News

October, 2003

• 14 October

  Microsoft and Vodafone Work to Link PC-Wireless Transactions

  Microsoft Corp. and Vodafone Group PLC are working together on technology standards that would allow personal computers to exploit wireless networks for functions ranging from user authentication to payment to text messages. A company that sells online games, for instance, could use the new mobile Web specifications to accept micropayments …
• 14 October

  Rate of E-check Fraud by Phone Drops by 88%

  The rate of unauthorized e-check transactions by telephone is down 88% over the last four quarters, reports the National Automated Clearing House Association. NACHA credits its ability to trace unauthorized phone payments to their source for the plunge in fraudulent e-check payments by phone to 0.15% of all third-quarter telephone …
• 10 October

  Behind a Web-Based Network’s Explosive Growth

  A Web-based payments transaction processing program has been growing at about 400% annually since it branched out beyond the hospitality industry. When Las Vegas-based Shift4 Corp. developed its $$$ on the Net system for nearby resorts five years ago, the system was designed to allow the hotel, gift shops, casinos, …
• 8 October

  Worries Mount About Touch-Screen Voting

  Celebrated movie actor Arnold Schwarzeneggar may have won yesterday’s wild and woolly recall election in California, but a verdict is still pending on the security and reliability of the ATM-like touch-screen voting machines used in four California counties. Some computer scientists and other observers fear the machines are susceptible to …
• 8 October

  FSA-Linked Debit Cards Get a Pass on HIPAA

  Issuers of debit cards tied to flexible-spending accounts may be breathing a sigh of relief now that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) unit of the federal Department of Health & Human Services has sent a letter to a marketer of one such card exempting its product from …
• 6 October

  EBT in Iowa: Better Late Than Never

  The state of Iowa is in the final stages of its statewide rollout of debit cards to recipients in the state’s food-stamp program, a year later than an Oct. 1, 2002, deadline mandated for all states in federal legislation passed in 1996. Only California among the 50 states now remains …
• 6 October

  NetBank Will Acquire ATM Deployer FTI

  NetBank Inc., which bills itself as the nation’s first commercially successful Internet bank, has agreed to acquire privately held Financial Technologies Inc., for cash and $1 million in restricted stock. Tommy Glenn, Jr., founder and president of FTI, says in a statement released today that the combination with NetBank will …
• 3 October

  Check Truncation at the ATM

  Two companies have teamed up to create a system that allows banks to capture electronic images of checks as they are deposited into automated teller machines, a development they say will drive up ATM transactions as it encourages more bank customers to use ATMs for deposits. Infonox, Santa Clara, Calif., …
• 1 October

  The Latest Try at Online Debit Counts on Merchants

  A technology firm is rolling out an Internet-based debit-card shopping program that relies on merchants to foot the cost of card readers. The program developed by Atlanta-based Kryptosima, a subsidiary of InstaPay Systems, will start with the Armed Forces Financial Network (AFFN) electronic funds transfer network and several large online …

September, 2003

• 30 September

  Franchisees Turn to Store-Issued Smart Cards

  For years, retailers have sought ways to allow their customers to pay electronically while bypassing bank networks and fees. Now some fast-food franchisees are turning to proprietary smart cards–with or without interest from their corporate parents. Los Angeles-based TranStar Systems Inc. has either installed or has orders for systems in …