News

May, 2007

• 14 May

  Why Synovus Is Optimistic About NACHA’s Secure Vault Payments

  Unlike its experience with online bill payment, Synovus Financial Corp. expects ultimately to generate significant revenue from a new Internet payments system based on the automated clearing house for which a 12-to-18-month pilot will start by October. Exactly how much revenue, however, may depend on the pilot itself, as well …
• 11 May

  Less Hype, More Substance Now Behind M-Banking, M-Payments

  Unlike efforts during the dotcom boom to introduce mobile payments and banking?efforts that turned out to be more about hype than substance?initiatives emerging now to deliver financial services via mobile phones will find a ready and willing market, according to executives with a major wireless carrier and bank card network …
• 11 May

  Processor Plans To Combine Prepaid MasterCards with Phones

  Prepaid card processor eCommLink Inc. is joining with mobile phone and payment technology providers to offer a cell phone and prepaid debit MasterCard tied to a single account. The prepaid MasterCard function eventually will be incorporated into the phone, enabling consumers to use the phone for payments at merchants' points …
• 9 May

  First Data Plans To Cut 12 Data Centers Down to Three by Mid ’09

  As part of its efforts to rationalize its operations, First Data Corp. plans to consolidate its 12 U.S. data centers into three over a two-year period starting in the second quarter, according to a quarterly report the processing giant filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The total …
• 9 May

  Approached by Suitors, eFunds Starts a ‘Strategic Review’

  Processor eFunds Corp. today gave further momentum to a financial transformation of the transaction-processing business by announcing that it has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co. to explore what it calls “strategic alternatives” that could result in a merger. The eFunds disclosure comes just over a month after announcements …
• 8 May

  How BOC’s Costs Create Opportunities for Check Processors

  The back-office conversion e-check code has been live for nearly two months now, and, as many predicted with its March 16 debut, it came in like a lamb. There have been few, if any, high-profile product launches or other splashy events associated with the new automated clearing house payment option. …
• 7 May

  Eye on Image Exchange: Volume Quintuples, SVPCO Gains in April

  Total image-exchange volume quintupled in the 12 months through March, while the percentage of items clearing at paying banks as images rather than as paper substitute checks grew to 64% from 36%, according to the most recent statistics compiled by the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization. In a further sign …
• 4 May

  A Startup’s Technology Starts to Accelerate M-Commerce

  A Seattle-based startup that translates merchant sites to the mobile Web in a matter of minutes has doubled the number of sites it has signed up for its service in the last six weeks, according to the company's top executive. The company, mPoria Inc., now has about 30 sites signed …
• 3 May

  Soaring Debit Traffic Helps Propel Revenue And Profit at MasterCard

  Surging U.S. debit card traffic is helping to propel revenues and profits for MasterCard Inc. as the Purchase, N.Y.-based network marks its first full year as a publicly held company. Point-of-sale debit card activity for the company hit 1.5 billion transactions in the first quarter, up fully 48% over the …
• 3 May

  First Data’s ViVOtech Stake Could Pay off for Both Companies

  ViVOtech Inc., the Santa Clara, Calif.-based maker of contactless point-of-sale card readers and mobile-wallet applications, is raising $20 million in its third round of venture-capital funding. The lead investor in this latest round announced this week is none other than First Data Corp., the No. 1 payment-card processor. ViVOtech, First …