Financial institutions seem likely to give expedited bill payments a big boost in the coming two years, according to survey results released today by Boston-based Aite Group LLC. In a March survey of 22 of the nation's top 100 banks, credit unions, and thrifts ranked by number of checking accounts, …

A Bellevue, Wash.-based startup plans to have a Web-based payment system in operation some time in 2008 that will look strikingly similar to one that NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association has spent the past several years developing. Metafos Inc., which formed only 18 months ago, is talking to banks and online …

Remote deposit capture, already a hot product in electronic payments, is poised for explosive growth, according to a report released this week. More than 2,900 U.S. financial institutions had implemented remote capture, or were in the process of doing so, by the end of March, a number that will climb …

The process that led to Metavante Corp.'s pending spin-off from Milwaukee-based bank-holding company Marshall & Ilsley Corp. started two years ago as the payment processor sought ways to continue making acquisitions, according to a registration statement M&I filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing?775 pages in …

MODASolutions Inc. which has been marketing an online-payment system called SECURE-eBill for more than two years, has renamed the service and introduced its first buyer-protection policy to cover instances of delayed or damaged goods, as well as non-delivery. The new policy comes as online retailers seek alternatives to bank-issued credit …

Two milestones announced this week indicate the rapidly growing adoption of image exchange for check processing. SVPCO, which handles paper checks and runs an image exchange network as part of the New York-based The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC, announced on Tuesday that imaged items exceeded paper checks in both …

Visa International Inc. on Tuesday reported that it has named Joseph W. Saunders, the card-industry veteran it selected as interim leader of Visa Inc. in February, as the entity's permanent chairman and chief executive officer as it prepares to unify its far-flung regional organizations and become a publicly held company. …

Unlike its experience with online bill payment, Synovus Financial Corp. expects ultimately to generate significant revenue from a new Internet payments system based on the automated clearing house for which a 12-to-18-month pilot will start by October. Exactly how much revenue, however, may depend on the pilot itself, as well …

Prepaid card processor eCommLink Inc. is joining with mobile phone and payment technology providers to offer a cell phone and prepaid debit MasterCard tied to a single account. The prepaid MasterCard function eventually will be incorporated into the phone, enabling consumers to use the phone for payments at merchants' points …

NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association expects to release pricing details in about two weeks for its long-awaited online-payments pilot, an official working on the project says. The details will set out a form of interchange fee merchants' banks will pay to banks that will authorize transactions and authenticate consumers, as well …