News

May, 2011

• 4 May

  Isis Reportedly Quits Building Its Own Merchant Network To Focus on Wallet

  The telecommunications companies that own the Isis mobile-payments joint venture have apparently given up on the idea of creating their own merchant network and instead are redirecting their efforts on a mobile wallet, according to a published report. If confirmed, the Isis move means that the existing payment card networks …
• 3 May

  Intuit and Square Might Spark a Mobile-Payments Price War

  Intuit Inc. on Monday dropped flat transaction fees for its GoPayment mobile-payments service just over two months after Square Inc. did the same thing, an indication that a price war could be breaking out between two of the major companies competing for brand-new and small businesses that use smart phones …
• 3 May

  AFP Survey Reflects High Sensitivity Among Retailers over Bank Fees

  Nearly 90% of all bank fees merchants pay goes toward cash management and card processing, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Association for Financial Professionals, a trade group for corporate financial officers. Meanwhile, some 79% of retailers expect recent legislative changes, including the Durbin Amendment, not only …
• 3 May

  Merchants Will Accept Small-Issuer Debit Cards Post-Durbin, Advocate Says

  Merchant groups on Monday sought to assure Congress that they won't reject small debit card issuers' cards once the so-called Durbin Amendment makes large issuers' debit cards much cheaper to accept. “If merchants didn't accept the card, they would risk losing the sale and losing the customer; a risk very …
• 2 May

  Minno Seeks to Become a Big Fish Among Processors of Tiny Transactions

  Probably no pathway in electronic payments is more littered with the wreckage of failed processors than that of micropayments. But recent moves by publishers to charge for content is helping fuel renewed interest in the business of processing tiny transactions. Google Inc., for example, has developed a micropayments engine to help …

April, 2011

• 28 April

  PayPal Reports Strong Growth, Including a Young But Booming Mobile Business

  When eBay Inc. released its fourth-quarter results back in January, the company’s top executives spent some time during their conference call with analysts discussing the potential effect of the Durbin Amendment on PayPal Inc., eBay’s e-commerce transaction processor. Durbin and its restrictions on debit card pricing and transaction routing remain …
• 27 April

  Though Exempt, Small Issuers See Durbin Cutting Their Debit Income by 73%

  Small debit card issuers are bracing for an eventual loss of 73% of their interchange revenues despite being exempt from pending interchange regulations under the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law’s so-called Durbin Amendment. That’s one of the more notable findings from the Pulse electronic funds transfer network’s 2011 Debit Issuer Study released …
• 27 April

  Visa, Apparently Satisfied with Square’s Security, Invests in the Startup

  Square Inc. has been the mobile-payments darling of Silicon Valley because of its association with social-network superstar Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter. On Wednesday, however, the San Francisco-based startup gained the ultimate stamp of approval from the payments establishment when it disclosed that Visa Inc., the world’s largest payment …
• 26 April

  Trustwave Hitches Its Planned Public Offering to the PCI Star

  Data-security services and software specialist Trustwave Holdings Inc. served notice last week that it is planning a $100 million initial public offering, the first such IPO by a company heavily vested in services and technology for the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI. Chicago-based Trustwave’s registration statement, filed with …
• 26 April

  A Little-Noted Durbin Provision Could Cripple Contactless, Hurt NFC, Experts Say

  Could a little-noted provision in the Durbin Amendment strangle the nascent U.S. contactless-payments market in its crib? It’s a very real possibility, says a pair of researchers, and the consequences could deal a blow to the prospects for mobile payments that depend on a promising technology called near-field communication (NFC). …