Transaction Processing

Nearly a year after the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (Check 21) took effect, sparking a steady build-up in check-image exchange volume, more exchanges are being settled on paper documents than some observers expected. The reason is that many paying banks are unprepared to settle on images and …

Visa U.S.A. reportedly has postponed for three months its plan to ban from its network transactions from troubled merchant processor CardSystems Solutions Inc. in order to facilitate the sale of CardSystems' assets to CyberSource Corp. In the wake of a massive security breach at Atlanta-based CardSystems in May that compromised …

A $36-million in image-exchange technology is beginning to bear fruit for National City Corp. The Cleveland-based bank began trading digital check images in April on a network operated by SVPCO and has seen volume climb from a few hundred daily files to the current rate ranging from 10,000 to 70,000, …

CyberSource Corp.'s deal to acquire the assets of CardSystems Inc. would hand the Mountain View, Calif.-based transaction-gateway provider a major sales channel for both card-present and Web-based payment processing, catapulting the company squarely into the ranks of processors for small and mid-sized multi-channel merchants, according to observers. The move also …

The rising interest among banks and Internet merchants in more robust methods to verify that online customers are who they say they are is helping drive business for a form of such verification known as knowledge-based authentication. Verid Inc., a 6-year-old supplier of KBA processing services, says its transaction volume, …

With Hurricane Rita bearing down on the Gulf coast of Texas, Pulse EFT Association Inc. announced today it has moved processing operations from its Houston data center to a redundant center in Dallas. Cindy Ballard, executive vice president for the electronic funds transfer network, called the move “purely precautionary” in …

The new chief executive of Viewpointe Archive Services LLC is a payments-industry veteran who says he sees big potential in check-image exchange and hints there may be services the massive image archive can render beyond electronic check processing. “I joined Viewpointe because of the great opportunities,” says former banker and …

Recent reports concerning the dual online threats of phishing and malware indicate mixed news: the phishing threat is down as measured by number of incidents, but fraudsters' use of malicious code to steal passwords and re-direct unsuspecting Web users is increasing steadily. Postini Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based producer of …

With online merchants in the U.S. increasingly seeking business overseas, TransFirst Inc. is adopting automated currency-conversion technology from E4X Inc. Dallas-based TransFirst, which processes card transactions for 160,000 merchants?including an increasing number of card-not-present merchants?will offer automated currency conversion to its clients as part of its processing service. E4X says …

Special Report MasterCard Inc.'s proposed initial public stock offering would put 49% of the payment company's shares and more than 80% of the voting power in the hands of the public, potentially increasing the influence of aggrieved retailers who believe they currently get a raw deal in card pricing. MasterCard …