News

April, 2008

• 23 April

  TRM Looks to Revival with $15 Million Deal for Access To Money

  After a long period of downsizing and financial turbulence, non-bank ATM network operator TRM Corp. says it's getting its act in order and is ready to grow again. Portland, Ore.-based TRM just bought the New Jersey-based Access To Money network in a $15 million deal that brings another 4,200 ATMs …
• 22 April

  Non-Auction Sales for PayPal Near Half of Processor’s Total Volume

  PayPal Inc.'s drive to process a greater share of its transactions outside of the auction marketplace run by its parent company, eBay Inc., showed more signs of succeeding last week with the release of statistics indicating the online processor is now deriving almost half of its payment volume from online …
• 22 April

  ELayaway Gets Set for Expansion After a Low-Key Start

  It's the new, old payment system. That's essentially how an electronic-payments startup called eLayaway LLC is billing itself as it prepares for bigger things following two years of testing and a low-key rollout to merchants and consumers. Tallahassee, Fla.-based eLayaway's slogan is “credit is overrated.” Its system allows consumers, once …
• 21 April

  Alliance Data Peddles Its Acquiring Unit As Blackstone Deal Crashes

  The troubled buyout of Alliance Data Systems Inc. by private-equity firm The Blackstone Group officially died this past weekend, a death that came as no surprise to the payments industry. But still alive is Alliance's effort to sell its merchant-acquiring business built around the former BSI Business Services Inc. front-end …
• 21 April

  New Bill Would Block Regs Aimed at Stopping Online Gaming Payments

  Implementation of the controversial Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) would be prohibited under new legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month. The UIGEA bans gaming sites from accepting money transfers of any kind for bets deemed to be unlawful gambling. It also directs …
• 17 April

  PCI Council Will Tighten Data-Security Rules, Details to Come

  The Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI, is in line for its second upgrade since the PCI Security Standards Council took over development of the standards for protecting cardholder data from the major card networks in 2006. PCI Council general manager Robert Russo announced the coming upgrade Wednesday at …
• 17 April

  After Two Months, Signs Are Positive for Multi-Account NFC Pilot

  While hard data are not yet available, anecdotal evidence indicates consumers are pleased with a mobile-payments pilot in San Francisco using phones equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology and involving the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail system and Jack in the Box Inc. fast-food restaurants. “We've supported thousands of rides …
• 17 April

  Tax Bill Could Be Greater Threat Than Interchange Proposal for Acquirers

  The Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008 has gotten lots of press for its plan to regulate interchange, but merchant-acquiring industry lawyers say that bill has little chance of passage. The far greater threat is a tax proposal for finding merchants' supposedly underreported cash receipts?a proposal that could forcibly …
• 16 April

  Authorize.Net Rolls out Simple Checkout for Small Online Sellers

  In an effort to reach very small online merchants seeking a streamlined way to process payments, Authorize.Net on Tuesday unveiled a service it calls Simple Checkout. The new service allows the merchant to use a Web interface to automatically create the code necessary to place a “Buy Now” button on …
• 14 April

  Shell Lowers MasterCard, AmEx Pricing for Its Jobbers And Retailers

  While big oil companies at times have temporarily lowered card-acceptance costs in recent years to help gas stations cope with spikes in the price of oil, Shell Oil Co. today said it would permanently lower the price of card processing as well as speed up settlement times for its jobbers …