U.S. Bancorp's acquisition earlier this week of Genpass Inc., operator of MoneyPass, a surcharge-free ATM network, is expected to dramatically expand the reach of ATMs that don't levy surcharges to cardholders. Elan Financial Services, a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, already operates a network of 4,000 surcharge-free ATMs called FastBank Free, …

United Bank Card Inc., which earlier this week announced it is selling a portfolio of 15,500 merchants to Optimal Payments Corp. for $44 million, said today it will use the cash to add new departments and hire more staff to help cope with rapid growth. Jared Isaacman, founder and chief …

Nashville, Tenn.-based independent sales organization iPayment Inc. today reported its revenues and processed charge volume more than doubled in the first quarter compared to the year-ago period, with much of the growth driven by a December acquisition of a merchant portfolio from First Data Merchant Services. In a conference call …

Ritz Camera Centers Inc., which last week announced it would adopt MasterCard's PayPass contactless card program chainwide, says it hopes to use the technology to hasten photo-finishing customers through the checkout process. “They're in the stores two or three time a week, and they want the service to be kind …

SVPCO, which began operating a national image-exchange network late last summer, today brought two more banks live on its system, bringing to nine the number of institutions and processors linking to the network. National City Bank, Cleveland, and San Francisco-based Union Bank of California are now trading check images through …

Online merchants are interested in alternatives to credit cards for payment, but set high hurdles for alternative payment methods to overcome, including the need for authentication, for a smooth, uninterrupted customer session, and for reasonable pricing from processors that doesn't tax merchants to develop a user base for the processors. …

Minneapolis-based remittance processor MoneyGram International Inc. is acquiring ACH Commerce LLC, a processor of automated clearing house transactions, in a deal expected to close by June 30. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but ACH Commerce will remain based in Ooltewah, Tenn., where it was founded five years …

Recent jumps in transaction activity and new business from both banks and billers have boosted optimism among online bill-payment processors and brightened their outlook for 2005 and beyond. Princeton eCom Corp., a 21-year-old processor in Princeton, N.J., ended 2004 having closed some 40 deals, including 34 with billers and six …

This will be a year of substantial deployment for contactless payments based on radio-wave technology as card networks roll out programs and merchants find the systems perform as promised, a new research study says. “Merchants are finding it works,” says Erik Michielsen, director for RFID and ubiquitous networks at ABI …

Reino Parking Systems Inc. said today it had deployed parking meters in locations around the U.S. that will accept credit card payments from either cards or mobile phones, with transactions processed through SunTrust Merchant Services LLC and Peppercoin Inc. The meters are equipped with card swipes, but users with cards …