TPI Software LLC, a privately held provider of e-commerce and point-of-sale systems based in Redmond, Wash., has won certification on Paymentech LP's NetConnect platform, a major network supporting online and telephone transactions, as well as transactions at the point of sale, using Internet connections. TPI, which claims to have developed …

Frustration with electronic-transaction pricing may be reaching a boiling point in the supermarket industry, says one expert who keeps an eye on payments issues at the National Grocers Association, an Arlington, Va.-based trade group that includes independent supermarkets and wholesalers among its 12,000-plus members. Interchange and other costs for credit …

Target Corp.'s decision several weeks ago to discontinue its chip-based electronic loyalty program has confirmed for Visa USA that U.S. consumers are not likely to embrace new transaction technologies any time soon, whether tied to loyalty programs or not. Indeed, for the foreseeable future, the bank card network is shifting …

Debit cards linked to personal identification numbers are slowly but surely penetrating more and more merchant locations, and as a result PIN debit transactions will begin to overtake transactions on signature-based debit cards within five years, says an analyst at Speer & Associates Inc., Atlanta, who has studied the issue. …

Sales of prepaid gift cards soared 47% last year as the 8-year-old product picked up momentum that will lead to a doubling of usage by 2007, the research firm TowerGroup Inc. reports in research released today. The largest beneficiary of the trend will be banks, the firm says. While bank-issued …

Although the decision by fast-food king McDonald's Corp. to shut down its test of ExxonMobil Corp.'s Speedpass contactless payment product seems to be a setback for the technology, not all observers agree. Indeed, some are convinced transactions based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) still have a bright future at high-throughput locations–maybe …

A transaction processor that targets high-volume online merchants is winning adherents among merchants and consumers alike for its product, which allows consumers to buy on credit without entering sensitive account data. I4Commerce Inc.'s “Bill Me Later” service, which became commercially available two years ago as an alternative to credit cards …

The automated clearing house system handled more than 10 billion electronic transactions in 2003, and the conversion of checks into ACH debits helped fuel the growth, according to statistics released today by the National Automated Clearing House Association at its annual conference in Seattle. Total ACH transactions reached 10.017 billion …

Bank card acquirers are increasingly tacking on fees to handle American Express Co. transactions at terminals they deploy for merchants, a tactic that may work in their favor as AmEx signs on more banks as issuers of the T&E company's products. That's among the major findings of the most recent …

With its acquisition of CellCards of Illinois LLC, Bellevue, Wash.-based Coinstar Inc. is making a play that takes advantage of two key trends in the electronic transactions market: rising sales of prepaid value products and the increasing importance of the so-called unbanked consumer market. With a network of some 11,000 …