News

March, 2004

• 30 March

  Bi-Lo Says Biometric Authentication Cut Check Fraud 60%

  Bi-Lo LLC, a supermarket chain based in Mauldin, S.C., has announced a biometric-based authentication system has cut its payroll-check fraud losses by 60% since it was installed last fall. The grocer says almost 40,000 customers are now signed up for the system, called Paycheck Secure, and that it has done …
• 27 March

  U.S. Wireless Files for Bankruptcy, Announces Asset Sales

  U.S. Wireless Data Inc., a 13-year-old payment gateway specializing in wireless and vending-machine transactions, has announced it has filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The New York-based company also announced it is selling “substantially all” of its assets. It has reached an agreement with …
• 24 March

  Viewpointe Beefs up Its Platform in Anticipation of Check 21

  In anticipation of the swelling of check-image volume that Check 21 is expected to unleash, Viewpointe, a national image-exchange network and archive for electronic checks serving 10 banks, has engaged Accenture, a technology-services and consulting firm, to help prepare the company's platform to handle large image-exchange volumes. Viewpointe's archive stores …
• 22 March

  E-Checks Help Fuel Double-Digit Growth in ACH Volume

  The automated clearing house system handled more than 10 billion electronic transactions in 2003, and the conversion of checks into ACH debits helped fuel the growth, according to statistics released today by the National Automated Clearing House Association at its annual conference in Seattle. Total ACH transactions reached 10.017 billion …
• 19 March

  Acquirers’ AmEx Fees Could Offset Losses to the T&E Giant

  Bank card acquirers are increasingly tacking on fees to handle American Express Co. transactions at terminals they deploy for merchants, a tactic that may work in their favor as AmEx signs on more banks as issuers of the T&E company's products. That's among the major findings of the most recent …
• 18 March

  Could Qpass’s Wireless Model Work for Web-Based Micropayments?

  While various startups attack the problem of enabling payments for small-value games, songs, and other content on the Web, a working model may already have established itself in the world of mobile commerce. Seattle-based Qpass Inc., a 7-year-old company that makes software that connects content sellers to mobile operators' billing …
• 17 March

  Coinstar Moves into Electronic Transactions with its CellCards Deal

  With its acquisition of CellCards of Illinois LLC, Bellevue, Wash.-based Coinstar Inc. is making a play that takes advantage of two key trends in the electronic transactions market: rising sales of prepaid value products and the increasing importance of the so-called unbanked consumer market. With a network of some 11,000 …
• 16 March

  InphoMatch Gets Set to Catch the Wireless Wave in Premium Content

  The largest processor in the U.S. cross-carrier short-message service (SMS) market is getting set to enter the market for premium content services, also known as MMS (multimedia services), just as wireless carriers are beginning to introduce new billing capabilities to handle the high-margin product. Chantilly, Va.-based InphoMatch Inc. has formed …
• 15 March

  Visa Looks to a Sweepstakes to Promote Check Card Transactions

  Visa USA has announced a sweepstakes promotion for this summer aimed at increasing transactions on its signature-based debit card. The Visa check card, on which Visa introduced permanently lower interchange rates effective Jan. 31, offers Visa debit card issuers less revenue than was the case before last year's settlement of …
• 12 March

  A Check 21 Guide Seeks to Aid Training, Cut Confusion

  With banks and other players in the electronic transactions arena scrambling to get ready for the implementation in October of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, some 16 financial-services companies and associations have published a guide to the law. They hope the new 20-page document will be used …