News

November, 2003

• 19 November

  How Check 21 Could Open Off-Premise ATMs for Deposits

  When President Bush signed the Check Clearing for the 21st Century (Check 21) Act into law last month, he unleashed a flurry of activity among financial institutions and vendors looking for ways to take advantage of the law, which allows banks to exchange electronic images of checks instead of the …
• 17 November

  Gift Cards Gain Popularity

  A new survey indicates sharply higher popularity for gift cards. According to the survey, an estimated 97 million Americans, or 45% of the adult population, bought a gift card in the last 12 months, twice the number who bought one in 2002. The 2003 survey, which was conducted in August …
• 17 November

  Visa’s Penalty Concession May Be Less Than Meets the Eye

  Visa may be offering its debit card issuers a little leeway with regard to its controversial service settlement fee by allowing them to switch their card portfolios to American Express or Discover without incurring any penalties. But some industry observers don't think the offer will make any practical difference to …
• 17 November

  MasterCard Readies Rollout of Contactless Payment

  MasterCard announced today its test of contactless chip cards in Orlando, Fla., was encouraging enough for the card company to roll it out to all members as a feature on MasterCard credit, debit, and stored-value cards. The company expects the expansion to begin next summer with the addition of new …
• 14 November

  Duane Reade Gives Debitman a Tonic As the Card’s Latest Issuer

  Duane Reade Inc., a chain of 241 drugstores in New York City, will on Monday become the fourth and so far the largest issuer of the Debitman card, a non-bank, national electronic payment system started last year by a group of payments veterans with roots in the retailing business. Duane …
• 14 November

  No Clear Reading on Visa’s Penalty Policy Toward MasterCard

  Payment executives shouldn't read too much into the legal interpretation of a recent policy decision by Visa to exempt its members that switch their debit card portfolios to American Express or Discover–but not MasterCard–from paying exit penalties. In a letter to members, Paul Allen, Visa executive vice president and general …
• 12 November

  Passengers Increasingly Head for Ticketing Machines

  The extent to which air travelers are adopting electronic ticketing kiosks has been demonstrated in dramatic fashion by some numbers recently released by Northwest Airlines Inc., which was the first major airline to deploy the technology. Some two-thirds of the Minneapolis-based carrier's passengers used the kiosks in October, up from …
• 12 November

  Merger of Clearing Houses Creates Powerhouse ACH

  Two of the nation's largest regional automated clearing houses will now be part of the same company with the merger of parent payments clearing houses based in New York and Chicago. The Clearing House in New York (formerly the New York Clearing House) and the Chicago Clearing House Association announced …
• 11 November

  Micropayments Could Hit 10% of All POS Transactions

  Transactions amounting to $10 or less could potentially amount to at least 10% of all point-of-sale payment transactions processed annually in North America, a bonanza of transaction volume that goes a long way toward explaining why giant card companies and small startup processors alike are chasing the so-called micropayments market. …
• 10 November

  A Fingerprint Check System Rolls Out with BI-LO

  BioPay LLC has reached agreement with BI-LO, a major supermarket chain concentrated in the Southeast, to make its biometrics-based paycheck authentication service available in 176 of the chain's 300 stores. The system is expected to be operating by Thanksgiving at stores in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. When …