News

September, 2013

• 3 September

  Native Electronic Applications Shine on the ACH As Check-Based Codes Slide

  By John Stewart n Electronic processing of payments that originate as paper checks dropped dramatically in the second quarter on the automated clearing house network, while payments that start out as electronic items grew briskly, according to the latest report from NACHA, the ACH’s governing body. n The decline in …

August, 2013

• 30 August

  Insurer’s Efforts To Dodge Data-Theft Claims Highlight Growing Field of Breach Insurance

  Schnuck Markets Inc. found itself in a bit of a pickle recently when it learned that its insurance company is refusing to cover losses from a data breach at the regional grocery store chain that compromised up to 2.4 million debit and credit cards. The Schnucks incident and other recent …
• 29 August

  Prepaid Cards Become an Option for Buying Health Insurance Through New Exchanges

  By Jim Daly Following a summer of uncertainty over whether millions of uninsured consumers would be unable to buy medical insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) because they didn’t have a checking account, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week issued a rule that requires …
• 28 August

  Durbin Economics Begin to Impact Vibrant Market for Open-Loop, Big-Bank Gift Cards

  By John Stewart n The inexorable economics of the Durbin Amendment are beginning to make themselves felt in the vibrant business of network-branded gift cards. n JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of a handful of major banks that offer Visa- and MasterCard-branded gift cards, this spring stopped selling its Visa …
• 27 August

  Surging M-Commerce Could Eclipse $25 Billion in Sales in 2013, comScore Forecasts

  In a sign of the increasing significance of mobile commerce in the U.S. economy, comScore Inc. reported on Tuesday that remote m-commerce sales totaled $10.6 billion in the first half of the year, or about 10% of total online volume, including desktop e-commerce. ComScore forecasts that online spending on mobile …
• 27 August

  Free Checking Remains Commonplace, But Not Quite As Common As in the Past

  By Jim Daly Plenty of Americans are still getting free checking, but not as many as last year, according to new findings from the American Bankers Association. The Washington, D.C.-based trade group’s latest annual consumer survey says 55% of bank customers spend nothing each month for banking services and ATM …
• 26 August

  Mobile Check Capture Is Saving Banks Big Bucks, But How Big?

  The increasing popularity of depositing checks via mobile devices could end up saving financial institutions offering the service a good deal of money, according to a recent study. But, while cost savings from mobile check capture are real, there are offsetting factors, says an expert not connected with the study. …
• 26 August

  Forgotten Fed Report Shows Debit Interchange Could Be in for a Real Haircut

  Findings from an overlooked Federal Reserve Board report from last March portend that the possible cuts in debit card interchange as a result of a major court decision last month could be even bigger than many observers initially thought. In the report, the Fed said that authorization, clearing, and settlement …
• 22 August

  Mercury Leverages Developers To Sell PayPal Wallet to Brick-And-Mortar Merchants

  PayPal Inc.’s ambitious plan to achieve what its parent company’s chief executive calls “ubiquity” in in-store acceptance took a key step forward this week when news emerged that Mercury Payment Systems has become the first independent sales organization to market PayPal’s mobile wallet to small brick-and-mortar merchants. Durango, Colo.-based Mercury, …
• 22 August

  USA Technologies Launches a Prepaid Loyalty Program for Vending Machines

  Love your local vending machine and it’ll love you back. That’s the message from USA Technologies Inc. (USAT), operator of a wireless network of card-accepting vending machines. USAT this week unveiled a loyalty program called “More” centered around a proprietary, reloadable stored-value card that machine owners and operators can offer …