lower court's ruling forcing Visa and MasterCard to allow members to issue cards on the American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services Inc. networks, Discover filed suit against the bank card associations and AmEx announced it …

The volume of paper checks processed by the Federal Reserve is falling at a rate of 10% to 11% so far this year and is expected to plunge another 13% to 15% in 2005, according to James M. Lyon, first vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. This …

Debit card fraud in Canada last year amounted to $44 million ($34 million U.S.), which criminals drained from some 27,000 accounts, according to data recently compiled by Interac, the national electronic funds transfer network. The study represents the first attempt in Canada to measure fraud losses sustained by holders of …

A network built by New York-based Small Value Payments Co. (SVPCo.) to allow banks to exchange check images has begun operations with exchanges between KeyBank and J.P. Morgan Chase. The network began with volume at a “controlled” level to allow each bank to test operations, according to an announcement from …

Although some issuers and processors have soured on so-called single-use or proxy numbers for secure Internet transactions, Discover Financial Services Inc. has just rolled out an advanced version of its own single-use system and plans very soon to begin a major marketing campaign for it. The most significant feature of …

The conversion of paper checks into electronic transactions at lockboxes maintained by utilities, insurers, credit card companies and other major consumer billers is growing at a red-hot pace. The process, known as accounts-receivable conversion (ARC), ballooned almost 800% in the second quarter over the year-ago period and now accounts for …

The rapid growth of the market for stored-value cards issued to employees in lieu of paychecks has prompted a wide array of consumer and labor groups to petition the Federal Reserve Board to extend to payroll cards the consumer protections of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act. In a letter sent …

The criminal activity known as phishing soared to new heights last month, according to statistics released today by the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The consortium of Internet companies and law-enforcement agencies reported that the number of unique phishing incidents recorded by the group rose 180% to 1,125 in April, more than …

Deploring the extent to which banks have turned over key functions in consumer payments to non-bank companies, a leading figure in the payments industry on Thursday called on banks to “seize back” leadership in the industry. In a keynote address delivered at the Bank Administration Institute's TransPay trade show in …

A new national survey of debit card holders indicates a significant portion of consumers would be inclined to punish retailers and banks if they imposed fees or tried to restrict the range of accepted payment products. When asked how they would react if a merchant no longer accepted their debit …