It's the new, old payment system. That's essentially how an electronic-payments startup called eLayaway LLC is billing itself as it prepares for bigger things following two years of testing and a low-key rollout to merchants and consumers. Tallahassee, Fla.-based eLayaway's slogan is “credit is overrated.” Its system allows consumers, once …

While big oil companies at times have temporarily lowered card-acceptance costs in recent years to help gas stations cope with spikes in the price of oil, Shell Oil Co. today said it would permanently lower the price of card processing as well as speed up settlement times for its jobbers …

Debit is where the transaction growth is, and now MasterCard Inc. is positioning itself at the center of the action with a new debit-processing platform for card issuers that it calls Integrated Processing Solutions. IPS handles everything from ATM and signature- and PIN-based debit card transactions to prepaid cards?and it …

PIN debit on the Internet may become a commercial reality in 2008 if the small Atlanta company that bought ATM Direct from the bankrupt Pay By Touch Inc. fulfills ambitious plans it has laid out for the processor. Over the course of the next 90 to 120 days, ATM Direct …

Visa Inc.'s current slogan is “Life Takes Visa,” but now it's “Wall Street Takes Visa.” After raising a record $17.3 billion late Tuesday by pricing its initial public offering of stock at $44 per share, above its target range of $37 to $42 per share, Visa's stock opened on the …

Metavante Corp. on Tuesday announced software that the Milwaukee-based processor and NACHA, the rules-setting organization for the automated clearing house network, say will make it possible for more banks to participate in a new online payment product NACHA plans to start piloting in less than a month. “This [software] is …

In a move that could further the penetration of Internet-based PIN debit, a San Antonio-based processor of prepaid card transactions has adopted a device that will allow users of its electronic-wallet service to load their accounts online with credit cards and PIN debit cards. Smart Card Marketing Systems Inc., which …

Counter-intuitive though it may be, independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers in general are seeing their spreads increase while simultaneously facing margin compression. The reason, according to a new report from Aite Group LLC assessing trends in the acquiring industry: acquirers are generating new revenues from their merchants outside of …

Merchants like to gripe about the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) nearly as much as they like to complain about interchange, but a new set of questionnaires for merchants to use with their PCI assessments could reduce the irritation factor. The new, so-called Self Assessment Questionnaire from the PCI …

While processors continue to struggle with the economics of micropayments, Javien Digital Payment Solutions Inc. may have found a way to make the tricky payments work. The McLean, Va.-based processor, which this week introduced a payments gateway to go along with a payment-processing platform it offers primarily to sellers of …