Nearly one week after news emerged of the big data breach at Princeton, N.J.-based merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc., it remains unclear how much damage actually happened and who did it. One report suggests Heartland's breach-related legal liabilities could approach $98 million, an estimate a Heartland spokesperson dismisses as …

As merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. and federal investigators continue to probe the data breach Heartland disclosed on Tuesday, evidence is building that banks and credit unions around the country are reissuing cards on a mass scale as a likely result of the breach. That could give credence to …

Merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. reported on Tuesday that it has found malicious software on its processing system, the result of a breach that happened in 2008 but which Heartland says is now contained. The malware captured an unknown quantity of card numbers and expiration dates along with a …

Closed-loop gift cards are not the new kids on the block any more, but some retailers in 2008's holiday shopping season found ways to wring more usage out of their cards despite the faltering economy and bad press about gift cards. That's the word from a newly released market assessment …

Mobile-banking installations grew by 44% last year, and should more than double in 2009 as the technology picks up even more momentum. But the vendors serving this market, often startups without other product lines, now face potent competition from processors that have entered the business only recently and are already …

While most attention in e-commerce is focused on enabling payments for Web sites run by major chains, airlines, and other hard-goods merchants and sellers of high-end services, some processors have begun to carve out stakes in a corner of online commerce that doesn't get as much notice?digital goods. This week, …

As many as one-third of U.S. financial institutions could within the next two years adopt a technology that allows customers at home to convert paper checks into imaged deposits that can be transmitted to the bank via online-banking links. The strongest interest in this so-called consumer-capture capability is likely to …

Financial institutions have made big strides in fighting identity fraud over the past year but still lag in preventing the crime by using such technologies as mobile alerts, according to a report released this week by Javelin Strategy & Research. “Despite so many consumers having mobile devices, banks are still …

Electronic commerce hasn't been the slam-dunk for the electronic funds transfer networks that it has been for Visa and MasterCard. One of the biggest issues has been if and how to facilitate Internet transactions from PIN-based debit cards issued by the EFT networks' member banks and credit unions. Now Metavante …

With its $50-million acquisition of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based software house Infonox Inc., TSYS Inc. has become one of a handful of transaction processors that are in the early stages of overhauling and upgrading their acquiring operations to support what many experts view as a coming explosion of volume as new payment …