Just a week ago, it looked like MasterCard Inc. was about to win a battle in its ongoing debit card war with market leader Visa Inc. MasterCard stalwart Citigroup Inc. had struck a deal to buy, with help from the government, most of struggling Wachovia Corp.'s banking assets, including Wachovia's …

An electronic bill-presentment and ?payment system that uses the automated clearing house network picked up some momentum recently with the addition of a second participating bank to its pilot program and could gain more as processors serving thousands of banks start linking to the system. Dollar Bank, a Pittsburgh-based thrift, …

Citigroup Inc.'s government-assisted takeover of Wachovia Corp.'s banking assets, announced Monday morning, holds a debit card silver lining for MasterCard Inc. in a deal that otherwise symbolizes the radical reshaping of the banking industry after the mortgage meltdown. Citi is a predominantly MasterCard issuer while Wachovia is a big Visa …

Congress is preoccupied with bailing out Wall Street and mortgage-loan holders, but a bill quietly passed the House Financial Services Committee last week that payment-industry interests hope will become law before the 110th Congress adjourns. That's H.R. 6870, “The Payments System Protection Act of 2008,” a measure that would clarify …

Yet another bill-payment study is out, and this one not surprisingly predicts electronic channels will continue displacing mail and other forms of manual payment. More surprising is how soon electronic payments will surpass physical forms of payment: next year, according to Aite Group LLC. Aite forecasts consumers will make 10.2 …

Sensing a strong shift among consumers away from credit and toward cashlike payment, ModaSolutions Inc.' s eBillme online-payment system plans to pump a large share of its resources into recruiting new merchants and funding promotions with those merchants to attract more buyers, the company's top executive says. Much of the …

A new study by Javelin Strategy and Research has a bit of good news about last-minute, or expedited, bill payments and about another hot topic, mobile payments. Some 45% of the consumer group Javelin calls “mobile bankers” make an expedited payment at least once a month compared with only 30% …

An international organization set up to promote the concept of allowing consumers to pay online merchants via Web-based banking programs plans to have a structure in place by the third quarter next year to traffic the first payments across borders. The International Council of Payment Network Operators, established earlier this …

A small software company that has sued big banks and processors for years over patents it holds that relate to check-imaging and image exchange scored a series of victories in recent weeks as three banks settled with the company and agreed to license its technology. A settlement between Bank of …

Although processor Fiserv Inc. dived in to mobile banking and payments head first on Tuesday with its announcement that it would offer mobile services through three channels on one platform, it will be some time before mobile point-of-sale payments become available on the new product. Dubbed Fiserv Mobile Money, the …