M-Commerce What NFC Should Look Like Steve Mott By most accounts, the wireless-carrier-based near-field communication (NFC) mobile payments initiative known as Isis (formally announced late last year but rumored for months before) is still falling short of the mark with respect to a winning formula for prying payments away from …

Endpoint Scoping out Durbin’s Impact Would a telecom network qualify as a payment network if it is providing the primary transaction authorization and settlement infrastructure? The Fed’s proposed Durbin rules portend a thorough-going reshaping of the electronic-payments business. Time to start figuring out who’ll win and who’ll lose, says Patricia …

E-Commerce The Bill-Pay Horse Race Peter Lucas After years of lagging behind, bill-payment Web sites sponsored by financial institutions finally have achieved parity with biller-direct sites. But the outcome of the long-term race is still uncertain, given some compelling features billers’ sites retain. After slugging it out for market share …

The War on Attrition Jane Adler High attrition rates are likely to continue as the economy finds its footing and competition among acquirers for merchants remains fierce. After being rocked by recession and weak recovery for several years, merchant acquirers may have felt like they turned the corner in December …

Payment processor Total System Services Inc. sees new opportunities in merchant acquiring while No. 3 credit card network American Express Co. saw a double-digit jump in charge volume in the fourth quarter, an indication of a possible revival in consumer spending. Boosted by its new business from merchant acquirer First …

Despite the hype about mobile payments, most consumers still aren't comfortable using smart phones to pay for things, according to new research from the Bank Administration Institute and Hitachi Consulting. That, however, could change, and change soon. The study also shows that debit remains consumers' preferred payment choice, though its …

The drastic reduction in debit card interchange revenue mandated by the Durbin Amendment will be somewhat favorable for PayPal Inc., an official with the e-commerce processor’s parent company said on Wednesday. “In the short and the medium term, we believe it’ll probably be neutral to positive on our performance,” said …

It was an “I-told-you-so moment” Thursday morning for William A. Cooper, the outspoken chairman and chief executive of TCF Financial Corp. Cooper said many bankers dismissed TCF’s assertion that the Federal Reserve Board, in carrying out the dictates of the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law’s Durbin Amendment, would cut debit card interchange …

In the largest U.S. chainwide expansion yet seen in mobile payments, Starbucks Coffee Co. announced on Wednesday it is extending its proprietary, prepaid mobile payments pilot to all of its U.S. company-owned stores. The move brings the chain’s Starbucks Card Mobile App to almost 6,800 stores and increases the number …

In the wake of the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed interchange caps for debit cards, as well as Visa Inc.’s decision to introduce dual interchange tables for debit, much discussion has focused on the impact of radically reduced interchange income on issuing banks. But an often overlooked factor concerns just how …