News

December, 2003

• 19 December

  Yahoo’s PayDirect Enters the Overseas Remittance Market

  Yahoo Finance, whose PayDirect person-to-person payment service has been in operation domestically for three years, is now offering PayDirect International to allow electronic remittances from domestic users to recipients overseas. Announced this week, the new international payment service is an effort by Yahoo Finance, a unit of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo …
• 18 December

  FDC Shareholders Don’t Have to Okay Revised Concord Terms

  First Data Corp. will not need to seek the approval of its shareholders for the revised terms announced Monday under which it will acquire Concord EFS Inc. First Data announced today it has been informed by the New York Stock Exchange that the NYSE will not require the Denver-based processor …
• 18 December

  BofA Hits 7-Million Mark in Online Banking Users

  It may be cold outside throughout much of the country, but Bank of America says customers are starting to warm up to online banking in a big way. The Charlotte, N.C.-based banking company announced its online banking service has reached 7 million subscribers, making the bank the first financial-services company …
• 17 December

  Airlines Use Heavy Holiday Travel To Promote Ticketing Kiosks

  Airlines are taking advantage of the onset of one of the year's heaviest travel seasons to promote their electronic self-service check-in and ticketing machines. Both American Airlines and America West today released statements touting their airport kiosks and encouraging customers to use them in the coming days to avoid long …
• 16 December

  Study Shows Consumer Preference for PIN Debit

  A major study on consumer payment preferences at the point of sale released today shows not only a stronger trend toward debit cards generally but also a stronger preference for cards secured by personal identification numbers rather than by signatures. This is despite strong promotion from the major card companies …
• 15 December

  FDC-Concord Settlement Requires FDC to Sell NYCE

  First Data Corp. and the Department of Justice this morning announced an agreement in which the government now gives the green light to FDC's acquisition of Concord EFS Inc. and in which the Denver-based processing giant agrees to sell its majority stake in the NYCE debit network. First Data now …
• 12 December

  Visa’s New Debit Rates May Be Only List Prices””

  Visa USA Inc.'s newly announced interchange pricing for its signature-based, or offline, debit cards are only the starting point for what will be many rounds of negotiations with larger regional and national retailers, say industry observers. Meanwhile, despite the new rate announcement from Visa, MasterCard International Inc. says it is …
• 12 December

  Visa Comments on its New Debit Interchange Rates

  With its new interchange rates for its check cards, Visa USA Inc. says it is moving on a broad front to boost volume on signature-based debit, encourage usage at fast-food and other venues that have not historically accepted the card, and meet the needs of members and merchants generally. “We're …
• 11 December

  BitPass Gets Set for Prime Time

  In an eventful week in the micropayments market, Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup BitPass Inc. emerged from its beta test and opened its service to all Internet merchants interested in using the BitPass system for payments. The company now has more than 300 content sellers enrolled, up from about 200 in …
• 11 December

  Peppercoin’s Big Ambitions in Small Payments

  Peppercoin Inc., the Waltham, Mass.-based micropayments startup that only this week emerged from its test phase with a commercially available service, may have a small footprint in the transactions business so far, but its ambitions are big. First, it plans to snag more merchant signings like the one it announced …