Boosted by its big new merchant alliance with Bank of America Corp., First Data Corp.’s transaction count surged 41% in the second quarter, the leading payment processor reported Tuesday. Factoring out the BofA alliance, First Data’s transaction volume from existing merchants grew a much less spectacular but still respectable 9%, …

NACHA, governing body of the automated clearing house, is considering rules changes that could add volume to the ACH. Among them: allowing recurring payments under the TEL code for telephone-authorized electronic-check conversions; raising the dollar limit to $50,000 for three major e-check codes, and eliminating opt-out notification requirements on two …

With the growing popularity of prepaid cards and other stored-value devices over the past few years, law-enforcement agencies and regulators have voiced concerns that payment devices intended for consumer convenience could become tools for money launderers, terrorists, and other illicit players. To address those concerns, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial …

Visa Inc. sees its new RightCliq shopping service as a means by which it can control more e-commerce transaction volume. But it might also represent a tactic by which it can add value to payments at a time when payment processing is increasingly perceived by merchants and consumers as a …

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 …

The carrier-led mobile-payments consortium, news of which became publicly available on Monday, may break new ground in bringing payments based on near-field communication (NFC) to market. But it could confront major issues in attracting merchants, especially the big chain retailers looking to chop transaction costs, says one expert observer who …

The profits rolled in for MasterCard Inc. in the second quarter despite a lackluster performance by the No. 2 payment card network’s U.S. operations. Several portfolio losses hurt MasterCard’s debit results in both the United States and the United Kingdom, though top executives said at a Tuesday morning conference call …

A provision in the new Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 that exempts some reloadable prepaid cards from interchange regulation could make such cards an attractive option for retailers. But merchants were heavily promoting reloadable gift cards long before the legislation appeared for another reason: to …

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 …

As President Obama signs the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act of 2010 into law on Wednesday, at least one major merchant interest group has already fired the opening shot in what promises to be an all-out battle over the fees banks earn on debit card transactions. At the center of …