After five years of development, an ATM technology company with its eyes on the prepaid card market says its business model of selling prepaid cards through ATMs is ready for prime time. As evidence, Better ATM Services Inc. on Tuesday announced it would enable the sale of a Discover-branded gift …

With a hearing coming up on Friday, objections to the proposed credit card interchange settlement are piling up in Brooklyn, N.Y., faster than debris from Superstorm Sandy. In addition to a number of retailers and their trade groups, those on record against the controversial plan forged by lawyers for the …

Jim Daly Can the old Hypercom Corp.’s reborn U.S. operation make a go of it with a new name, new owner, and new products in a fast-changing POS terminal market? After 15 months in the Makeover Department, the U.S. operation of the former Hypercom Corp., now known as Equinox Payments …

A senior Federal Reserve official said greater speed, efficiency, and responsiveness to consumer preferences are the central bank’s top payments priorities as it plans for the next decade. But apart from promoting open communication and collaboration among industry players, Sandra Pianalto, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank …

Quick—which of these five common financial products was the only one to grow last year: credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, checking accounts, or personal savings accounts? If you answered “prepaid cards,” give yourself a gold star. New research from Javelin Strategy & Research says fewer consumers in 2011 reported …

Annual Field Guide to Alternative Payments You’ll need a fair amount of memory on your hard drive to keep track of all the comings and goings in the bubbling world of alternative payments. By now, our Field Guide to Alternative Payments needs no introduction. It’s one of our most popular …

  What merchants increasingly want from an independent sales organization  is an all-in-one application developer, provider of business solutions,  and bundler of mobile and e-commerce data.  Forward-thinking ISOs are the ones that can tick off those boxes. By Peter Lucas Having difficulty figuring out the definition of an independent sales …

New data from automated clearing house governing body NACHA reaffirm the continuing gains of electronic bill payment and the long-term decline in consumer check writing to pay bills. NACHA’s report for 2011’s fourth quarter says that transactions under the so-called WEB standard entry class code for Internet bill-payment debits grew …

  The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service is bemoaning the accelerating shift by consumers away from sending everything from Christmas cards to bill payments by physical mail. But, on the other side of the coin, new data confirm that the automated clearing house is where a lot of former paper-based …

  Purveyors of card-acceptance services for mobile phones  are booking merchants by the hundreds of thousands.  But many of these merchants present underwriting risks and generate little charge volume. Are they worth it?   By Jim Daly   Everyman a merchant? Thanks to smart phones and aggressive merchant processors such …