News

February, 2010

• 2 February

  Fiserv Sees An Opportunity in Filters for the ACH’s New IAT Code

  As financial institutions find themselves processing more and more international transactions through a new application on the automated clearing house, the burden of sorting out payments that match various watch lists is mounting fast. That's creating an opportunity for processors and software vendors. One of the first to act is …
• 1 February

  VeriFone Goes Outside Usual Channels to Sell Its New iPhone Product

  VeriFone Holdings Inc.'s PAYware Mobile mobile-payments initiative includes not just the previously announced card swipe for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and an iPhone app, but also a marketing campaign that aims to make the payment terminal maker's brand name more familiar with consumers, especially consumers that run small businesses. San Jose, …

January, 2010

• 29 January

  M&A Optimism Rises Even As NAB Stays Mum About Possible Sale

  One of the nation's biggest independent sales organizations may be putting itself up for sale, indicating a possible thaw in an icy mergers-and-acquisition market for merchant processors. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Troy, Mich.-based North American Bancard has hired investment bank Deutsche Bank to advise it about a possible sale. …
• 28 January

  How XipWire Plans to Build Usage for Its Text-Based Payments System

  If consumer confusion is holding back mobile payments, a startup called XipWire Inc. figures it has an answer. The five-person Philadelphia company earlier this month launched a text-based service that lets handset users pay merchants as well as other individuals. But while other more established payments companies have already started …
• 28 January

  On the Back Burner in Congress, Interchange Heats up in California

  On the Back Burner in Congress, Interchange Heats up in California Proposed regulation of interchange is stalled in Congress, but California lawmakers are investigating the controversial revenue generator for credit and debit card issuers that merchants ultimately pay. It's not clear yet, however, whether the informational hearing held this week …
• 27 January

  UBC Backs ECR Giveaway with Merchant Leads And Appointments

  With merchant acquirers on the lookout for new ways to manage and motivate sales agents in a difficult economy, processor United Bank Card has launched a program for independent sales organizations that furnishes qualified merchant leads and also sets up appointments with those merchants. The new program specifically supports an …
• 27 January

  Study: Of All Breaches, Those Caused by Hacking Are the Costliest

  The cost of data breaches rose slightly last year, but breaches resulting from computer hacking incurred by far the highest losses, according to a new report from privacy and data-security research firm Ponemon Institute LLC. The average cost per compromised customer record rose to $204 in 2009 from $202 in …
• 25 January

  How Biller-Direct Payments Are Making Slow But Steady Gains

  The biller-direct channel of paperless bill payment is growing faster than the so-called consolidator channel that consists largely of bank and credit-union Web sites, though not by much, a new report from Aite Group LLC says. The report also says average transaction sizes are increasing and that the biller-direct vendor …
• 21 January

  New Group Seeks Safe Debit Payments Online And for Mobile

  The growth of online commerce in recent years has given rise to a number of payments-related trade groups, not to mention the PCI Security Standards Council, the oversight body of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard. Now a new one has come onto the scene, one is dedicated to furthering …
• 21 January

  Payment Volume, Platform Response Swell for an Upbeat PayPal

  PayPal Inc. this week reported a vigorous response from developers to its new open platform and posted strong results in the fourth quarter. More than 12,000 software developers have signed up so far to use new application programming interfaces (APIs) PayPal introduced in November as part of an effort to …