News

January, 2005

• 14 January

  Eye on ISOs: First American/NDFC, iPayment, Wireless News

  Two key results of First American Payment Systems L.P.'s acquisition of National Data Funding Corp.?consummated late last year and announced last week?are that First American gains an inhouse facility for wireless, Internet Protocol-based transaction processing while R. Scott Hatfield, one of NDFC's long-time owners, can now devote himself full-time to …
• 14 January

  Walgreen’s Decides to Keep Taking AmEx Cards After Cutting New Deal

  Pharmacy giant Walgreen's Co., which a month ago announced it would stop accepting American Express cards effective today, has reversed itself, announcing it will continue taking AmEx cards after reaching a new multi-year deal with the card company. Terms of the new arrangement were not released. “We were able to …
• 13 January

  Study: ARC Will Account for 21% of Consumer Bill Payments by 2007

  The automated clearing house system will account for more than one-fifth of all consumer bill payments by 2007, thanks to dramatic growth in the conversion of checks sent to billers' lockboxes into electronic ACH transactions, according to a new study from consulting firm TowerGroup, Needham, Mass. This conversion, known as …
• 12 January

  PayPal Says It Will Stop Blocking of Payments Backed by Credit Cards

  PayPal Inc. has announced it will no longer allow sellers that have bank accounts registered with the San Jose, Calif.-based processor to block payments funded by credit cards, effective next month. Sellers' ability to refuse such payments has been part of the company's “Payment Receiving Preferences” policy for so-called premier …
• 12 January

  Discover Seals Its Pulse Acquisition Following Pulse Members’ OK

  Discover Financial Services Inc. and Pulse EFT Association announced today that Discover's $311-million acquisition of the Houston-based electronic funds transfer network, announced in November, has closed. The deal's completion follows approval of the merger by Pulse's member banks, and, according to Discover, more than doubles the company's U.S. card base …
• 12 January

  eFunds Buys ClearCommerce, Picks up CNP Anti-Fraud Expertise

  eFunds Corp. today announced it is buying ClearCommerce Corp., an e-commerce transaction gateway specializing in online fraud detection and prevention, for $19.4 million in cash. The deal is expected to close by March 31. By acquiring Austin, Texas-based ClearCommerce, eFunds picks up anti-fraud products and expertise for the card-not-present market, …
• 11 January

  GTCR Will Keep Its Grip on VeriFone Even After the Proposed IPO

  VeriFone Inc. will continue to be controlled by GTCR Golder Rauner LLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm, and its current chief executive, Douglas Bergeron, will continue to be a major shareholder even after the San Jose, Calif.-based point of sale terminal maker completes its proposed initial public offering of stock. …
• 10 January

  Half of Online Banking Customers Are Phishing Targets, Survey Shows

  Half of online banking customers now receive fraudulent e-mails, known as phishes, and 78% say they are less inclined to respond to e-mails from the banks they do business with. That's according to a study released by New York-based security software company Cyota Inc. that illustrates how much worse the …
• 7 January

  WaMu’s Move to MasterCard Underlines Intense Card Competition

  Washington Mutual Inc.'s decision to switch its 10.5-million-card debit portfolio to MasterCard International from Visa U.S.A., though a big win for MasterCard, doesn't necessarily herald a trend, observers say. At the same time, it throws into relief a bylaw Visa quietly put into place in 2003 that penalizes large debit-card-issuing …
• 6 January

  Visa Holiday Volume Up 15.7%, as Transactions Peak Christmas Eve

  Visa reports the holiday shopping season generated a 15.7% increase in dollar volume on its card products compared to the same time last year, with volume reaching $218.7 billion on all Visa-branded cards in the Nov. 1 to Jan. 2 period. Consumer spending on the company's debit cards grew 26.2%, …