News

March, 2006

• 20 March

  NACHA’s New Web Product Could Unleash Strong Bank Competition

  NACHA's proposed new product for Internet transactions, which it is proposing to test later this year (Digital Transactions News, March 15), could unleash powerful competitive forces among banks if it becomes a commercial payment application, an expert observer notes. Banks that choose to allow their customers to pay online merchants …
• 17 March

  First Data’s Bailis Ponders His Strategy for Debit Cards, Services

  Few people know First Data Corp. better than David P. Bailis. Starting in 1989, he worked on everything from health-care payments to e-commerce and held titles as diverse as general counsel and chief administrative officer. He retired in 2001 to dabble in his own financial-services consulting businesses. But he came …
• 16 March

  Huge Hack Threatens to Cool off Torrid Growth of PIN Debit Payments

  Security experts warn that the recently exposed case of widespread debit card fraud could jeopardize the growth of PIN debit. Debit card transactions secured by PINs have been growing by 20% or more annually in recent years, more than twice as fast as credit cards. “I think it is a …
• 16 March

  Consumers Put Cap on What They’ll Pay for Wireless Song Downloads

  The wild popularity of song downloads has not only helped make a case for micropayments processing, it has drawn wireless carriers into the market with the idea that consumers will pay significantly more than the standard online rate of 99 cents per track for the convenience of loading songs over …
• 15 March

  NACHA Starts Drive to Sign up Participants for Web-Payment Pilot

  A recruitment effort began today to find banks, billers, and merchants to participate in a pilot of a new system by which consumers would be able to make payments on the Internet through the automated clearing house. Sponsored by NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based organization that sets rules for the ACH, …
• 14 March

  Back-Office Conversion To Get a Vote Soon, May Start in September

  A new form of automated clearing house payment that merchants could use to convert checks into electronic funds transfers could become a reality by September. A proposal from NACHA for so-called back-office conversion, which would allow businesses to collect consumer checks from points of sale and convert them later on …
• 13 March

  Losses Could Top $1 Billion from Debit Card Hack, Hurting PIN Debit

  The widening damage from the unfolding debit card hacking incident is challenging the conventional wisdom that PIN-based debit cards are inherently more secure than credit cards, which rely on signatures?though it still doesn't make a case for chip cards. That's according to one expert whose latest estimates are that this …
• 10 March

  Google Could Be Weeks Away from Launching a PayPal-Like Service

  Google Inc., whose recent moves to create an online-payments service for use on some of its own platforms have stirred considerable speculation about its ambitions in electronic transactions, will launch a service soon that will compete with existing e-commerce payment marks like PayPal, says a source familiar with the matter. …
• 9 March

  A New Tactic Aims at Thwarting Efforts to Shut Down Phishing Sites

  A new tactic has been discovered that lets fraudsters keep their online crimes going even as authorities are identifying and shutting down phishing sites. RSA Security Inc., whose RSA Cyota Anti-Fraud Command Center discovered the new tactic, says it is called a smart redirection attack and is intended to make …
• 8 March

  Nokia Pilots Indicate User Willingness to Pay for Mobile TV Channels

  In three out of four European consumer tests of mobile television, more than half of the users said they'd be willing to pay for TV content on their handhelds, according to pilot results released today by Nokia, whose phones were involved in all four pilots. The sums these participants said …