The widening damage from the unfolding debit card hacking incident is challenging the conventional wisdom that PIN-based debit cards are inherently more secure than credit cards, which rely on signatures?though it still doesn't make a case for chip cards. That's according to one expert whose latest estimates are that this …

In an indication of the rapid growth of image exchange, the nation's largest network reports its average daily volume soared 47.3% in February, to just over 1 million items, over the average in January. This represents the first time The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC's SVPCO unit has reached the …

In a new twist on stored-value plastic, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is issuing Visa-branded debit cards to low-income recipients of tax refunds. Working with Volunteer Income Tax Assistance offices in 16 cities, Chase expects the cards to help recipients who qualify for refunds under the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) …

A small San Diego company is working on a new type of transaction card that combines the characteristics of a compact disk and a mag-stripe card, allowing consumers to perform both credit and debit transactions online as well as at physical points of sale. U.S. Encode Corp., incorporated in 2002, …

The idea of merging financial-services kiosks with ATMs will be tested this spring when Info Touch Technologies Corp., operator of the TIO kiosk network, and ATM deployer Cardtronics Inc. begin driving some 40 machines specially fitted to dispense cash withdrawals and perform kiosk functions such as bill payments. The machines …

Heightened tensions over interchange fees are helping to fuel expansion in the market for so-called instant issuance of payment plastics. Englewood, Colo.-based Dynamic Card Solutions, which produces software that lets banks issue Visa- and MasterCard-branded debit cards on the spot to customers, says its revenue grew 53% in 2005, without …

A proposal for a new payment application that would allow merchants to convert bundles of consumer checks to electronic transactions in a central location has received largely favorable comment from banks, merchants, and other industry participants. NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based rules-setting organization for the automated clearing house, is reviewing written …

The Federal Trade Commission announced on Thursday a proposed settlement with the successor to CardSystems Solutions Inc., the merchant processor that gained notoriety last year as the source of the largest known compromise of financial data to date. The settlement, which did not include fines, arose out of the FTC's …

Cardtronics Inc., which operates the largest network of ATMs in the U.S., reported a net loss of $900,000 for the fourth quarter of 2005 along with a full-year drop in net of $3.7 million, to $900,000. The results came on increases of 12.6% and 39.5% in revenue, respectively, for the …

The installed base of ATM-like machines that allow consumers to pay bills, cash checks, top up prepaid wireless cards, and perform other financial transactions is set to explode as retailers and banks seek ways to serve the population of unbanked and underbanked customers, a new research report says. Indeed, the …