Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank, which last year announced it would issue contactless tokens linked to customers' credit and debit card accounts in the New York metropolitan area, is now allowing those devices to be used in a test of radio-frequency-based electronic fare payments by the Metropolitan Transit Authority's MTA New York …

Eight months after rolling out its Internet payment service in the U.S., Ottawa-based MODASolutions says it is seeing results, both in merchant recruitment and in consumer adoption. The company, whose SECURE-eBill product allows consumers to pay e-commerce merchants in the same way they make electronic bill payments, won't disclose transaction …

Despite some poor fourth-quarter financials, shares of First Data Corp. rose nearly 7% this morning after the big transaction processor announced plans to spin off its fast-growing and biggest subsidiary, Western Union, to First Data shareholders. Denver-based First Data also ended speculation that it might sell its lackluster Card Issuing …

CyberSource Corp.'s acquiring business now accounts for fully a quarter of revenue for the Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of gateway and fraud-management services for e-commerce merchants, the company announced today. That represents significant growth from a year ago, when the fledgling acquiring business, in which the company offers and supports …

With its settlement today with NCR Corp., DataTreasury Corp. will be able to tap technology that will allow it to move beyond check processing and into technology supporting automated clearing house and card transactions, the company's lead counsel says. The small Melville, N.Y. technology company, which had sued NCR early …

Writeoffs stemming from transactions on prepaid cards, which had been swelling at online merchant ShopNBC, have eased considerably in the past few months, the retailer reports. Bad debt attributable to the plastic accounted for 3% of total writeoffs for 2005 at ShopNBC, which sells jewelry and electronic gear online at …

Philip W. Tomlinson, chief executive of payment processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), played up his firm's strong fourth-quarter and 2005 financials and growth prospects today despite the pending loss of the huge Bank of America Corp. consumer credit card file. Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS reported fourth-quarter net income of $49.7 …

Afer a let-up last summer, the phishing scourge appears to be getting worse. The Anti-Phishing Working Group reports the number of unique phishing attacks grew 6.7% in November over the count in October, to 16,882. This represents a new record high for the online fraud, in which criminals use bogus …

Deep discounts on interchange rates for Internet transactions authenticated through MasterCard International's SecureCode technology are taking effect just as the security system appears to be attracting more issuers and online merchants, according to a vendor of online authentication systems that supports both SecureCode and Visa USA's rival Verified by Visa …

SVPCO, which operates an image-exchange network controlled by some of the nation's largest banks, said today it saw its image volume climb 33% last month to a new monthly high of 11.7 million items, allowing the new system to close its first full year having trafficked nearly 52 million items. …