Retailers haven't exactly clamored to implement the new back-office conversion electronic-check option (BOC), but adoption will pick up, according to the Federal Reserve's point man on electronic payments. “It's slower than what many of us thought,” Richard Oliver, executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the …

One year after its launch, an option that lets merchants deposit checks electronically in centralized locations by converting the paper items into automated clearing house debits is growing more slowly than expected, according to a payments executive who led the effort to write the rules for the new option. Back-office …

Not only do mobile payments between individuals constitute a strong market opportunity in themselves, but they also lay the groundwork for mobile payments to merchants, according to James Van Dyke, founder and principal of Javelin Strategy & Research, which this week released a research report on the mobile person-to-person (P2P) …

Fraudsters obtained payment card data originating with Hannaford Bros. Co. while the regional supermarket chain was compliant with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI. The disclosure may mark the first publicly known breach of a PCI-compliant merchant. “We were certified [as PCI-compliant] last spring and we were recertified …

Metavante Corp. on Tuesday announced software that the Milwaukee-based processor and NACHA, the rules-setting organization for the automated clearing house network, say will make it possible for more banks to participate in a new online payment product NACHA plans to start piloting in less than a month. “This [software] is …

News of the first big data breach of 2008 broke Monday afternoon when Scarborough, Maine-based grocery chain Hannaford Bros. Co. acknowledged a data intrusion into its computer network that resulted in the theft of a reported 4.2 million customer credit and debit card numbers. The disclosure came only after the …

Talks under way between processor First Data Corp. and banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. indicate Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the world's largest merchant acquirer, might be split between its two owners, according to documents filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data, which …

Online merchants implementing payment alternatives to bank cards are beginning to report significant results. Since it started to accept PayPal in November, for example, online closeout retailer Overstock.com Inc. has seen the alternative payment method soar to 10% of its revenues and 12% of its orders, according to Alan Johnson, …

The cost of check scanners is the biggest hurdle to small businesses' adoption of remote deposit capture, says a new report from Boston-based researcher Celent LLC. Yet only 15% of banks offer clients free scanners, with half requiring them to buy the machines upfront, either from the bank or from …

A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives late last week that proposes to lay down new rules for how payment card interchange would be set raises many questions beyond whether the banking or retail lobby carries more clout in Congress. The questions can be summed up in one: …