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The Internet scam known as phishing continued to grow in June, jumping 19% from May to 1,422 unique attacks, according to The Anti-Phishing Working Group, which tracks the fraud. Attacks have increased at an average monthly rate of 52% since the group began keeping statistics last fall. For the third …
Read More »Reeve Quits Lightbridge Four Months After Buying Authorize.net
Pamela D.A. Reeve, long-time president and chief executive of Lightbridge Inc., has resigned from the Burlington, Mass.-based company, which this spring acquired Authorize.net, a major transaction gateway for Internet merchants, from Infospace Inc. Lightbridge announced that Robert Donahue, a member of the company's board, would step in as interim president …
Read More »Metavante Closes NYCE Deal As NYCE Chief Lynch Leaves
Metavante Corp. announced today it has closed its $610-million acquisition of the NYCE electronic funds transfer network. It also announced that Dennis F. Lynch, who has been president and chief executive of Montvale, N.J.-based NYCE since 1996, is leaving the network and will be replaced by Steven A. Rathgaber, currently …
Read More »PayPal Reports 45% Year-Over-Year Transaction Growth
Transactions at PayPal Inc. totaled 77.7 million and added up to $4.35 billion in value in the second quarter, up 45% and 53% respectively over the year-ago period, according to a quarterly report released this week by Internet auctioneer eBay Inc., the online payment processor's parent company. PayPal's average ticket …
Read More »Despite Strong Results, FDC Faces a Barrage of Questions
While First Data Corp. reported strong financial results today for its second quarter, its chief executive fielded a barrage of questions on concerns that have emerged recently for the company, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s decision to switch its account processing from FDC to rival TSYS Inc., with the …
Read More »CyberSource Announces Non-Card Credit with Fewer Merchant Hassles
Mountain View Calif.-based CyberSource Corp., a transaction gateway for Internet merchants, announced today it is offering a credit-based, non-card payment alternative that can be implemented with a minimum of integration hassles. The company says an arrangement with merchant processor Paymentech L.P. will allow CyberSource merchant clients to install I4Commerce Inc.'s …
Read More »J.P. Morgan Reaps a Windfall from Lockbox Check Conversion
The recent surge in transactions in the category of electronic checks called accounts-receivable conversion (ARC) comes as no surprise to the banks that are playing a major role in moving utilities, insurers, retailers, credit card companies, and other major consumer billers from paper checks to electronic transactions on the automated …
Read More »A Trade Forum Looks to Extend IFX Standard to POS Transactions
A trade group that is developing a new transaction-messaging standard based on extensible markup language (XML) for financial transactions says it is now turning its attention to point-of-sale payments. The Interactive Financial Exchange Forum, Falls Church, Va., released earlier this year a version of the Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX) standard …
Read More »New Survey Shows a Rapid Rise in Micropayments Market
The number of people buying goods online at prices below $2 has grown to some 10 million, up from 4 million nine months ago, according to a survey on micropayments whose results were released today. In the same nine months, the proportion of online buyers who bought content from more …
Read More »With Torrid Growth, ARC Becomes the Dominant E-Check Category
The conversion of paper checks into electronic transactions at lockboxes maintained by utilities, insurers, credit card companies and other major consumer billers is growing at a red-hot pace. The process, known as accounts-receivable conversion (ARC), ballooned almost 800% in the second quarter over the year-ago period and now accounts for …
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