Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
U.S. Wireless Data Inc., a 13-year-old payment gateway specializing in wireless and vending-machine transactions, has announced it has filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The New York-based company also announced it is selling “substantially all” of its assets. It has reached an agreement with …
Read More »Viewpointe Beefs up Its Platform in Anticipation of Check 21
In anticipation of the swelling of check-image volume that Check 21 is expected to unleash, Viewpointe, a national image-exchange network and archive for electronic checks serving 10 banks, has engaged Accenture, a technology-services and consulting firm, to help prepare the company's platform to handle large image-exchange volumes. Viewpointe's archive stores …
Read More »E-Checks Help Fuel Double-Digit Growth in ACH Volume
The automated clearing house system handled more than 10 billion electronic transactions in 2003, and the conversion of checks into ACH debits helped fuel the growth, according to statistics released today by the National Automated Clearing House Association at its annual conference in Seattle. Total ACH transactions reached 10.017 billion …
Read More »A Check 21 Guide Seeks to Aid Training, Cut Confusion
With banks and other players in the electronic transactions arena scrambling to get ready for the implementation in October of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, some 16 financial-services companies and associations have published a guide to the law. They hope the new 20-page document will be used …
Read More »Why Piggly Wiggly Went with Biometric Payments
Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co., a Charleston, S.C.-based chain of supermarkets with stores in South Carolina and Georgia, has adopted a payment system secured by biometrics primarily to increase its share of technologically savvy, white-collar customers. “It sends a message that we're trying to be cutting edge,” says David Schools, senior …
Read More »Lightbridge Pays $82 Million to Buy Authorize.net
Lightbridge Inc., a Burlington, Mass.-based provider of software and transaction services to wireless telecommunications carriers, today announced it is buying Authorize.net for $82 million in cash in a deal expected to close by June 30. Eight-year-old Authorize.net is an American Fork, Utah-based subsidiary of InfoSpace Inc., Bellevue, Wash. It provides …
Read More »Information Architects Enters the Biometric Transaction Market
Information Architects Corp., a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based provider of Web-based employee-screening technology, has announced it is entering the market for electronic point-of-sale transactions secured by cardholders' fingerprints. The company says it has acquired a U.S. patent (6,270,011 B1) that covers a fingerprint-scanning methodology for credit cards via scanners deployed at …
Read More »First Data Completes Its Merger with Concord
As expected, First Data Corp. completed its merger today with Concord EFS Inc. in a deal valued at $7 billion, based on the Feb. 25 First Data closing price of $40.79 per share. The acquisition of Concord means the combined company has 30,000 worldwide employees. It expects to take in …
Read More »A Survey Shows How Fears of ID Theft Undermine Web Transactions
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 …
Read More »Star Expects to Beat Check Imaging to the Punch
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 …
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