News

December, 2005

• 16 December

  ATM Direct Says It Will Test PIN Debit on the Web Next Year

  A technology that allows consumers to use their debit cards and PINs to buy items on the Internet will likely undergo tests with at least one electronic funds transfer network starting the first half of 2006. A full commercial rollout involving at least one major merchant should be in progress …
• 14 December

  Atlanta NFC Pilot, And Others, Will Lead to Late ’06 Commercialization

  An Atlanta test of mobile-phone payments, mobile downloads, and other applications, announced today, is the first major U.S. test of near-field communication (NFC) for functions like contactless payments, but it won't be the last. Mohammad Khan, president and founder of ViVOtech Inc., which is supplying handset-based wallet software and contactless …
• 13 December

  BitPass’s New CEO Hints MSN Deal Could Be Just the Start with Microsoft

  BitPass Inc.'s agreement with Microsoft Corp. to process payments for digital content sold through regional sites operated by Microsoft's MSN portal may be just the start of a broader payments relationship with the Redmond, Wash. computing giant, says Douglas S. Knopper, BitPass's newly hired chief executive. Knopper, who joined Menlo …
• 12 December

  Corillian Looks to Sell Banks on Least-Cost Routing for Bill Payments

  Online-banking-software provider Corillian Corp. is planning to sell banks on housing their own bill-payment data and using a variety of processors, rather than relying on those processors as exclusive providers of data-warehousing and transaction processing. Hillsboro, Ore.-based Corillian, which earlier this year acquired InteliData Technologies Corp., a vendor of data-warehousing …
• 12 December

  Pay By Touch Closes in on ‘Biometric Proxy’ for PIN in Debit Payments

  Debit card transactions authenticated by a biometric scan rather than a PIN will likely start flowing through at least one electronic funds transfer network by the second quarter of 2006, according to Pay By Touch Solutions, a San Francisco-based supplier of fingerprint-authentication systems for point-of-sale electronic payment. Eric Bachman, chief …
• 9 December

  Velocita, TNS, Pepsi Aim at Profits Via Wireless-Vending Payments

  At $18 billion in annual sales, vending machines represent the biggest cash market in the country, and now card processors, networks, and wireless operators have it in their cross-hairs. The latest initiative involves a three-way venture in which Velocita Wireless LP, a a data-network spin-off of Cingular Wireless LLC, is …
• 8 December

  SVPCO Says 8.8 Million Images Make It No. 1 Private-Sector Network

  An image-exchange network controlled by some of the nation's largest banks says volume in the network reached 8.8 million items in November, up 38% over October and nearly 500 times greater than in January, when the system began commercial operation. SVPCO, a unit of New York-based The Clearing House Payments …
• 8 December

  First Integrated Mobile Terminal for E-Check Acceptance Coming Soon

  An integrated device that would allow plumbers, maid services, pizza-delivery people, and other mobile merchants to perform electronic check conversion as well as accept cards will be commercially available by the end of the first quarter of 2006, according to Commerciant LP, the Houston-based company that makes the terminal. The …
• 7 December

  PassMark: RSA-Cyota Deal Endorses Software-Based Authentication

  In the debate between advocates of software-based authentication and backers of hardware devices, the former are winning, and this week's acquisition of Cyota Inc. by RSA Security Inc. proves it, says PassMark Security LLC. “To have the largest token provider in the world recognize no-hardware, two-factor authentication, it clearly endorses …
• 6 December

  Feuding Rivals Pay By Touch, BioPay Merge to Spur Biometrics

  Two bitter rivals in the biometric-payments arena have merged to helped spur adoption of the technology among merchants. Tim Robinson, chief executive of BioPay LLC, which will shortly become part of its largest competitor, Pay By Touch Solutions, as the result of a deal announced today, says the longstanding rivalry …