News

March, 2009

• 10 March

  Retailers Form Association To Defend Closed-Loop Gift Cards

  The Retail Gift Card Association is recruiting new members with the aim of building a positive image of closed-loop gift cards, getting members to follow an ethics code, and countering the bad publicity directed at gift cards in recent months by consumer groups and legislators monitoring marooned cards whose sponsor …
• 5 March

  Study: Fraud Could Drive Consumers To Non-Bank Online Payments

  Among its many damaging effects, financial fraud threatens the growth of online payments and banking and could drive consumers away from banks and toward electronic payment systems they perceive as more secure, such as PayPal. Those are some of the conclusions in a new report from technology research and consulting …
• 5 March

  Web-Based PIN Debit Picks up Momentum with a Pilot and New Deals

  The Accel/Exchange electronic funds transfer network has signed up a handful of issuers for an Internet-based PIN debit pilot that processed its first transaction, for $9.49, on Wednesday, according to Michael Kelly, general manager of the Morris Plains, N.J.-based network, a unit of Milwaukee-based bank processor Fiserv Inc. Kelly says …
• 4 March

  VeriFone Hopes to Counter Worldwide Slump with Security Push

  Reduced buying from merchant acquirers, the stock-market downdraft, and currency fluctuations teamed up to take a big bite out of payment card terminal maker VeriFone Holdings Inc.'s latest financials. VeriFone late Tuesday reported a $182 million loss for its first fiscal 2009 quarter ended Jan. 31, and its boss predicts …
• 3 March

  Paymate Adds an Aussie Accent to Crowded Online Payments Market

  The U.S. alternative-payments market has already attracted a slew of startups over the past few years, and now it's drawing even more competition from overseas. Paymate Global Inc., the U.S. arm of Australian processor Paymate Pty Ltd., earlier this month completed its integration with eBay Inc.'s checkout system and joins …
• 2 March

  Why the Fed Is Moving to Same-Day Clearing for E-Checks

  Looking to speed up clearing time for electronic checks on the automated clearing house, The Federal Reserve Banks on Monday announced the first change to the settlement windows for the ACH network in 35 years. The change, which is set to take effect in the second quarter of next year, …
• 2 March

  Some Interchange Rates Up, Some Down, With Higher Auth Fees

  Lower interchange rates in some cases for online retailers and travel-and-entertainment merchants that accept Visa credit cards and higher bank card authorization fees are set to take effect in the coming months. The good news for merchants is that seven of the 11 Visa consumer credit card interchange rates that …

February, 2009

• 27 February

  Eye on Earnings: Cardtronics, TIO, Online Resources

  Key operating metrics posted solid gains in recent quarterly reports from two of the payment industry's specialty providers, non-bank ATM network operator Cardtronics Inc. and expedited bill-payment provider TIO Networks Corp. Houston-based Cardtronics, however, still posted a $57.9 million fourth-quarter loss, most of which originated with a one-time charge involving …
• 26 February

  New Products Could Spur Holdouts to Jump into Image Exchange

  Viewpointe Archive Services LLC this week introduced two products that, the company says, respond to rising volumes of imaged checks and could smooth the way for more financial institutions to participate in end-to-end image exchange. One of the products catches mismatches between check images and the data contained in associated …
• 26 February

  Discover’s Prepaid Teen Card Is the Latest Entry in a So-So Market

  Discover Financial Services this week unveiled a teen-oriented prepaid card called Current by Discover. Current is the latest entrant in a niche that includes the Visa Buxx and Allow MasterCard, prepaid cards that may have garnered more headlines than users. But Discover says its new card has straightforward pricing and …