News

June, 2008

• 26 June

  Remotely Created Checks Linked to Image Exchange Stoke Fraud Fears

  Regulators seeking to rein in so-called remotely created checks aren't going far enough to contain the risk these payment devices pose?particularly when they are processed electronically, says one payments expert. “I think they should ban them,” says George F. Thomas, chief executive at Radix Consulting, Oakdale, N.Y., and a former …
• 26 June

  A PCI Deadline Approaches for Internet Application Security

  Yet another important security deadline is at hand. On Monday, the PCI Security Standards Council, the independent body that administers the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, will make mandatory protection measures in its rules about Internet-facing software applications that the Council currently classifies as best practices. While the PCI rules …
• 25 June

  Processors, Merchants Fret As Card-Reporting Measure Advances

  Just as some merchant-acquiring industry lobbyists predicted earlier this year, a revenue-generating proposal that would force acquirers to report their clients' card-based sales to the Internal Revenue Service is making headway in Congress. The proposal is part of the Senate's foreclosure-relief bill that could be up for a vote as …
• 24 June

  Free-Terminal Kingpin Launches Integrated POS System for Merchants

  It spawned the free-terminal craze, but now merchant processor United Bank Card Inc. is launching a service called Harbortouch POS intended to put the margin back into equipment sales to merchants. Harbortouch's business case is built on integrated hardware and software systems that perform a host of business-management functions, payments …
• 24 June

  Why Online Resources Is Linking to DolEx, Other Walk-in Operators

  The trend toward combining electronic bill-payment services?particularly payments that post on the same day they're made?with walk-in remittance locations took on more momentum last week with the announcement that Online Resources Corp. will process expedited payments for DolEx Dollar Express Inc., a remittance operation belonging to Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc. …
• 24 June

  After Abruptly Shuttering Its Service, Assurz Files for Bankruptcy

  Assurz Inc., the 3-year-old company that sought to boost consumer confidence in making Internet transactions by offering money-back guarantees on behalf of online merchants, filed for protection under Chapter 7 of the federal bankruptcy code on Monday. The company earlier this month abruptly shut down its service, leaving a trail …
• 20 June

  PayPal To Roll out New Fraud Filters with Channel Partners by January

  Online auctioneer eBay Inc. and its PayPal payments service are generating headlines this week for enhancing their coverage of buyers' and sellers' losses when sales go bad. Less noticed but also important for merchants, however, are the enhanced risk controls for merchants that PayPal is quietly rolling out. Dubbed Fraud …
• 20 June

  Revolution Money Aims for 1 Million Merchants, Cardholders by Year End

  Nine months after its official launch, Revolution Money Inc.'s PIN-secured credit card is being accepted at 150,000 merchants, a number a top executive at the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based alternative-payments provider says will reach 1 million by year's end. David Cautin, senior vice president and general manager for online business at …
• 19 June

  MasterCard Plans to Have U.S. P-to-P Service Launched by Early ’09

  Eyeing opportunities in the U.S. person-to-person payments market, MasterCard Worldwide announced on Thursday it plans to begin testing a service based on mobile phones later this year and introduce a commercial service early in 2009. The card network will use its existing MoneySend remittance system to clear and settle transactions, …
• 18 June

  A New Card Swipe Device Could Move PayPal Closer to POS Payments

  A seemingly unremarkable magnetic-stripe card reader from a software company specializing in payment applications for users of eBay Inc.'s online merchant marketplace and its PayPal payment system is just hitting the market, but it could mark another advance for PayPal into the world of point-of-sale payments. The reader and its …