Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Marketing revenue from mobile payments has the potential to dwarf payments revenue, as pundits have been saying for some time, but that potential will never be realized unless a new sort of payment network is built, argues a new report. Existing networks like Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., not to …
Read More »List of Penn Station Restaurants Possibly Hit by Data Breach Grows
The Penn Station East Coast Subs submarine-sandwich restaurant chain says 59 of its 238 locations are now “potentially affected” by a debit and credit card data breach. Parent company Penn Station Inc. first said when it disclosed the breach June 1 that 43 franchisee-owned stores possibly were affected, but the …
Read More »Hit by Durbin, Visa’s U.S. Debit Volume Shrinks by Double Digits in April
Visa Inc. has been saying for months that the Durbin Amendment’s transaction-routing and network-exclusivity rules, which took effect April 1, would take a bite out of its debit business. Gash might be a better word for the amendment’s initial effects, especially on the Visa-owned Interlink PIN-debit network. The No. 1 …
Read More »Nordstrom Projects Rollout of Register-Like POS Handsets by Early 2013
High-end department-store chain Nordstrom Inc., which has been testing some 6,000 mobile devices for customer service and checkout, expects to roll out a significantly larger number of the devices in the first quarter of next year and to add as much capability to them as it has on its cash …
Read More »In Wake of FBI Report, Bitcoin Backer Says Benefits Outweigh Risk of Criminal Use
A Federal Bureau of Investigation report warning that criminals could use the electronic currency Bitcoin for money laundering and other illicit activities does not reflect the majority of activities for which the currency is actually used, a Bitcoin developer tells Digital Transactions. “Asking Bitcoin if they have a response to …
Read More »Errors Plaguing Online Bill-Payment ‘Sausage Factory’ Total $720 Million in Costs
Those missing account numbers or little typos consumers make when paying bills can cost billers and others in the payments chain big bucks to fix. A recent study for automated clearing house governing body NACHA pegs the annual cost of such exception processing at about $720 million. More bad news: …
Read More »Veridian Will Be First Institution to Switch on Dwolla’s Real-Time Transfer System
Dwolla Corp. announced this week that Veridian Credit Union, Waterloo, Iowa, will be the first financial institution to use a system for real-time funds transfer that Dwolla has been working on for months and testing since earlier this year. A Dwolla spokesman says more financial institutions around the country are …
Read More »Durbin Supports Retailers Seeking Revamped Debit Regulations
U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, author of the now-famous amendment bearing his name that upended the debit card industry, made a figurative trip to court this week to show his support for retailers challenging the Federal Reserve Board’s final rule implementing his provision in 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act. In a friend of …
Read More »MasterCard Reports a Strong Quarter for Debit, Takes Issue with Fed’s Durbin Update
MasterCard Inc. on Wednesday posted continued strong growth in debit cards during the first quarter, including in fee revenue. The No. 2 U.S. card network also took issue with the findings of a Federal Reserve report released on Tuesday showing interchange for regulated card issuers has plunged since the Durbin …
Read More »Microsoft, NACHA, And Others Outline Legal Tools Used to Disrupt Zeus Botnet
Microsoft Corp. used a trio of legal tools last month to raid an alleged cybercrime operation that had been using the infamous Zeus virus to steal funds and data from the financial-services industry, the software giant disclosed on Monday. The raids, which Microsoft and partner organizations first announced March 25, …
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