News

January, 2010

• 5 January

  Consumers Favor Debit Cards, But Prepaid Cards Lag Far Behind

  While electronic payment methods continue to gain ground against paper-based payments, consumers show widely varying attitudes toward specific types of electronic methods, according to a recently released report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The paper, which the Boston Fed published last month and is based on a representative …
• 5 January

  Discover Continues Its Zip Trial But Stays Mum About Any Rollout

  A Discover Financial Services employee test of contactless payment stickers for mobile devices that started in April 2009 will continue, according to a Discover executive. But Discover is being coy about if and when it or its card-issuing partners will roll out Discover's Zip contactless brand on a wide scale. …

December, 2009

• 29 December

  Results Show a More Robust Holiday Shopping Season Than Expected

  With the 2009 holiday shopping season all but over except for some post-Christmas bargain hunting, several payments indicators show that merchant acquirers are processing more transactions than many observers expected when the season began nearly two months ago. Online shopping tracked by Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the nation's largest e-commerce …
• 29 December

  Seeing Opportunity, Moneta Will Add Credit Offers to Its Online Wallet

  Alternative-payments processor Moneta Inc. announced this week it will start offering so-called transactional credit to its users at the end of the first quarter. The credit feature, which the Atlanta-based company is adding to an online wallet that currently relies on automated clearing house debits from users' checking accounts, could …
• 28 December

  VeriFone Battles Heartland Publicly While the Two Talk in Private

  Payment card terminal maker VeriFone Holdings Inc. on Monday issued a press release trumpeting its victory in a courtroom skirmish with merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. What VeriFone didn't mention, however, was that it is in settlement talks with Heartland that could end their multifront legal war. That war, …
• 23 December

  Six Months Later, MasterCard Softens a Controversial PCI Rule

  MasterCard Inc. is changing a controversial policy, and pushing back a deadline, that it announced only six months ago regarding enforcement of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard. With the changes, which involve assessing computer systems for PCI compliance, MasterCard could be viewed as responding to valid complaints after first …
• 22 December

  Settlements Still Leave Many Post-Breach Legal Woes for Heartland

  With two settlements announced in less than a week, merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is putting some of the legal repercussions of its huge data breach behind it as 2009 draws to a close. But most of the legal troubles Heartland faces in the wake of the breach it …
• 18 December

  Hypercom And Ex-Boss of TNS Lay Plans to Spark Growth for HBNet

  Hypercom Corp. and the McDonnell Group are forming a joint venture to deliver high speed transaction transport services worldwide. The venture, which will acquire and operate Hypercom's 5-year-old HBNet transaction-transport service, will be called Phoenix Managed Networks LLC and will be headed by John (Jack) McDonnell, founder and former chief …
• 17 December

  Accel/Exchange Plans a Big Acquiring Push for Online PIN Debit

  The Accel/Exchange electronic funds transfer network, which on Nov. 9 became the first EFT network to roll out online PIN debit to consumers, is pleased with results so far and has plans to begin a major recruitment drive to sign up merchant acquirers for the program next year, says Michael …
• 17 December

  Will Consumers’ Shift Away from Credit Cards Outlast the Recession?

  Consumers have cut back their usage of credit cards in the past year, often on their own volition but also because suddenly risk-averse credit card issuers have closed millions of credit card accounts or reduced credit lines in their attempts to strengthen recession-racked balance sheets. Now the emerging question is …