News

March, 2012

• 21 March

  Payments Fraud at Companies Moderates, But Remains at High Levels, AFP Says

  Payments fraud against companies moderated during 2011, with the share of companies experiencing payments fraud falling to the lowest level since 2004, according to the Association for Financial Professionals’ latest annual study of corporate payments fraud. Nevertheless, the level of fraud remained elevated, with the majority of organizations reporting attempted …
• 21 March

  Phrased Out: Amazon Kills PayPhrase, Offers Businesses Multiuser Service

  Amazon.com Inc. quietly killed its PayPhrase online-authentication service on Feb. 20, not quite two-and-a-half years after introducing the system. The PayPhrase credentials system allowed online shoppers to check out using only a word or phrase of their choosing and a PIN that they had registered with the Amazon Payments service. …
• 19 March

  Studies: Gift Cards Preferred to Higher-Value Gifts, While Many Prepaid Holders Are Banked

  As the prepaid card market matures, more data are emerging about surprising consumer behavior regarding prepaid cards or that challenge the conventional wisdom. For example, research commissioned by big processor First Data Corp., a major player in the prepaid space, found that given a choice between taking a gift or …
• 19 March

  Bill Payments by Paper Check Fade As ACH Bill Pay Continues Its Growth Spurt

  New data from automated clearing house governing body NACHA reaffirm the continuing gains of electronic bill payment and the long-term decline in consumer check writing to pay bills. NACHA’s report for 2011’s fourth quarter says that transactions under the so-called WEB standard entry class code for Internet bill-payment debits grew …
• 15 March

  Discover Releases an EMV Plan That Echoes Key Deadlines from Visa, MasterCard

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• 15 March

  PayPal Announces a Merchant-Acceptance App That Goes Beyond Cards

  The news leaked earlier this week, but PayPal confirmed on Thursday it has created a mobile-acceptance product to compete with the myriad such services already on the market from hardware and software companies, as well as merchant processors. Still, PayPal’s product, called PayPal Here, may stand out from the crowd …
• 13 March

  Banks Can Mine P2P for Big Revenue If They Can Get It Right, Networks Say

  Financial institutions have much to gain from fees and cost savings if they offer person-to-person payments and get it right, according to representatives of three leading P2P networks who spoke on a panel at a banking conference on Monday. The keys to getting this relatively nascent payment form right lie …
• 13 March

  Why Durbin May Prove To Be a Prepaid Blessing for AmEx And Discover

  With banks struggling to find their way in the new Durbin era that puts controls on their debit and prepaid card operations, the door is opening wider for American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services to win new prepaid card business, according to two attorneys familiar with payment card interchange …
• 13 March

  PayPal Lifts the Curtain on an Overhauled Wallet As Rumors Swirl About a Mobile Dongle

  With rumors swirling that it is close to launching a mobile-acceptance device for small merchants, PayPal Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a digital wallet that offers a raft of new features at a time when major rivals like Google Inc. and Visa Inc. are introducing new wallets. PayPal’s product, which it …
• 9 March

  Consumers Look to Tech Firms for Innovation But Place Their Trust in Banks

  Countless news reports have reported or speculated about what Google Inc., Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Facebook Inc. have done or might do in mobile payments. Consumers, however, don’t rate these four companies as highly as they do their own banks or traditional payment companies in trustworthiness involving their financial …