Transaction Processing

The rapidly increasing importance of electronic payment channels is behind the recent surge in membership at NACHA-The Electronic Payment Association, according to the Herndon, Va.-based association's chairman. Four financial institutions have joined NACHA as direct members?meaning they get a vote on rules governing the automated clearing house?so far this year, …

Never wanting for hype, the electronic bill-payment industry may actually have something solid to crow about. Bill-pay processor CheckFree Corp. released a survey this week saying that for the first time, Internet-connected households are paying more bills electronically than by paper check. Tempering the good news for the Norcross, Ga.-based …

Most banks report that their online-banking and bill-pay channels are experiencing no or only modest increases in fraud, according to a new survey from Boston-based research firm Aite Group LLC. But that's no reason to rest easy, says the researcher who oversaw the survey. Aite surveyed 21 of the top …

Could the 2008 presidential election be influenced by the candidates' Web sites?and in particular, those sites' ability to process online donations? A report released on Wednesday by Gomez Inc., a company specializing in Web-site performance measurement, would seem to suggest it might be. According to an online poll of prospective …

After months in which banks struggled to cope with the technology and rules surrounding image exchange, check processors so far in 2007 are reporting remarkable leaps in image-exchange volume. The nation's largest image-exchange network reported Monday its March volume hit 177.4 million items, up 507% over March 2006. Volume was …

First Data Corp. this week captured big headlines with its $29 billion plan to go private (Digital Transactions News, April 2), but another development at the company could also have a significant long-term impact on the electronic-transactions business. The big processor late last month reported it has licensed patents from …

Barely a day after industry-leading processor First Data Corp. announced that it was going private comes word that the Milwaukee bank-holding company that owns Metavante Corp. is dusting off plans to spin off its fast-growing payments subsidiary. According to The Wall Street Journal, Marshall & Ilsley Corp. is planning a …

The leveraged-buyout craze caught up with the electronic-payment processing industry on Monday when No. 1 processor First Data Corp. announced it had struck a $29 billion deal to be acquired by investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Under the plan approved by Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data’s board of …

The startling size of the TJX Cos. Inc. data breach–at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards compromised–has some electronic-payments experts wondering whether the card networks will ultimately succeed in winning merchant compliance with their data-security rules. “If a major U.S. retailer cannot have its house in order, how can …

Merchant processor Electronic Clearing House Inc. and accounting-software giant Intuit Inc. on Tuesday announced that their planned $142 million merger is off. ECHO chairman and chief executive Joel M. Barry laid much of the blame on a federal investigation into Internet gambling that will involve a $2.3 million settlement from …