Off-price retailer The TJX Cos. Inc. is defending its month-long delay in the disclosure of an intrusion into its network that handles customer payment card data, saying it may have prevented the data breach from becoming worse. TJX discovered the breach in mid-December, but didn't reveal it until Jan. 17. …

The latest and possibly biggest in a series of hacks into retailer and processor databases holding sensitive data about credit and debit card holders may indicate that it's time for a new approach to card security, according to at least one analyst. That calls into question the effectiveness of the …

It was a bumpy ride, but Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) emerged from 2006 with some hefty profit growth. The second-largest card processor this week reported fourth-quarter revenues of $503.9 million, up 19.8% from $420.7 million a year earlier, and net income of $87.1 million, up 75.2% from $49.7 million. …

The sudden proliferation of Web sites hosting phishing attacks that began in October cooled only slightly in November, as online fraudsters continue to create multiple sub-domains to foil anti-phishing filters. The number of unique phishing sites came to 37,439, essentially flat with the 37,444 reported for October, according to the …

10 Tipping Points for the Payments Industry Part 3 (Editor's Note: In its November-December 2006 issue, Digital Transactions magazine began a series of special analytical reports concerning the 10 most critical issues now confronting banks, processors, and merchants as they engage in handling electronic transactions. Written by noted researcher and …

Visa USA has signed up an undisclosed number of member financial institutions to use a new m-commerce technology platform the card network announced this week that ties together a wide range of functions, including contactless payment, over-the-air personalization (OTA), couponing, mobile banking, Internet payment, and person-to-person (P2P) funds transfers. A …

Statistics released on Monday indicate the trafficking of electronic check images among banks took big strides in 2006. With December numbers in, The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC, New York, which operates the nation's largest image-exchange network, reported its volume last year totaled 747 million images, representing $2 trillion in …

It's early yet, but both daily transactions and average order value have been rising for payments accepted by TigerDirect Inc.'s Web site through online payment system SECURE-eBill, says Marwan Forzley, the chief executive of Ottawa-based MODASolutions, which markets the system to online merchants. TigerDirect, a Miami-based merchant that sells electronics …

CheckFree Corp.'s agreement to buy Dallas-based banking-software vendor Carreker Corp., announced Tuesday, will help extend the bill-payment processor's reach into the business of electronic check image exchange, including the fast-growing remote capture market. It could also position CheckFree to exploit opportunities arising from the possible convergence of the automated clearing …

Checks cleared by paying banks as electronic images outnumbered substitute checks for the first time in the short history of image exchange in October, according to numbers compiled by the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization, Dallas. The ECCHO statistics, gathered from three primary settlement networks, also show healthy growth in …