Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
As the electronic exchange of check images grows, so too does membership in the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization, or ECCHO, a Dallas-based nonprofit banking-industry group that develops rules for image exchange and electronic check presentment. ECCHO president and chief executive David Walker tells Digital Transactions News that membership more …
Read More »Eye on Gift Cards: A First Data Glitch Strikes the Day After Christmas
A day-after-Christmas processing glitch at First Data Corp.'s ValueLink unit, a processor of prepaid card transactions, delayed gift card authorizations at some stores belonging to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other, unnamed merchants. While statements released by both Wal-Mart and First Data indicate the problem was fixed Wednesday, the snafu couldn't …
Read More »Some Pay By Touch Owners Are Also Among Its Largest Creditors
The bankruptcy petition Solidus Networks Inc., which does business as Pay By Touch, filed this month shows that a number of the biometric technology provider's largest unsecured creditors also have equity interests in the company, and, in the case of three individuals, weren't paid when Pay By Touch bought their …
Read More »Online Sales Surge During a Lukewarm ’07 Holiday Shopping Season
While holiday-season shopping activity overall for 2007 may have seen only a lukewarm increase compared to last year, purchases online surged ahead, reaching their peak a week before Christmas. On Dec. 18, online sales for 10 of the 30 largest e-commerce merchants hit $169 million on more than 3 million …
Read More »Free of E-Wallets, ECHO Goes to the Altar with Intuit Once Again
Intuit Inc.'s agreement to buy Electronic Check Clearing House Inc. (ECHO) for $131 million in cash, announced on Wednesday, came about largely because of ECHO's move to shed its gambling-related electronic-wallet business earlier this year, an Intuit executive tells Digital Transactions News. It was that business, in which ECHO processed …
Read More »TJX Settles with Financial Plaintiffs in Breach Case?with One Holdout
TJX Cos. Inc. late on Tuesday said it has settled with three banking associations and three individual banks that sued the off-price retailer in the wake of a data breach that potentially compromised nearly 100 million credit and debit card numbers. That leaves just one Alabama community bank still in …
Read More »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 …
Read More »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. …
Read More »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 …
Read More »NACHA Tightens Risk Management, Restricts Payment Aggregation
NACHA, the rules-setting body for the automated clearing house network, this week announced membership approval of a rule amendment that will raise fines for unauthorized transactions and cut off ACH access for companies that enter too many such payments into the network. NACHA has also issued a rules clarification that …
Read More »