The U.S Patent and Trademark Office has upheld substantially all of the claims contained in a key patent held by DataTreasury Corp. that covers processes related to check image exchange. The USPTO decision, reached in May but not made public until recently, follows a formal process in which Plano, Texas-based …

The momentum behind contactless payments is likely to stall unless the wave-and-pay method moves from cards to mobile phones, a new research report argues. But while that movement may boost the potential for mobile payments, it will also require a delicate balance of interests among card issuers, payment networks, merchants, …

The fortunes of individual merchant acquirers not withstanding, the acquiring industry as a whole for decades has proffered an unofficial guarantee of recession-proof growth. But a new study by First Annapolis Consulting Inc. shows that changes in the acquiring industry's growth rates are increasingly correlated to retail sales growth. And …

Image-exchange networks and the financial institutions that use them to process checks electronically may have to contend with a dwindling supply of checks sooner than they expected. For the time being, the networks are doing a robust business, with the volume of items expected to more than quadruple this year, …

Fraudsters have started using computer files that allow them to instantly create a phishing site on a compromised computer, a move that could make their activities harder to detect, a report from RSA Security Inc. says. The Bedford, Mass.-based security firm's Anti-Fraud Command Center has discovered what it calls a …

An online-ordering system for fast food, introduced in January by a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based independent sales organization, has been adopted by more than 1,200 locations so far, including small proprietors looking to compete with large chains. The system, which allows consumers to order and pay for pizzas, sandwiches, and other …

Payment companies devote countless hours and millions of dollars to protecting sensitive customer and payment data from outside computer hackers, but the theft of 2.3 million customer records announced today by check and card processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) shows that employee theft remains a serious?and difficult?problem to …

Discover Financial Services LLC, whose shares began trading on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, is finally on its own as a corporate entity for the first time in its 22-year- history. But while the spin-off from parent company Morgan Stanley is complete, Discover's mission of gaining market share …

Now that the two top executives have been appointed to run Visa Inc., the massive entity that will emerge from a sweeping restructuring of the worldwide Visa organization, payments observers see more capability in place to deal with issues to come. But the departure of Visa USA head John Philip …

Alternative payments have penetrated the market for airline tickets with Northwest Airlines Inc.'s decision to accept PayPal on its Web site. The move by the major air carrier, which executes about 1,400 daily departures around the world, makes it the first airline to accept PayPal and gives the San Jose, …