Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A provision in the new Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 that exempts some reloadable prepaid cards from interchange regulation could make such cards an attractive option for retailers. But merchants were heavily promoting reloadable gift cards long before the legislation appeared for another reason: to …
July, 2010
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29 July
Visa Hopes It Can Come to Terms with the Justice Department
Barely a week after Congress landed a hard left punch on the card networks, the U.S. Department of Justice might be about to land a right in the form of a lawsuit challenging network rules aimed at preventing merchants from surcharging for credit card payments or otherwise steering customers toward …
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28 July
Acculynk Scores Again, This Time with Its MasterCard Pact
Just two weeks after announcing its biggest EFT network partnership with the Discover Financial Service-owned Pulse network, online PIN-debit technology provider Acculynk Inc. landed an even bigger fish. Under a deal announced Wednesday, MasterCard Inc.’s approximately 8,500 U.S. Debit MasterCard issuers will have the option of offering Acculynk’s PaySecure service …
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28 July
The Emerging Case for a Rules Change to Force Same-Day ACH
With the Federal Reserve set to begin offering on Monday same-day clearing of automated clearing house transactions (Digital Transactions News, July 13), some industry observers are starting to push for a rules change that would mandate banks’ participation in this or a like service. “We either need a core [of …
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27 July
Some NFC Consensus Emerges, Thanks to Fed Mediation
Executives with a number of the leading players in telecommunications and electronic payments have managed to reach a consensus on at least some of the issues that have divided them for years over the shape and direction of mobile payments in the U.S. While participants say they are not yet …
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26 July
The Dodd-Frank Interchange Haircut Could Exceed $10 Billion
Visa and MasterCard debit card issuers stand to lose up to $10.7 billion in interchange income a year in a worst-case scenario under new federal interchange controls that will take effect next year, according to a Digital Transactions News analysis. Smaller reductions are more likely as the Federal Reserve Board …
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23 July
Regulation, Economy Weigh on Acquiring Executives’ Minds
In a year when Congress is beefing up regulation of the financial system, merchant-acquiring executives not surprisingly view the tightening regulatory environment as the key challenge facing their industry in 2010 and 2011, according to a new study from Boston-based Aite Group LLC. Sixty-one percent of executives Aite researchers interviewed …
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22 July
Square’s Founder Says the Main Act Is About To Begin
After taking a time out in June to resolve problems ranging from a parts shortage to merchant underwriting, the new payment service Square Inc. is about to commercially distribute its cube-shaped card readers for smart phones. Chief executive officer Jack Dorsey, co-founder of the Twitter social network, told attendees at …
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22 July
PayPal Sees Transaction Growth Level off in the Latest Quarter
The nation’s sluggish recovery from a long and deep recession kept second-quarter transaction volume static for e-commerce processor PayPal Inc., according to statistics released this week by PayPal’s parent company, online auctioneer eBay Inc. While PayPal added nearly 3 million active accounts in the period to reach 87.2 million, the …
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21 July
As the Ink Dries on Dodd-Frank, Merchants Gird for Interchange Battle
As President Obama signs the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act of 2010 into law on Wednesday, at least one major merchant interest group has already fired the opening shot in what promises to be an all-out battle over the fees banks earn on debit card transactions. At the center of …