The idea of merging financial-services kiosks with ATMs will be tested this spring when Info Touch Technologies Corp., operator of the TIO kiosk network, and ATM deployer Cardtronics Inc. begin driving some 40 machines specially fitted to dispense cash withdrawals and perform kiosk functions such as bill payments. The machines …

Some 73% of homeowner-insurance and auto-insurance customers would be willing to pay their premiums online, yet most of them pay with cash or check and nearly all of them still receive their bills in the mail, according to a new survey. The survey, which points to a significant opportunity for …

A tiny startup in Redmond, Wash., has signed up about 500 users for its week-old person-to-person payment service based on mobile phones and expects to launch a commercial service in 2006. With a head count of three, including two former Microsoft Corp. employees, TextPayMe Inc. allows individuals with cell phones …

An image-exchange network controlled by some of the nation's largest banks says volume in the network reached 8.8 million items in November, up 38% over October and nearly 500 times greater than in January, when the system began commercial operation. SVPCO, a unit of New York-based The Clearing House Payments …

Two bitter rivals in the biometric-payments arena have merged to helped spur adoption of the technology among merchants. Tim Robinson, chief executive of BioPay LLC, which will shortly become part of its largest competitor, Pay By Touch Solutions, as the result of a deal announced today, says the longstanding rivalry …

PIN debit transactions are cheaper than debit card transactions secured by signature, incur lower fraud losses, and generate slightly higher average tickets, according to a survey of issuing banks. Taking into account processing costs as well as the cost of back-office fraud-management, chargebacks, settlement, customer service, and accounting functions, the …

DataTreasury Corp. has scored another victory in its ongoing litigation against major banks, networks, and vendors over alleged infringement of DataTreasury patents covering processes involved in check-image exchange, and now says it is preparing to fight cases it has filed against nine other outstanding defendants. With the decision by France's …

The latest offer from the top executive of Nashville, Tenn.-based merchant processor iPayment Inc. to buy the company and take it private is higher than the one he presented this spring, but contains what appears to be a blunt statement to iPayment board members that they should accept the offer …

Could Peppercoin Inc., a processor of micropayment transactions both online and in card-present venues, be eyeing opportunities in the hot market for contactless payments? Though he refuses to comment on whether the company has any such plans, Mark Friedman, the Waltham, Mass.-based company's chief executive, he has clearly watched developments …

An Internet payments processor founded early this year is looking to tap into underserved niche markets like schools, service companies, and other small businesses with what it bills as an inexpensive and easy-to-use application. My Payment Network Inc., Corte Madera, Calif., just began operation in August but hopes to be …