Peppercoin Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based micropayments startup, announced today it has signed on to process payments for Blue Note Records, a unit of EMI Music Publishing. Beginning in the first quarter of 2004, Peppercoin will deploy its technology to handle purchases of single songs from Blue Note's site, www.bluenoterecords.radioplayer.com. The …

Peppercoin Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based micropayments startup, announced today it has signed on to process payments for Blue Note Records, a unit of EMI Music Publishing. Beginning in the first quarter of 2004, Peppercoin will deploy its technology to handle purchases of single songs from Blue Note's site, www.bluenoterecords.radioplayer.com. The …

Look for Visa USA Inc. to attempt a few more deals with other major retailers similar to the arrangement it has reportedly struck with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The nation's biggest retailer announced today it will no longer accept MasterCard International Inc.'s signature debit cards, citing their high costs. Industry observers …

The news that Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. are negotiating new debit-card acceptance deals with big retail chains and their acquirers in which the chains will pay lower transaction fees than what is standard for other merchants has already fueled speculation that the giant, bank-owned card networks are …

Visa may be offering its debit card issuers a little leeway with regard to its controversial service settlement fee by allowing them to switch their card portfolios to American Express or Discover without incurring any penalties. But some industry observers don't think the offer will make any practical difference to …

Expect more big banks to follow Wells Fargo & Co. and Wachovia Corp. in switching their debit processing business from Concord EFS to Visa, according to an industry analyst. John Gould, director of consumer credit research for TowerGroup, a payments research company, says in the process of moving their debit-processing …

After an acrimonious summer in which TCF Financial Corp. first complained about the costly Visa/MasterCard settlement in the Wal-Mart case, and then complained even more bitterly when Visa threatened to levy a penalty on TCF if it switched debit brands, the Minneapolis-based bank has come to terms with Visa and …

Issuers of debit cards tied to flexible-spending accounts may be breathing a sigh of relief now that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) unit of the federal Department of Health & Human Services has sent a letter to a marketer of one such card exempting its product from …

A technology firm is rolling out an Internet-based debit-card shopping program that relies on merchants to foot the cost of card readers. The program developed by Atlanta-based Kryptosima, a subsidiary of InstaPay Systems, will start with the Armed Forces Financial Network (AFFN) electronic funds transfer network and several large online …

Expect some unique credit card offerings in the next six to nine months now that a three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an October 2001 U.S. District Court ruling allowing banks to issue American Express and Discover cards. American Express has already issued a …