First Data Corp.'s letter of intent with Bank of America Corp., which includes processing services from FDC for BofA ATMs as well as for debit card transactions secured by personal identification numbers, amounts to a big win for the Denver-based processor after a string of stinging losses, observers say. “Obviously, …

Dexit Inc., a Toronto-based processor of stored-value transactions using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, is expanding nationally in Canada and will begin processing transactions in other parts of the world next year?but not in the U.S. any time soon. Dexit, which allows consumers to use chip-embedded keychain “tags” to tap accounts …

Magex Ltd., a London-based e-commerce and person-to-person transaction processor, has acquired Open Payment Technologies Inc., a provider of stored-value card systems to restaurants, supermarkets, and other merchants. A price was not disclosed. Phoenix-based OPT will become a division of Magex, and Dave Ingwersen, OPT's president, is assuming the title of …

The Reserve Bank of Australia is likely to mandate zero interchange for debit card transactions at the point of sale linked to personal identification numbers in that country, according to a report in The Age, an Australian news service. This action if taken would follow the Australian central bank's decision …

America West Airlines, a unit of America West Holdings Corp., has become the first airline to adopt I4 Commerce Inc.'s Bill Me Later Internet payment system. To encourage usage of the new payment option, the Phoenix-based air carrier is offering deferred billing for 90 days or more to qualified customers, …

A Hampton, Ga.-based processor that has tried for four years to bring to market a system to enable on the Internet debit card transactions linked to personal identification numbers may be close to signing an additional network for access to PIN debit accounts. Kryptosima, a unit of InstaPay Systems Inc., …

An arrangement hammered out last spring between Toronto-based Acxsys Corp. and the NYCE electronic funds network, Montvale, N.J., to allow Canadians holding Interac cards to use their cards at all NYCE-linked merchants in the U.S. will switch on next month. The program, dubbed “Cross Border Debit,” is the first extension …

A network built by New York-based Small Value Payments Co. (SVPCo.) to allow banks to exchange check images has begun operations with exchanges between KeyBank and J.P. Morgan Chase. The network began with volume at a “controlled” level to allow each bank to test operations, according to an announcement from …

Canada's five major banks next spring will roll out a service that will allow consumers to pay for goods and services on the Internet with debit cards linked to personal identification numbers. The service, called iDebit, has been at least 18 months in the making and is expected to be …

Proposals to extend a transaction-messaging protocol based on extensible markup language (XML) to the retail point of sale are meeting some skepticism among current and former POS terminal executives. The protocol, known as interactive financial exchange (IFX), relies on the flexibility of XML, an Internet language, to simplify messaging across …