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The first Visa-branded debit cards in Canada will be out in 2010's first quarter, Visa Inc. chairman and chief executive Joseph W. Saunders reported late Tuesday. Saunders, reviewing Visa's financial report for fiscal 2009's fourth quarter, also told analysts that signs of recovery from recession are starting to appear in …
Read More »PayPal Steams Ahead, While Recession Takes a Toll on Bill Me Later
A sour economy isn't hobbling PayPal Inc.'s online-payments steamroller, but the downturn and the seemingly fragile recovery are creating some challenges for Bill Me Later, the online credit processor PayPal parent eBay Inc. bought a year ago and this week integrated with PayPal. Meanwhile, rumors continue to swirl around the …
Read More »Modern Bank Robbers Could Shutter As Many As 10 Financial Institutions
Losses caused by massive fraud could bring down as many as 10 financial institutions within the next three years, predict analysts at Treasury Strategies Inc., a Chicago-based consultancy specializing in financial services. Since bank failures are usually caused by economic downturns or mismanagement, the prediction comes as a startling reminder …
Read More »An Inside Look at the Secret Service’s Battle to Hobble the Hackers
The August indictments of three individuals allegedly responsible for the theft of 130 million credit and debit card numbers in the Heartland Payment Systems Inc. data breach made headlines across the world. Yet little attention is paid to the laborious investigative work needed to track down the criminals behind these …
Read More »Amazon’s Mobile-Payments Boss Expects Fast Traction for Service
It won't be long before more merchants sign on to Amazon.com Inc.'s new Amazon Mobile Payments Service (MPS), according to the man who heads up the mobile-payments venture for the world's largest online retailer. “Reaction's been very positive,” Howard Gefen, director of Amazon Mobile Payments, tells Digital Transactions News. “We …
Read More »Report: Prepaid Issuers Must Upgrade Systems to Pass Stiff Tests
A new report from Aite Group LLC gives some insights into how open-loop prepaid card processors work. And building on strengths and correcting weaknesses will be key as the recession, the specter of government regulation, and growth opportunities abroad challenge processors to improve, according to the report. Aite analyst Adil …
Read More »New Products Key to Revving up Growth in Bill-Pay Adoption
More evidence that the online bill-payment market isn't exactly a slam-dunk for banks emerged Monday when Aite Group LLC issued a report saying that while adoption of online bill-pay is still growing, the rate of increase is slowing. Bill-pay vendors need to get serious about innovations if they want to …
Read More »Encryption, Tokenization Loom Large As PCI Council Mulls Changes
Will the 2010 iteration of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard represent a major break from the current version or just have some minor changes? That's the question before the card networks, merchants, merchant acquirers, and payment processors now that one meeting with PCI stakeholders is down and another is …
Read More »Glitches with Online Transactions, While Fewer, Still Pose Issues
With the recession driving more transactions to the e-commerce channel, the ability of merchants to deliver a smooth experience from log-in to checkout has been magnified. The good news for online stores is that fewer customers are running into glitches while conducting transactions online. The bad news is that merchants …
Read More »A New Payments Security Group Plans a Mass Hack Simulation
A payments-industry security group formed earlier this year is going through the rather dry procedures of establishing a charter and electing leaders. But one of its first projects could get pulses beating a little faster: a simulated mass attack on databases containing payment card and demand-deposit account information. The exercise …
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