News

November, 2010

• 9 November

  Home Depot Launches a First—Videos for Virtual Gift Cards

  A new electronic gift card launched by The Home Depot Inc. that lets customers upload and send video images—apparently the first such card in the market—is performing reasonably well in the early going for the huge home-improvement chain. “It’s a little bit early, but it has met expectations so far,” …
• 8 November

  An ATM ISO Group Slams Network Surcharging Rules

  A trade group of ATM independent sales organizations says its study of the major EFT networks’ surcharging rules favor banks at the expense of non-bank ATM owners. The Atlanta-based National Association of ATM ISOs and Operators, which represents ISOs that own or operate 70,000 ATMs, says it is negotiating with …
• 4 November

  Eye on Earnings: First Data, Green Dot, Heartland, Cardtronics

  Payments companies ranging from leading merchant processors to prepaid card and ATM managers reported transaction growth in the third quarter, but some also faced pricing pressures and other drags on the bottom line. –No. 1 payment processor First Data Corp. said transactions in its merchant-processing unit called Retail and Alliance …
• 4 November

  Accertify Will Become Part of AmEx in $150 Million Deal

  American Express Co. on Thursday announced it will pay approximately $150 million to buy a software startup in suburban Chicago whose product lets online merchants automate order screening for fraud. Founded in 2007, Accertify Inc. has built a client base that includes Barnes & Noble, Urban Outfitters, and 1800 Flowers …
• 3 November

  MasterCard’s Debit Card Hit Is Temporary, Execs Say

  MasterCard Inc.’s latest debit numbers seem to indicate the network is going backwards while bigger rival Visa Inc. is racking up 20% gains. But MasterCard executives say the company’s underlying debit card trends are positive and will start showing up in the operational reports next year. MasterCard on Tuesday reported …
• 3 November

  With U.S. Bank, Newly Commercial SVP Picks up Momentum

  Secure Vault Payments (SVP), a method of e-commerce payment that relies on the automated clearing house, secured its first big-bank supporter on Wednesday with the announcement that U.S. Bank has agreed to offer the service to both consumer and merchant clients. The fifth largest bank in the country, the Minneapolis-based …
• 2 November

  Survey Outlines Compliance Challenge Among Small Merchants

  With a freshly revised version of industry rules for payment card data security having just emerged (Digital Transactions News, Oct. 28), further evidence is also surfacing of the compliance challenge acquirers face with the smallest merchants. Indeed, the smaller the business, the less sensitive it is to the possibility of …
• 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 …