Consumers generally prefer PIN-based debit to signature debit, and are less frequently subjected by banks and merchants to fees for PIN-debit usage, according to a recent survey. At the same time, the number of banks offering rewards incentives to consumers for PIN-debit usage, already a small minority, is declining, says …

In a vote of confidence for smart card technology in North America, a leading producer of chip-embedded plastic cards has achieved full production of the technologies necessary for smart cards at a plant outside Baltimore. Axalto Holding NV, a France-based card manufacturer, says this is the first time such full-scale …

MasterCard International and Visa International, which are now both offering platforms in the U.S. for contactless card transactions based on radio-frequency identification technology, have agreed on a common communications protocol and on testing requirements for the technology. The agreement should mean that payment devices branded by one of the associations …

For all the publicity phishing has received in the past year as a rapidly growing and particularly insidious form of electronic fraud, it figures as a source of information in identity-fraud cases only 1.7% of the time when the method behind the crime is known. Indeed, online channels as a …

Washington Mutual Inc.'s decision to switch its 10.5-million-card debit portfolio to MasterCard International from Visa U.S.A., though a big win for MasterCard, doesn't necessarily herald a trend, observers say. At the same time, it throws into relief a bylaw Visa quietly put into place in 2003 that penalizes large debit-card-issuing …

The expected surge in gift cards received this holiday season may cause a problem for online merchants that try to match billing addresses given by consumers at checkout with those on file with issuers before authorizing transactions, says ClearCommerce Corp. Online retailers will usually set their address-verification systems (AVS) to …

Fraud losses will total $2.6 billion in 2004 for Internet merchants, 37% higher than last year, with smaller merchants suffering the worst fraud. That's according to the sixth annual survey of online fraud from CyberSource Corp., a Mountain View, Calif.-based transaction gateway for e-commerce sites. The survey, which gathered responses …

Authorize.net, which has been the victim of a series of denial-of-service attacks since Sept. 15, says today it has implemented unspecified “industry-leading solutions” that are thwarting the assaults on its data centers, which process card transactions for more than 100,000 merchants. It also says its engineers from the start of …

With an increasing number of consumers checking credit card statements and paying bills online at credit card issuers' Web sites, Keynote Systems Inc., San Mateo, Calif., announced it will begin measuring the speed and reliability of nine sites as part of a benchmarking index. The company, which specializes in measuring …

Six New York-based payments businesses, including The Clearing House, a check-settlement processor, and Small Value Payments Co. (SVPCo.), an electronic transaction processor, will be merging over the next 12 months into a single company, The Clearing House announced today. The merger, which has been in the planning process for the …