A failure by major investors to understand the business model of an independent sales organization may have prompted yesterday's offer by Gregory S. Daily, chairman and chief executive of iPayment Inc., to buy all outstanding shares of the Nashville, Tenn.-based processor. The company, which went public in March 2003, closed …

Credit Union 24, the largest electronic funds transfer network in the nation owned by credit unions, said today it had seen transaction volume soar by a record 35% last year, to 140.9 million from 104.7 million in 2003. The network, based in Tallahassee, Fla., credits new members and an expanded …

Ritz Camera Centers Inc., which last week announced it would adopt MasterCard's PayPass contactless card program chainwide, says it hopes to use the technology to hasten photo-finishing customers through the checkout process. “They're in the stores two or three time a week, and they want the service to be kind …

Sensing a trend within banks toward pulling together credit, debit, checking, and other electronic payments-processing operations, IBM Corp. is getting ready to push an all-purpose retail payments engine for both bank back offices and third-party transaction processors. “It's a payments hub, and it's cheaper, faster, and easier to maintain,” than …

Merchant transactions processed by First Data Corp. grew 38% to 5.28 billion in the quarter ended March 31, sending acquiring processing fees up 19% to $682.7 million?or almost 13 cents per transaction–at the Denver-based processor, according to first-quarter figures released today together with comparisons to the year-ago period. Merchant transactions …

In a vote of confidence for smart card technology in North America, a leading producer of chip-embedded plastic cards has achieved full production of the technologies necessary for smart cards at a plant outside Baltimore. Axalto Holding NV, a France-based card manufacturer, says this is the first time such full-scale …

With credit card fees having become one of their biggest operating expenses, airlines are turning to alternative, lower-cost payment options. The aim is to reduce the collective $1.5 billion in card-acceptance costs airlines pay annually, according to a recent study by Edgar, Dunn & Co. Houston-based Continental Airlines has moved …

In a determined if not defiant speech delivered today at a conference of independent sales organizations, Discover Financial Services Inc. chief executive David Nelms invited ISOs to help Discover build its network by helping introduce new services and recruiting more merchants. He also decried high merchant acceptance costs and took …

Dallas-based processor TransFirst today began marketing a Web-based payments-processing engine that was developed by a company it acquired a year ago and is currently being used by 3,500 merchants. Called Transaction Central, the new product acts as a virtual terminal for physical merchants and a payments gateway for Net retailers, …

Although their rate of deployment has slowed somewhat, independent sales organizations continue to install ATMs at a rapid rate and now control nearly half of the 394,500 machines in service in the U.S., according to a new study from Tremont Capital Group Inc. Moreover, the Boston-based investment advisory firm's report …