This article kicks off a six-part series by electronic-payments researcher and consultant Steve Mott that explores how the next generation of e-commerce will be defined by the Web 2.0 phenomenon, leading to dramatic changes in the transactional environment. The final installment of the series will appear in the February issue …

Not surprisingly, Amazon.com Inc. disclosed this week that it would no longer accept Bill Me Later Inc., the fast-growing online credit system now owned by Amazon archrival eBay Inc. But at least one analyst expects the damage to Bill Me Later will be minimal despite the loss of access to …

As both a card issuer and payment card network, Discover Financial Services is feeling the sharp pinch of recession. Discover chief executive David Nelms indicated to analysts on Thursday that Discover would play a conservative game on the issuing side in 2009, but not necessarily so on the merchant side. …

Secure Vault Payments, the online payment system that NACHA has been piloting since last spring, is catching on as a bill-payment alternative among colleges and state agencies, says Kendall Myles, the executive who is heading up SVP merchant recruitment for NACHA, the regulatory body for the automated clearing house network. …

At a time of rising business failures and intense industry competition, United Bank Card Inc. says its new Harbortouch unit is producing what the big independent sales organization sought?enhanced merchant relationships and higher margins. In addition to card processing, Harbortouch offers small and mid-sized restaurants and retailers business-management hardware and …

An extended cobranded credit card pact between Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Express Co., announced on Tuesday, also has merchant-acquiring and debit card implications, and it provides further evidence of how airlines in a weak economy can raise cash from their issuing and acquiring partners. AmEx, issuer of Atlanta-based …

In another sign of sweeping changes in the Canadian payment card market, Visa Inc.'s Visa Canada unit last week published interchange rates on its Web site for the first time. The posting comes at a time when merchants are complaining about higher rewards-card acceptance costs and expressing fears that possible …

The NYCE electronic funds transfer network, which last month said it will pilot PINless purchase transactions online, has become the second EFT system to agree to test Web-based debit card transactions secured by PINs. While Steven A. Rathgaber, president and chief operating officer at Secaucus, N.J.-based NYCE, says many of …

The torrent of press releases promoting this new mobile-banking technology or that new mobile-banking service usually references, either implicitly or explicitly, the consumer as the end user. But small businesses represent a far more receptive user group for mobile-banking services, including bill payments, according to a new report from Boston-based …

Financial institutions have made big strides in fighting identity fraud over the past year but still lag in preventing the crime by using such technologies as mobile alerts, according to a report released this week by Javelin Strategy & Research. “Despite so many consumers having mobile devices, banks are still …