Interac, Canada's national electronic-funds transfer network, announced recently it processed more point-of-sale debit card transactions on Dec. 22 and 23 than in any two-day period in its 22-year history. The network handled 31.2 million transactions over the period, 1 million more than the previous two-day record, set in 2005. Unlike …

Disappointed by holiday sales, some retailers are turning to advertising to induce gift card recipients to use their cards before New Year's Day, according to press accounts. Chains are using both TV and newspaper ads in the effort. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp. have turned to TV to …

The formerly somnolent point-of-purchase (POP) electronic-check code continued on its newfound burst of energy in the third quarter, according to the latest automated clearing house volume report from NACHA?The Electronic Payments Association. NACHA reports POP volume hit 80.5 million transactions, up 92.8% from 41.8 million in the year-earlier quarter. POP's …

MasterCard Worldwide and USA Technologies Inc., which have been working together to equip vending machines to accept card payments, including contactless transactions, have announced the first deployments in a planned 5,000-machine rollout. The two companies also said they are installing gear on the Ohio Turnpike to accept contactless tokens for …

MasterCard prepaid cards received new utility this week when MasterCard Worldwide launched a network of retailers, dubbed MasterCard rePower, at whose locations cardholders can use cash to add value to MasterCard- and Maestro-branded prepaid cards. The first rePower reload transaction took place Monday at a Village Pantry convenience store in …

Checks cleared by paying banks as electronic images outnumbered substitute checks for the first time in the short history of image exchange in October, according to numbers compiled by the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization, Dallas. The ECCHO statistics, gathered from three primary settlement networks, also show healthy growth in …

Less than a year ago, the only publicly traded payment card network stock was that of American Express Co. With Tuesday's announcement by investment-banking giant Morgan Stanley that it will spin off its Discover Financial Services LLC unit, the No. 4 network, there could be four. MasterCard Inc.'s May initial …

The latest U.S. trial of contactless payment involving mobile phones and near-field communication technology (NFC), set to begin Jan. 10 in New York City, will combine key elements of the two other U.S. pilots mounted so far, and represents the first in which users can access credit cards issued by …

Mutual need brought Electronic Clearing House Inc. (ECHO) and Intuit Inc. together in the $142 million deal, announced last week, that will make Camarillo, Calif-based processor ECHO part of Intuit, Mountain View, Calif., some time in the first quarter (Digital Transactions News, Dec. 15). Intuit, marketer of the popular QuickBooks …

Intuit Inc. has notched yet another acquisition calculated to augment its widely used accounting software with electronic-payments capability by agreeing to pay $142 million in cash to buy Electronic Clearing House Inc. (ECHO), a publicly held, Camarillo, Calif.-based processor of card and automated clearing house transactions. The deal, which is …