Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
With online bill payment evolving into a mainstream service from financial institutions, the demographic profile of its users also is beginning to look more mainstream, according to new survey results from bank processor Fiserv Inc. But the findings indicate that the bill-pay market’s rapid evolution means banks and credit unions …
Read More »MasterCard Seeks to Harness Innovation Through Open APIs
In what one of its top executives characterizes as a “philosophical shift,” MasterCard Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a plan by which it will make its payments platforms available to developers through open application programming interfaces, or open APIs. The company will also create a portal for developers where they can …
Read More »Software House Behind Mobile Capture Gets into the Black
After rolling out its flagship mobile remote deposit software product in mid-2009, Mitek Systems Inc. is harvesting a bit of a profit. The company last week reported net income of $7,000 for its fiscal 2010 second quarter ended March 31. That’s close to break even, but much better than the …
Read More »A Bill to Regulate Online Gambling Gets an Airing in Washington
The battle over online gambling continued earlier this week during a hearing held by the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on legislation to tax licensed Internet gambling in the U.S. The bill—known as the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act—was reintroduced in March by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. …
Read More »Software Platforms Will Rule the Future of Payments, Expert Argues
The future of payments belongs to innovators that use software platforms to develop new services that can be quickly brought to market, according to David S. Evans, an economist and veteran payment-industry observer. Evans, keynote speaker at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s annual payments conference Thursday, cited PayPal Inc., …
Read More »Heavyweight Entrants Help Trigger a Merger in Card-Acceptance Apps
The principals of a leading software developer and its independent sales organization partner in the card-processing application market for Apple Inc.’s iPhone have bought a key rival, a move they say will enable them to thrive in a fast-changing market that is attracting heavyweight competitors. Inner Fence LLC and Dublin, …
Read More »An iPhone Accessory Heats up the Push for NFC on Memory Cards
With the announcement on Monday by DeviceFidelity Inc. that it has developed a case for Apple Inc.’s iPhone that will let the popular smart phone accept a memory card, the payments industry took what some observers consider a key step toward the commercialization of near-field communication (NFC), the interactive technology …
Read More »PINless Debit, Card Acceptance for Consumers from Obopay
Online PINless debit transactions could get a boost if a package of four new mobile-payments services from Obopay Inc. proves to be a hit. Dubbed Mobile Money for Banks, Obopay’s new white-label service has another interesting twist besides PINless debit in that it will enable consumers to accept payment cards. …
Read More »Square Founders Get Rock Star Welcome But Give Few Details
The founders of the much-hyped Square Inc. payments system may have wowed a full-house crowd of bankers on Monday, but they added little to public understanding of how their product will actually work and how it will stack up competitively with similar offerings for mobile merchants. While polite and talkative …
Read More »Ebay Chief Touts PayPal Innovation As Processor Logs Strong Results
Online auctioneer eBay Inc. on Wednesday said its PayPal Inc. unit has generated more than $30 million in payments so far on the open platform it introduced in November. Thousands of developers have now written applications using application programming interfaces PayPal has introduced for the platform, eBay officials said, allowing …
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