News

July, 2004

• 28 July

  MobileLime Eyes a National Market for M-Commerce

  A Boston-based mobile-transaction processor that has signed up a local taxicab company and a number of other merchants is hoping this week's Democratic National Convention will help propel the fledgling service into national prominence. Vayusa Inc., which offers the cell-phone-based service under the name MobileLime, has recruited 50 merchant locations …
• 27 July

  AmEx: Higher Merchant Revenue, Lower Discount Fee

  Worldwide discount-fee income jumped 18% for American Express Co. on sharply higher cardholder spending in the second quarter, though the card network's average discount rate drifted slightly downward. The company's U.S. card billings hit $75.7 billion in the quarter, a 17% increase over the year-ago period. Even faster card spending …
• 26 July

  ‘Bullish’ on RFID, Arthur Blank Projects 1 Million Cards in a Year

  Arthur Blank & Co. Inc., a Boston-based maker of plastic payment and loyalty cards, is getting into the market for cards equipped with radio-frequency-identification technology, with ambitions particularly for cards supporting loyalty programs and payments in the quick-service retail market. “We as a company are very bullish [on RFID],” says …
• 22 July

  Piggly Wiggly Switches on First Stores for In-Lane Biometric Payments

  Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co., a Charleston, S.C.-based supermarket chain, today switched on an in-lane biometric payment system in four stores on the way to a planned rollout of the fingerprint authentication system to all 116 stores in the chain. The system, from San Francisco-based Pay By Touch, allows customers to …
• 22 July

  PayPal Reports 45% Year-Over-Year Transaction Growth

  Transactions at PayPal Inc. totaled 77.7 million and added up to $4.35 billion in value in the second quarter, up 45% and 53% respectively over the year-ago period, according to a quarterly report released this week by Internet auctioneer eBay Inc., the online payment processor's parent company. PayPal's average ticket …
• 21 July

  Burger King Is Installing High-Speed Terminals for Card Acceptance

  Following its agreement earlier this year with Chase Merchant Services L.L.C. for transaction-processing services, Burger King Corp. announced today it is deploying high-speed-capable card terminals in its restaurants across the country. In the past four months, it has installed VeriFone Omni 3750 devices in some 2,000 of its restaurants in …
• 21 July

  Despite Strong Results, FDC Faces a Barrage of Questions

  While First Data Corp. reported strong financial results today for its second quarter, its chief executive fielded a barrage of questions on concerns that have emerged recently for the company, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s decision to switch its account processing from FDC to rival TSYS Inc., with the …
• 20 July

  CyberSource Announces Non-Card Credit with Fewer Merchant Hassles

  Mountain View Calif.-based CyberSource Corp., a transaction gateway for Internet merchants, announced today it is offering a credit-based, non-card payment alternative that can be implemented with a minimum of integration hassles. The company says an arrangement with merchant processor Paymentech L.P. will allow CyberSource merchant clients to install I4Commerce Inc.'s …
• 19 July

  J.P. Morgan Reaps a Windfall from Lockbox Check Conversion

  The recent surge in transactions in the category of electronic checks called accounts-receivable conversion (ARC) comes as no surprise to the banks that are playing a major role in moving utilities, insurers, retailers, credit card companies, and other major consumer billers from paper checks to electronic transactions on the automated …
• 16 July

  Visa’s New Chief Will Face Legal Headaches, Observers Predict

  Carl F. Pascarella's decision to retire in September 2005 as chief executive of Visa USA is being greeted in the payments industry with expressions of praise for his leadership in transforming the San Francisco-based bank card network from a one-dimensional credit card company into a force to be reckoned with …