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As bills paid the old-fashioned way–through the mail–decline while online bill payments boom, a Digital Transactions News analysis of recent automated clearing house data shows Internet-based e-check traffic approaching transaction volumes of check conversions for conventional bill payments. At the current rate, the Web-based payments could surpass these paper-based check …
Read More »Seeking Easier Prey, Fraudsters Attack Call Centers to Loot Accounts
Faced with more stringent authentication procedures for online financial transactions, criminals are turning to call centers to commit fraud via the phone channel, according to RSA, the Security Division of EMC. Although call-center fraud still is a small percentage of total Internet fraud, it is “definitely growing,” says Joram Borenstein, …
Read More »MPX, Payments Central Merge in Latest ACH Consolidation Move
The slow but steady pace of consolidation of regional automated clearing house associations continued this week when Kansas City, Mo.-based Mid-America Payment Exchange (MPX) merged with Columbus, Ohio-based Payments Central. The new entity, dubbed Epcor, serves more than 2,300 financial institutions in all or parts of 12 states stretching from …
Read More »The Banking System Scrambles Toward IAT’s September Launch
With the deadline just three months away, the banking industry is scrambling to implement IAT, the new automated clearing house code for international transactions. IAT originally was to take effect March 20. But NACHA?The Electronic Payments Association, governing body of the ACH, last July pushed it back to Sept. 18, …
Read More »Stats Show Bill Payments Remain the Star of E-Checks on the ACH
Internet bill payments were the lone stars of electronic checks in the first quarter, a quarter that saw volumes on all other e-check applications either decline or barely rise from fourth-quarter 2008 levels. Most e-check codes also declined on a year-over-year basis, according to the latest automated clearing house volume …
Read More »Kansas City Fed Chief Espouses ACH for Debit Card Processing
The Federal Reserve Banks should adapt the automated clearing house network to compete directly with private-sector networks for debit card processing, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City said this week. “The Federal Reserve could enhance competition in payment card markets by positioning ACH services as an …
Read More »A Rival Emerges to the Fed’s Plan for Faster ACH Clearing
A Federal Reserve Bank proposal to speed up settlement times for certain automated clearing house transactions has provoked at least one electronic-payments executive to offer an alternative proposal that he says will accelerate clearing times without the threat to banks he sees in the Fed's idea. Danne Buchanan, chief executive …
Read More »Tempo Plans Some Noise for a Quiet Decoupled Debit Card Market
The market for decoupled debit cards, which has been eerily silent for about a year, may soon be making waves again. An executive with Tempo Payments Inc., a non-bank processor with the only network-branded product on the market currently, said this week the company plans to launch a new product …
Read More »Fraudsters Beef up Attacks on Checks As the ‘Weakest Link’
Check volumes may be declining, but check-related crime remains by far the most common type of payment fraud reported by corporate financial officers. What's more, while overall losses still remain small, fraud attempts increased last year and the recession could be a cause, according to the Association for Financial Professionals. …
Read More »Why the Fed Is Moving to Same-Day Clearing for E-Checks
Looking to speed up clearing time for electronic checks on the automated clearing house, The Federal Reserve Banks on Monday announced the first change to the settlement windows for the ACH network in 35 years. The change, which is set to take effect in the second quarter of next year, …
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