News

September, 2011

• 27 September

  With Seven Device Makers Now On Board, Isis Readies for Its Dual Pilots in 2012

    n While the development appears to give Isis a leg up on Google Inc., whose NFC initiative has so far been limited to a specific handset model from Samsung, observers point out that the mobile-operator joint venture is lagging behind in other respects. For example, Google recently announced the …
• 23 September

  The Malware Menace Gets More Malicious

  n Citing research from three Aite studies as well as interviews with 40 fraud-control vendors, Aite predicts that the amount of malware and losses from it are in for their own boom. Based on data from Panda Security, Aite senior analyst Julie Conroy McNelley estimates that 25 million new, unique …
• 22 September

  Pressing Its Patent, Tiny LML Taps Financial Titans for More Than $40 Million

  In the course of a three-year legal war over a patent related to automated clearing house processing, LML Payment Systems Inc. has wrung at least $40.5 million out of some of North America’s biggest financial institutions, including Citigroup Inc., PayPal Inc., and HSBC Holdings PLC, and reinforced its claim on …
• 22 September

  Wobbly Economy Notwithstandng, Discover Posts Strong Results

    Newspapers, television, and the Web are full of bleak assessments about the U.S. economy, but you wouldn’t know that from the latest financial and operating results reported by Discover Financial Services, the credit card issuer and student-loan provider that’s also the fourth-largest general-purpose credit card network. Discover card sales …
• 21 September

  Seeking to Boost Conversions, card.io Pushes Card-Scanning for Smart Phones

    n The San Francisco-based company, which is aiming its product at developers, in June released an iOS version for Apple Inc. devices. It says the software is now active on 80 applications, with another 750 having registered but not yet gone live. “Getting such a wide variety of apps …
• 20 September

  Google, PayPal Present Competing Visions for Replacing Cards with Mobile Devices

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• 19 September

  Google Announces Commercial Launch of Its Much-Anticipated NFC Mobile Wallet

    n With an over-the-air update, users of the Nexus S 4G smart phone on the Sprint Nextel network are now able to use the Google Wallet to make purchases at any of the 144,000 U.S. merchant locations that accept contactless payments. For the time being, the Google application can …
• 16 September

  The New IRS Reporting Rule Could Have a Silver Lining for Acquirers

  The new federal regulation requiring processors and acquirers to report merchant electronic payment transactions to the Internal Revenue Service is proving to be a major challenge for the industry, but at the same time could turn into a revenue generator for acquirers, according to a researcher. The requirements originated with …
• 15 September

  Private-Equity Player GTCR Swoops in to Snatch Fundtech from S1’s Grasp

  In yet another twist in the ongoing corporate drama involving payments-software firms S1 Corp., Fundtech Ltd., and ACI Worldwide Inc., news emerged early on Thursday that Fundtech is spurning S1 in favor of what it views as a better offer from GTCR, a Chicago-based private-equity firm with a history of …
• 14 September

  Openbucks’ Network Links Gift Cards to an Array of Online Merchants

    A startup called Openbucks this week introduced a service that lets consumers use merchants’ gift cards to buy goods online from other merchants. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company, which has been working for five months with gift cards issued by the Subway sandwich-shop chain, claims its “gift card payment …