The news that Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. are negotiating new debit-card acceptance deals with big retail chains and their acquirers in which the chains will pay lower transaction fees than what is standard for other merchants has already fueled speculation that the giant, bank-owned card networks are …

A survey of more than 170 senior-level executives for electronic payments processors, networks, and online merchants at a micropayments conference held earlier this month indicates a majority of the online merchants in attendance will be selling content with a micropayments system within a year. The survey, whose results were released …

Separate studies of online transaction fraud released this week cast new light on the problem of fraudulent Web transactions. The rate of online fraud is declining, according to a survey of online merchants conducted in October by CyberSource, Mountain View, Calif., a processor of online transactions. But indirect costs resulting …

When President Bush signed the Check Clearing for the 21st Century (Check 21) Act into law last month, he unleashed a flurry of activity among financial institutions and vendors looking for ways to take advantage of the law, which allows banks to exchange electronic images of checks instead of the …

MasterCard announced today its test of contactless chip cards in Orlando, Fla., was encouraging enough for the card company to roll it out to all members as a feature on MasterCard credit, debit, and stored-value cards. The company expects the expansion to begin next summer with the addition of new …

A new survey indicates sharply higher popularity for gift cards. According to the survey, an estimated 97 million Americans, or 45% of the adult population, bought a gift card in the last 12 months, twice the number who bought one in 2002. The 2003 survey, which was conducted in August …

Visa may be offering its debit card issuers a little leeway with regard to its controversial service settlement fee by allowing them to switch their card portfolios to American Express or Discover without incurring any penalties. But some industry observers don't think the offer will make any practical difference to …

Duane Reade Inc., a chain of 241 drugstores in New York City, will on Monday become the fourth and so far the largest issuer of the Debitman card, a non-bank, national electronic payment system started last year by a group of payments veterans with roots in the retailing business. Duane …

Payment executives shouldn't read too much into the legal interpretation of a recent policy decision by Visa to exempt its members that switch their debit card portfolios to American Express or Discover–but not MasterCard–from paying exit penalties. In a letter to members, Paul Allen, Visa executive vice president and general …

The extent to which air travelers are adopting electronic ticketing kiosks has been demonstrated in dramatic fashion by some numbers recently released by Northwest Airlines Inc., which was the first major airline to deploy the technology. Some two-thirds of the Minneapolis-based carrier's passengers used the kiosks in October, up from …