In relaunching a debit rewards card for the QuikTrip Corp. convenience-store chain this week with a new issuer and new payment card network, specialty debit processor Tempo Payments Inc. plugged Discover Financial Services into the decoupled-debit market. And after concentrating on non-profits for the past year, Tempo says more Discover-branded …

After taking a time out in June to resolve problems ranging from a parts shortage to merchant underwriting, the new payment service Square Inc. is about to commercially distribute its cube-shaped card readers for smart phones. Chief executive officer Jack Dorsey, co-founder of the Twitter social network, told attendees at …

The nation’s sluggish recovery from a long and deep recession kept second-quarter transaction volume static for e-commerce processor PayPal Inc., according to statistics released this week by PayPal’s parent company, online auctioneer eBay Inc. While PayPal added nearly 3 million active accounts in the period to reach 87.2 million, the …

The so-called Durbin Amendment that soon will be law could cut Bank of America Corp.’s debit card revenues by up to nearly 80%, the nation’s largest debit card issuer estimates. Two major prepaid card processors that are planning IPOs and rely on growing interchange income, however, seem likely to escape …

The concept of allowing consumers to use debit cards with PINs to make purchases on the Web took a big step forward on Wednesday with the Pulse electronic funds transfer network’s announcement that it is rolling out an online PIN-debit service. With some 4,400 member financial institutions, Houston-based Pulse, which …

Now that same-day clearing is coming to the automated clearing house network, payments players are starting to parse the impact the faster settlement time will have on emerging payment methods that rely at least in part on the ACH. While many payments executives are enthusiastic about the change, some experts …

Evidence mounted over the past week of the interest at least some major e-commerce processors have in using mobile platforms to penetrate the physical point of sale. First came word that Bling Nation Ltd., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based mobile-payments processor that depends on contactless stickers, is working on an integration …

Merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has installed its new end-to-end encryption terminals at more than 1,020 merchants since commercially launching the technology on May 24, the company reports. Heartland also will be rolling out a small USB card reader, or “wedge,” later this month, says Steve Elefant, chief information …

Issuers of prepaid and gift cards could get an extension of the Aug. 22 deadline for complying with new rules from the Federal Reserve under legislation pending in the U.S. Senate. The so-called ECO-Gift Card bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-NY, passed the U.S. House of Representatives on …

Sen. Richard Durbin chastised the card industry for what he called its refusal to negotiate interchange rates in a hearing held on Wednesday to investigate the fees federal agencies pay to accept cards. Sponsor of a controversial amendment that would regulate interchange fees for debit cards, Durbin also revealed during …