News

November, 2010

• 1 November

  Smart Phone Enthusiasts Will Shape Bill Pay, Report Says

  Banks, billers, and processors seeking to boost electronic bill-payment usage would do well to cast their lot with young, affluent consumers who are heavy users of smart phones, according to new research from Aite Group LLC. This cohort, whom Aite dubs “smartphonatics,” accounts for just 7% of consumers but make …

October, 2010

• 28 October

  As Regulation Looms, Visa Reports Recovering Volumes

  The specter of regulation cast a pall of uncertainty over Visa Inc.’s latest financials, but the U.S. operating statistics the world’s largest payment network reported on Wednesday bespoke a transaction machine shifting in high, or least a higher, gear. U.S. debit card payments volume broke the trillion-dollar mark in fiscal …
• 28 October

  PCI Council Releases ‘Steady as She Goes’ Update of Security Rules

  The new version 2.0 of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) came out Thursday, an upgrade the PCI Security Standards Council says contains no major changes. Still, a document summarizing all the tweaks to the major card networks' common set of data-protection rules runs 20 pages in length. Among …
• 27 October

  Against Stiff Competition, ZashPay Gets off to a Fast Start

  With competition heating up in the market for person-to-person payments, Fiserv Inc. reports its 3-month-old ZashPay service is making headway with client financial institutions. The service now claims some 400,000 registered users, while more than 400 banks and credit unions have signed on to offer it, with 100 of those …
• 26 October

  Through VeriFone, PayPal Arrives at the Mobile POS

  PayPal Inc. took another step toward the physical point of sale on Tuesday with the announcement that it will work with VeriFone Systems Inc. to let merchants accept PayPal payments on VeriFone’s PAYware Mobile application. Starting early next year, merchants will be able take PayPal from customers on the application, …
• 25 October

  Starbucks Extends Mobile Payments to Nearly 300 More Stores

  In the biggest expansion yet of mobile payments to its standalone stores, Starbucks Coffee Co. on Monday said it has equipped almost 300 company-owned stores in New York City and parts of Long Island to accept transactions using 2-D bar code technology. This expansion follows the Seattle-based coffee chain’s move …
• 25 October

  Visa Joins the Parade of Networks Adopting Open Platforms

  Third-party software applications linked to payment processors’ and networks’ systems are becoming the name of the game for attracting merchants, and No. 1 network Visa Inc. is now a player thanks to upgrades to the Authorize.Net unit of its new CyberSource Corp. subsidiary. The new features on Authorize.Net’s Developer Center …
• 21 October

  Mitek Systems Aims To Make Bill Payment Go Mobile

  Mitek Systems Inc., the pioneering developer of remote deposit capture software for mobile devices, is now moving into mobile capture for bill payments. With San Diego-based Mitek’s new Mobile Photo Bill Pay application, a consumer could take a picture of a paper bill with his camera-equipped smart phone, and then …
• 21 October

  PayPal Heads Into Developer Confab With a Solid Third Quarter

  With its developer conference just ahead and new markets such as mobile payments opening up, PayPal Inc. put the oomph in its parent company eBay Inc.’s third-quarter financial report. But with more than 90 active million customers and $22 billion in quarterly payments volume, a question on some minds is …
• 20 October

  Suddenly, Mobile Banking Is Now a ‘Baseline Expectation’

  Mobile banking, and by extension mobile payments, have rapidly crossed the line from add-on to necessary products for financial institutions, speakers and other sources at a banking-technology expo said on Wednesday. The primary reason mobile has assumed such importance has more to do with fear of attrition than with revenue …