Has the explosion in consumer usage of signature-based debit cards created a bonanza for banks in fees charged for insufficient funds? At least one analyst thinks so. “It's the dirty little secret in the industry,” says Steve Mott, a former MasterCard executive and principal at BetterBuyDesign, a Stamford, Conn., consultancy. …

The new chief executive of First Data Corp. is likely to bring renewed focus to the processing giant's merchant-acquiring business and move quickly to resolve the drag on growth represented by the company's processing business that supports card issuers, say industry observers. At the same time, Henry C. (Ric) Duques, …

The banks that own MasterCard Inc. cleared the way today for the bank card network to offer stock to the public and to reconstitute its governing board. By an overwhelming margin in a special meeting of shareholders, MasterCard’s shareholders approved the company’s proposal for an initial public offering that will …

The U.S. cash-payment market is enormous, but banks' hopes of penetrating it with so-called contactless technology could falter if high acceptance costs spur merchants to look at alternative electronic payment methods. That's one among a number of findings in a new study released this week on the market for transactions …

Pre-holiday spending volume on Visa cards continued to build in the week through Sunday, with overall transactions increasing 18.8%, to 405.6 million ($22.7 billion in dollar volume), over the same week a year ago. Activity on the Internet and in fast-food chains, two closely watched emerging spending categories, increased 22.5% …

With identify fraud posing a serious challenge to online bankers and merchants, technology vendors are starting to respond with hardware- and software-based solutions offering so-called strong authentication, which adds a second factor of identity to the standard user-name/password pair. Now Corillian Corp. has launched a product it says is the …

PIN debit transactions are cheaper than debit card transactions secured by signature, incur lower fraud losses, and generate slightly higher average tickets, according to a survey of issuing banks. Taking into account processing costs as well as the cost of back-office fraud-management, chargebacks, settlement, customer service, and accounting functions, the …

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has begun accepting cards issued on the Debitman Card Inc. network, a 5-year-old system that allows merchants to issue and accept PIN-secured debit cards and clear transactions through the automated clearing house. Wal-Mart began taking the Debitman card Nov. 1 at all 3,600 U.S. Wal-Mart and Sam's …

In a move that could lead First Data Corp. to sell its shrinking card-issuing operation, the Denver-based processor announced today it has hired investment banker Morgan Stanley to investigate options for the unit. The card-issuing business, one of three principal processing operations at First Data, has been rocked in recent …

DataTreasury Corp. has scored another victory in its ongoing litigation against major banks, networks, and vendors over alleged infringement of DataTreasury patents covering processes involved in check-image exchange, and now says it is preparing to fight cases it has filed against nine other outstanding defendants. With the decision by France's …