Mobile-banking and payments application developer Firethorn Holdings LLC scored a coup this week when Verizon Wireless, the nation's No. 2 mobile-phone carrier, announced it had picked Firethorn as a strategic partner for mobile banking and would preload Firethorn's system onto newly issued phones. The agreement means the nation's two largest …

A new plan at NACHA to merge elements of the automated clearing house network with elements of check imaging could allow banks to clear checks more cost-efficiently but may also turn out to be a solution to a problem that's solving itself, experts say. Some 20 financial institutions, ranging from …

Data Insecurity Part 8 Few payment innovations have produced the stark schizophrenia that we are experiencing with mobile commerce. Normally somber business types are rubbing their hands together at the prospects of reaching consumers on a one-to-one basis, online, all the time, anywhere they happen to be. Meanwhile, typically apprehensive …

Data Insecurity Part 6 The electronic payments industry's continued prowess in holding fraud in check despite the mounting scourges afflicting online transacting is all the more remarkable when you consider that the banking industry, whose fundamental business is risk management, is largely a no-show in this channel. Merchants and their …

For the raft of processors either moving into mobile payments or hammering out business plans to make an entry, the top executive with one company that has been in the market for six years has some advice: Focus on the market made up of people who lack bank accounts, and …

Evidence emerged again this week that Web-site breakdowns are causing more broken transactions online than e-commerce managers might suspect. Indeed, the proportion of consumers who report having had a problem completing an online transaction has remained little changed over the past three years at around 90%, while the fraction that …

NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association on Wednesday unveiled pricing for a pilot program it will launch early next year to test automated clearing house payments made by consumers to online merchants and billers, with payments authorized by online-banking programs. For e-commerce merchants, the fees, which will include a straight 1.35% levy …

Data Insecurity Part 4 Securing transactions at the point of sale seems like child's play compared to the Internet, and since the payments volume is 20 to 25 times the size of online transacting, a natural venue for improved data security. But the rash of data breaches (covered in Part …

Data Insecurity Part 3 For as long as we've had threats to transacting online, there's been a data-security industry poised with a vast array of solutions to protect us, anxiously awaiting evidence of a compelling business case to get things started. But for just as long, it's been axiomatic that …

New mobile-transaction technology developed by ATM maker Diebold Inc. is already attracting interest in the marketplace and promises to change not only the way consumers interact with ATMs but also how they pay merchants and each other. The North Canton, Ohio-based company announced earlier this week it had received five …