Transaction Processing

A survey of consumers released today reveals that while most say they are more informed about identity theft, they feel no safer from it than they did a year ago, and more consumers are reluctant to give online retailers personal data than was the case last year. The survey of …

With its new real-time check-verification and settlement product announced yesterday, Star Systems Inc. will be offering merchants and transaction processors a service that converts paper checks to electronic transactions just as retailers and financial institutions are preparing for the advent of check-imaging technology. Though Maitland, Fla.-based Star, the nation's largest …

So-called bust-out fraud is an old credit card crime that's not going away, and currently it's responsible for about $800 million annually in largely unreported fraud losses. That sober estimate came this week during a presentation on worldwide transaction-system fraud given by John Schettino, MasterCard vice president for security and …

A new U.S. standard in the works now could dramatically cut the costs ATM deployers face in bringing their machines into compliance with the so-called Triple DES encryption requirement set by the bank card networks. As things stand now, banks and other deployers must distribute the Triple DES encryption key, …

Electronic Clearing House Inc., an electronic transaction processor based in Camarillo, Calif., today announced a 22% increase in revenue in its October to December 2003 quarter over the same quarter in 2002. Revenue for the most recent quarter reached $11.4 million. This result was fueled by increases in both bank …

Seven founding members announced today the formation of a new regional association serving merchant-level salespersons, ISOs, vendors, processors, and financial institutions in the western United States. Called the Western States Acquirers Association, the new group plans to hold its first conference in November in San Francisco, and is in the …

Pay By Touch, the San Francisco-based supplier of a point-of-sale payment technology that replaces cards and other media with fingerprint scans, says it is close to several major deals which, if consummated, will give the fledgling company and its system considerable momentum. Among the deals in the pipeline, says Pay …

Visa USA reported today that its cards produced 16.1 billion transactions last year, an increase of 11.7% over its transaction volume in 2002. Although credit cards accounted for $650 billion in volume in 2003, or 59% of Visa's total dollar volume, signature-secured debit cards made up 59% of the bank …

Fears concerning computer security are resulting in setbacks for the movement toward electronic voting. Most recently, the Pentagon has scuppered plans to allow Americans living abroad to cast ballots on the Internet. At the same time, some county and state elections officials, bowing to worries about computer viruses and the …

First Data Corp. says it does not expect an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice of its money-transfer business to have an effect on the completion of its acquisition of Concord EFS Inc. The Denver-based processor said earlier this week it expects to close the merger with Concord Feb. …