Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The troubled buyout of Alliance Data Systems Inc. by private-equity firm The Blackstone Group officially died this past weekend, a death that came as no surprise to the payments industry. But still alive is Alliance's effort to sell its merchant-acquiring business built around the former BSI Business Services Inc. front-end …
Read More »PCI Council Will Tighten Data-Security Rules, Details to Come
The Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI, is in line for its second upgrade since the PCI Security Standards Council took over development of the standards for protecting cardholder data from the major card networks in 2006. PCI Council general manager Robert Russo announced the coming upgrade Wednesday at …
Read More »Authorize.Net Rolls out Simple Checkout for Small Online Sellers
In an effort to reach very small online merchants seeking a streamlined way to process payments, Authorize.Net on Tuesday unveiled a service it calls Simple Checkout. The new service allows the merchant to use a Web interface to automatically create the code necessary to place a “Buy Now” button on …
Read More »Bankrupt Frontier Airlines Claims First Data Tried To Clip Its Wings
Leading card processor First Data Corp. on Friday found itself cast as the villain in the bankruptcy of Denver-based Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc., which claimed it sought Chapter 11 reorganization in order to prevent its card processor, First Data Corp., from increasing the so-called “holdback” on card charges and thereby …
Read More »Terminal Maker VeriFone Steps into the Busy Data-Security Arena
VeriFone Holdings Inc., a major terminal manufacturer, is entering the burgeoning business of card-data security with a product it says will secure cardholder information from the instant the card is swiped. The product, VeriShield Protect, was announced on Wednesday and encrypts mag-stripe data and the personal account number for the …
Read More »MasterCard Looks to Pick up Debit Volume And Share with IPS
Debit is where the transaction growth is, and now MasterCard Inc. is positioning itself at the center of the action with a new debit-processing platform for card issuers that it calls Integrated Processing Solutions. IPS handles everything from ATM and signature- and PIN-based debit card transactions to prepaid cards?and it …
Read More »Pay By Touch Fades into History As Lenders Buy Core Assets
Three months after biometrics-technology provider and payment processor Pay By Touch sought protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles, the dismantling of the firm’s sprawling empire is largely over. Judge Thomas B. Donovan recently approved the sale of the core assets of Solidus Networks Inc.—the formal name of Pay …
Read More »Plunging Check Volumes Spur Fed to Speed up Downsizing Efforts
With check volumes rapidly declining, the Federal Reserve on Monday said it would speed up its previously announced plans to downsize its paper-check processing system. Four full-service processing centers will remain, as under the earlier plan. But the closure or downsizing of other facilities will move up by anywhere from …
Read More »Malware at Hannaford Raises More Questions About Data Security
Fraudsters planted so-called malware, or malicious software, on servers at about 300 supermarkets in or affiliated with the Hannaford Bros. Inc. supermarket chain and with it were able to steal credit and debit card data, according to a letter from a Hannaford attorney to Massachusetts officials. The thefts happened even …
Read More »Pay By Touch Selling Merchant Business to Merrick for $2 Million
After first trying to sell its merchant-processing business as a single unit, bankrupt Solidus Networks Inc., which does business as Pay By Touch, is expected to sell half of it to a big Utah-based merchant acquirer, Merrick Bank Corp., for $2 million, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court …
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