Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
More than a month after officially unveiling its much-anticipated entry into the signature-debit card market, details of Discover Financial Services Inc.'s debit card strategy remain sketchy. Discover's sales pitch to financial institutions to issue its debit cards is built around its ability to offer issuers an interchange rate that is …
March, 2006
-
22 March
Pay By Touch Looks for ‘Network Effect’ from Chicago Concentration
Electronic point-of-sale transactions secured by biometric scans may get a boost now that Pay By Touch Inc. has switched on processing service in 204 Jewel-Osco stores in the Chicago area as well as in the rest of Illionois, and in Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The San Francisco company's latest implementation …
-
22 March
Fujitsu Does Damage Control While Utility Software Gains Attention
In the spin-the-bottle game of assessing blame for the massive debit card breach that has compromised an estimated 600,000 accounts, point-of-sale software developer Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc. late last week suddenly found itself the recipient of unwelcome publicity when its name came up in a Visa USA alert about card …
-
21 March
More Aussie Retailers Plan Surcharges for Credit Card Payments
In news that should interest those in the U.S electronic transactions business who are contemplating the possible effects of regulation of card interchange pricing, a new study shows that an increasing number of merchants in Australia?which three years ago introduced regulation of the fees merchants pay acquirers on card payments–are …
-
20 March
NACHA’s New Web Product Could Unleash Strong Bank Competition
NACHA's proposed new product for Internet transactions, which it is proposing to test later this year (Digital Transactions News, March 15), could unleash powerful competitive forces among banks if it becomes a commercial payment application, an expert observer notes. Banks that choose to allow their customers to pay online merchants …
-
17 March
First Data’s Bailis Ponders His Strategy for Debit Cards, Services
Few people know First Data Corp. better than David P. Bailis. Starting in 1989, he worked on everything from health-care payments to e-commerce and held titles as diverse as general counsel and chief administrative officer. He retired in 2001 to dabble in his own financial-services consulting businesses. But he came …
-
16 March
Huge Hack Threatens to Cool off Torrid Growth of PIN Debit Payments
Security experts warn that the recently exposed case of widespread debit card fraud could jeopardize the growth of PIN debit. Debit card transactions secured by PINs have been growing by 20% or more annually in recent years, more than twice as fast as credit cards. “I think it is a …
-
16 March
Consumers Put Cap on What They’ll Pay for Wireless Song Downloads
The wild popularity of song downloads has not only helped make a case for micropayments processing, it has drawn wireless carriers into the market with the idea that consumers will pay significantly more than the standard online rate of 99 cents per track for the convenience of loading songs over …
-
15 March
NACHA Starts Drive to Sign up Participants for Web-Payment Pilot
A recruitment effort began today to find banks, billers, and merchants to participate in a pilot of a new system by which consumers would be able to make payments on the Internet through the automated clearing house. Sponsored by NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based organization that sets rules for the ACH, …
-
14 March
Back-Office Conversion To Get a Vote Soon, May Start in September
A new form of automated clearing house payment that merchants could use to convert checks into electronic funds transfers could become a reality by September. A proposal from NACHA for so-called back-office conversion, which would allow businesses to collect consumer checks from points of sale and convert them later on …