Morgan Stanley's Discover Financial Services LLC payment network on Tuesday announced its certification of a contactless card reader from On Track Innovations Ltd., Discover's second such announcement in three months. But Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover still hasn't revealed its larger contactless plans. “There's nothing we can talk about right now,” a …

Small-ticket electronic transactions, particularly those at unattended machines, may get a boost with a proposal that would relax a provision of Regulation E regarding receipts for consumers. The Federal Reserve Board this week requested public comment on the proposal, which would exempt transactions of $15 or less from Reg E's …

While American consumers were flocking to the stores on Friday and whipping out their credit and debit cards for payment, their Canadian counterparts were forced to find cash, their checkbooks, or to come back later because the network of the nation's largest merchant acquirer went down for two and a …

A new electronic check-conversion application set to go live in March at retail and other check-accepting businesses could become one of the fastest-growing products ever introduced for the automated clearing house (ACH) network, generating 425 million transactions in 2007, predicts a new study from Boston-based market researcher Celent LLC. The …

U.S. Bancorp reported this week that it would start testing Visa Contactless credit cards by the end of the month in the Denver area. The test will involve an undisclosed number of cardholders who would be able to use the cards equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips at about 600 …

The concept of an ATM that also serves as a kiosk for bill payment and other financial services may be getting closer to reality. TIO Networks Inc., a Burnaby, B.C.-based operator of bill-payment kiosks that serve primarily the underbanked, will begin deploying hybrid ATM-kiosk machines by the start of 2007, …

In a move aimed at addressing widespread fears about e-commerce security, MagTek Inc. has launched a company to commercialize its card-based authentication technology and leverage it for both online and point-of-sale transactions. Magensa LLC, a subsidiary of the Carson, Calif., maker of check scanners and card-terminal components, officially began operation …

Visa USA will test text messages as a way to deliver coupons and discounts to employees at its corporate campus in Foster City. The 12-week test, which does not involve payment technology, is a precursor to broader tests of text messaging that may be linked to payments. The test with …

A mobile payments and banking service backed by Cingular Wireless and CheckFree Corp., announced this week, could pave the way to faster and more widespread adoption of contactless payments, its backers say. The service, which is being tested by an unnamed regional bank and is expected to launch in the …

Online merchants' fraud losses will hit $3 billion in 2006, up 7% over last year, but the overall growth in e-commerce means fraud as a proportion of sales will dip slightly, to 1.4% from 1.6%. This mixed news comes as Web merchants adopt an increasing array of alternatives to bank-issued …