Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Confirming other findings that payment card usage is picking up in the U.S., Visa Inc.’s credit and debit card dollar volume rose 9% in the network’s fourth fiscal 2011 quarter ended Sept. 30 to $516 billion from $474 billion a year earlier. Payment transactions increased 7.3% to 10.5 billion. Visa’s …
Read More »Payment Firms’ Returns Belie the Economic Gloom
Shadows darken the recent economic news, but early third-quarter reports from payments-industry companies paint a much sunnier picture. The big card-issuer and merchant processor Total System Services Inc., for instance, on Tuesday said it was increasing its dividend by 43%, its first dividend increase in five years. Last week, Visa …
Read More »Yet Another New IRS Tax-Reporting Revision Adds to Acquirers’ Burdens
n n n n n n n n n n n
Read More »Unfazed by a Patent-Office Rebuff, LML Soldiers on with Infringement Case
n “It’s not final by any means,” vows Patrick H. Gaines, chief executive of Vancouver, British Columbia-based LML. The company is preparing an appeal of the patent office’s action, he says, and has also applied for its own re-examination, which could allow it to add or amend claims. “Certain …
Read More »How Mobile Deposit Capture Is Expanding with Large And Small Banks Alike
Two very different financial institutions are adding or expanding their mobile remote deposit capture services to meet what they say is growing customer acceptance of the new banking channel that removes paper from the payments system and hitches banks and credit unions onto the rising smart-phone star. On the …
Read More »A NACHA Proposal, out for Comment, Calls for Networkwide Same-Day ACH
The automated clearing house network took a crucial step toward faster transaction movement last Friday when NACHA, the network’s governing body, distributed a request for comment on a proposal for same-day settlement. NACHA sent the 22-page document, which sets out a proposed system called Expedited Processing and Settlement (EPS), …
Read More »Wobbly Economy Notwithstandng, Discover Posts Strong Results
Newspapers, television, and the Web are full of bleak assessments about the U.S. economy, but you wouldn’t know that from the latest financial and operating results reported by Discover Financial Services, the credit card issuer and student-loan provider that’s also the fourth-largest general-purpose credit card network. Discover card sales …
Read More »Google, PayPal Present Competing Visions for Replacing Cards with Mobile Devices
n n n n n n n n n n
Read More »Openbucks’ Network Links Gift Cards to an Array of Online Merchants
A startup called Openbucks this week introduced a service that lets consumers use merchants’ gift cards to buy goods online from other merchants. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company, which has been working for five months with gift cards issued by the Subway sandwich-shop chain, claims its “gift card payment …
Read More »Retailers Should Brace for More Fraud After a Lull in Losses, Study Says
The good news: merchants’ total losses from fraudulent transactions are down. The bad news: losses are likely to rise. More bad news: fraudsters are taking a liking to alternative and mobile payments. Those are some of the key findings from the third annual “LexisNexis True Cost of Fraud” study …
Read More »