With a number of processors and software houses having introduced applications over the past year to let merchants process cards on smart phones, many observers wondered how long it would be before the established point-of-sale terminal vendors entered this market. On Tuesday morning, the answer came with VeriFone Holdings Inc.'s …
December, 2009
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8 December
Early Results Are Inconclusive for NACHA’s New IAT Code
The first statistics about the new automated clearing house code for international transactions are in, though it's too soon to draw conclusions about how popular the so-called IAT code will become. According to NACHA, governing body of the ACH, IAT had 303,802 transactions in September with a total value of …
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7 December
C-Stores Prepare New Anti-Interchange Petition Drive
Retailers fighting what they say are high payment-card acceptance costs are not letting the heated debates about health care or President Obama's planned troop surge in Afghanistan push interchange off the political stage. The NACS?The Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing, next week will launch what it calls Phase 2 …
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3 December
Square Gets Points for Cleverness, But Leaves Questions Unanswered
If hype augurs success, the new Square payments application for mobile merchants is off to a promising start. The product, announced this week by a San Francisco startup called Square Inc., is attracting attention not just in the payments business but in the wider business community. That's because Square's founder …
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3 December
Secure Vault Payments Wins High Adoption at University of Georgia
Secure Vault Payments, an online-payments program that lets consumers pay merchants from their checking accounts via the automated clearing house network, is catching on as a way to pay tuition and other costs at the University of Georgia, which began using the method in July in time for fall-semester tuition …
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2 December
Peak Shopping Days Give Cause for Cautious Optimism on Payments
Electronic payments are showing signs of life as consumers open up their wallets and purses early in this holiday spending season. But just how wide they'll open those wallets and purses as the season goes on is uncertain. The early take is that volumes are up from 2008's anemic levels, …
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1 December
The Latest Forecast Is Especially Sunny for Prepaid Cards
Credit card charge volumes have fallen this year and debit card volumes, while still in positive territory, are running far below the growth rates they enjoyed before the recession hit. But prepaid cards remain the one bright spot, according to a new market analysis from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. Maynard, …
November, 2009
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30 November
As a Mobile Shopping App Grows, It Looks to Add PayPal Payment
A comparison-shopping application that works on mobile phones will soon tie into PayPal Inc.'s payment platform, blurring the distinction between online commerce and brick-and-mortar retailing and setting the stage for potentially big transaction volumes. Alexander Muse, co-founder of Dallas-based Big in Japan Inc., says he expects his company's ShopSavvy app …
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30 November
With Payments a Big Part of Health-Care Costs, Automation Efforts Arise
Low-hanging fruit it's not, but health care still remains one of the biggest untapped markets for electronic payments. A new report from Celent LLC estimates that $11 billion could be saved by automating just part of the health-care payments process. And a new industry group is forming to marshal the …
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27 November
Congress Mulls Alternatives to Unlawful Internet Gambling Ban
Although implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) begins Tuesday, the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services next week will hold a hearing on two bills that would replace or set a new date for implementation of the controversial gambling legislation. A hearing on the new …