News

October, 2009

• 12 October

  New Products Key to Revving up Growth in Bill-Pay Adoption

  More evidence that the online bill-payment market isn't exactly a slam-dunk for banks emerged Monday when Aite Group LLC issued a report saying that while adoption of online bill-pay is still growing, the rate of increase is slowing. Bill-pay vendors need to get serious about innovations if they want to …
• 8 October

  House Interchange Bill Brings Out the Venom on Both Sides

  Rested after their recent skirmish over 7-Eleven Inc.'s anti-interchange petitions, the interchange partisans went at it again Thursday in Congress. The battleground this time was a House Financial Services Committee hearing on the bill from U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., that would require more interchange disclosures and demolish most of …
• 8 October

  PayPal’s Push into E-Commerce Spurs New Funding Options

  PayPal Inc. this week introduced new funding options that allow users to load money into their PayPal accounts with PIN debit cards or with cash, then use the funds to buy products online. PayPal's deal with First Data Corp., owner of the Star electronic funds transfer network, was announced Thursday …
• 7 October

  Encryption, Tokenization Loom Large As PCI Council Mulls Changes

  Will the 2010 iteration of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard represent a major break from the current version or just have some minor changes? That's the question before the card networks, merchants, merchant acquirers, and payment processors now that one meeting with PCI stakeholders is down and another is …
• 7 October

  Eye on Opportunities in Expedited Bill Pay And Mobile Banking

  Two research reports released on Wednesday point up emerging opportunities in mobile banking and same-day bill payments, particularly for financial institutions. Banks and billers alike will have to be careful how they price so-called expedited bill payments, or those electronic payments that post with billers on the same day. These …
• 6 October

  Glitches with Online Transactions, While Fewer, Still Pose Issues

  With the recession driving more transactions to the e-commerce channel, the ability of merchants to deliver a smooth experience from log-in to checkout has been magnified. The good news for online stores is that fewer customers are running into glitches while conducting transactions online. The bad news is that merchants …
• 5 October

  Amazon Takes Payments Mobile, But Will Merchants Follow?

  Amazon.com Inc. added more territory to its steadily expanding payments empire on Monday when it unveiled a mobile version of its payments service for third-party software developers, merchants, and distributors of mobile applications. Dubbed Amazon Mobile Payments Service, the system includes Amazon's so-called “1 Click” checkout service, which enables users …
• 1 October

  Fraud, Security Raise Cost Concerns for ATM Managers, Report Says

  Fraud control and data security rank at the top of bank ATM executives' concerns as they try to keep their networks competitive, according to results of an Aite Group LLC survey. A separate survey by Bankrate Inc., meanwhile, shows that ATM surcharges rose over the past year but foreign fees …

September, 2009

• 30 September

  AmEx Cuts Gift Card Fees And Expands Simon Mall Card Program

  American Express Co. turned up the competitive heat in the gift card sector Wednesday by announcing the immediate elimination of monthly fees on all of its gift cards. AmEx also announced an expanded gift card program with shopping mall operator Simon Property Group Inc., the nation's largest public real-estate company …
• 30 September

  A Special Delivery on the Hill Makes Interchange a Grassroots Issue

  A delegation from 7-Eleven Inc., including the convenience-store giant's chief executive and a handful of franchisees, cast the card-interchange issue as a matter of grassroots politics on Wednesday by personally delivering to lawmakers in the nation's capital petitions with nearly 1.7 million signatures calling for interchange regulation. The petitions, which …