News

December, 2007

• 17 December

  AmEx Takes a Leaf from Discover’s Acquiring Strategy?with a Twist

  Taking a cue from Discover Financial Services, travel-and-entertainment card leader American Express Co. on Monday said that it had enlisted processor First Data Corp. to book new small and mid-size merchants. But unlike Discover's recent pacts with First Data and other big merchant processors that involved sales of Discover-owned merchant …
• 13 December

  Euronet Bids for MoneyGram, And Girds for a Fight If Necessary

  Euronet Worldwide Inc., which on Thursday made public a stock offer valued at $1.65 billion for rival money-transfer company MoneyGram International Inc., has rejected an offer from MoneyGram to discuss the possible combination of the two companies because of a condition MoneyGram wanted to impose that would have stopped Euronet’s …
• 13 December

  The FTC and Seven States Sue Processor for Aiding Suspect Merchants

  In its seventh action against a payment processor since 2004, the Federal Trade Commission along with seven state attorneys general announced this week they are suing a Lake Mary, Fla.-based check and automated clearing house processor that extracted millions of dollars from consumers by processing fraudulent payments for a suspect …
• 12 December

  Google Checkout Extends Offer of Free Processing Another Month

  Evidence that the battle for supremacy among alternative-payments providers remains intense arrived on Wednesday with Google Inc.'s announcement that its Checkout service will continue to process transactions for free through January. “Considering how busy this time of year is for you,” says Checkout product marketing manager Gavin Chan in a …
• 11 December

  Cardtronics Slims Down Its IPO But Gets the Deal Done in Stormy Market

  Cardtronics Inc., operator of the nation's largest non-bank ATM network, completed its initial public offering of stock on Monday and began trading Tuesday on the NASDAQ stock market, but only after cutting the size of the deal in a stormy stock market. Houston-based Cardtronics announced its planned IPO in September. …
• 11 December

  Bill Me Later-Amazon Deal Could Be a Huge Boost for Both Parties

  At the stroke of a pen, Bill Me Later Inc. has not only become the sole third-party alternative payment vehicle accepted by the world's largest retailing Web site, but it also receives an injection of capital as that site, Amazon.com Inc., takes an undisclosed equity stake in the Timonium, Md.-based …
• 10 December

  PIN Debit And the ACH Among the Big Gainers in Fed Payments Study

  PIN debit transactions are growing significantly faster than signature debit payments. Checks processed electronically are approaching half of all checks paid. And transactions on the automated clearing house are growing faster than any other form of payment. These are among the more surprising results of the Federal Reserve's tri-annual payments …
• 6 December

  Survey Shows Heavy Carrier Reliance on Transaction Fees for NFC

  In a development that could long complicate the introduction of commercial services allowing consumers to make point-of-sale payments with their mobile phones, mobile network operators say they will derive POS payment revenue chiefly from consumer transaction fees. According to research released this week, some 83% of carriers responding to an …
• 6 December

  Back Office Conversion Growth Strong, But Big Gains May Come in ’08

  Growth in the new back-office conversion, or BOC, electronic-check code far outpaced growth of all other automated clearing house transaction categories in the third quarter, but don't get too excited yet. BOC only went live March 16, so its 238% increase to 840,743 transactions came off a very small base …
• 5 December

  NACHA Rule Targeted at Cap One’s Decoupled Debit Card, Sources Say

  A clarification of a rule regarding transaction aggregation, announced last week by NACHA, was driven chiefly by banks that intended to hamper a new PIN debit card being introduced by Capital One Financial Corp., sources tell Digital Transactions News. The new card, which came to light late this spring (Digital …