News

April, 2008

• 1 April

  New P-to-P Service for Underbanked Looks to Launch M-Wallets

  A handset-based service announced on Tuesday and aimed at allowing underbanked consumers to send money to individuals both in and outside the U.S. through Western Union locations could incorporate mobile wallets by the end of the year. That development would allow users of Trumpet Mobile, a reseller of prepaid wireless …
• 1 April

  Plunging Check Volumes Spur Fed to Speed up Downsizing Efforts

  With check volumes rapidly declining, the Federal Reserve on Monday said it would speed up its previously announced plans to downsize its paper-check processing system. Four full-service processing centers will remain, as under the earlier plan. But the closure or downsizing of other facilities will move up by anywhere from …

March, 2008

• 31 March

  Malware at Hannaford Raises More Questions About Data Security

  Fraudsters planted so-called malware, or malicious software, on servers at about 300 supermarkets in or affiliated with the Hannaford Bros. Inc. supermarket chain and with it were able to steal credit and debit card data, according to a letter from a Hannaford attorney to Massachusetts officials. The thefts happened even …
• 28 March

  Pay By Touch Selling Merchant Business to Merrick for $2 Million

  After first trying to sell its merchant-processing business as a single unit, bankrupt Solidus Networks Inc., which does business as Pay By Touch, is expected to sell half of it to a big Utah-based merchant acquirer, Merrick Bank Corp., for $2 million, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court …
• 27 March

  How Phishing Threatens Banks’ Efforts to Rely More on E-Mail

  Only one-fifth of financial institutions are using technologies that can authenticate e-mail messages, even though phishing attacks disproportionately affect banks and even though banks say they plan to rely more heavily on the e-mail channel to reach customers, a new research report says. Meanwhile, phishing attacks are not only increasing, …
• 26 March

  Green Appeals Effective in Recruiting e-Bill Users, Research Shows

  Green, as in save the environment, and green, as in cash, can be two effective appeals financial institutions can use to persuade consumers to pay bills electronically through bank Web sites, though banks should be especially careful about cash incentives, researchers claim. And the security worries consumers express about electronic …
• 25 March

  New Check Data Show Steady Rise of Electronic Options

  Retailers haven't exactly clamored to implement the new back-office conversion electronic-check option (BOC), but adoption will pick up, according to the Federal Reserve's point man on electronic payments. “It's slower than what many of us thought,” Richard Oliver, executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the …
• 24 March

  Banks, Processors Struggle with Proposed Regs for Web Gambling

  Nearly 18 months after President Bush signed into law the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), regulators are still struggling to come up with rules to guide financial institutions and payment processors in blocking payments to online gaming sites. And if comments from the financial industry are any …
• 24 March

  After BOC’s First Year, Ex-Banker Laments Slow Start for E-Check

  One year after its launch, an option that lets merchants deposit checks electronically in centralized locations by converting the paper items into automated clearing house debits is growing more slowly than expected, according to a payments executive who led the effort to write the rules for the new option. Back-office …
• 19 March

  For One Day, Cash Is King at Visa As Its IPO Soars

  Visa Inc.'s current slogan is “Life Takes Visa,” but now it's “Wall Street Takes Visa.” After raising a record $17.3 billion late Tuesday by pricing its initial public offering of stock at $44 per share, above its target range of $37 to $42 per share, Visa's stock opened on the …