Competitive Strategies

ViVOtech Inc., the Santa Clara, Calif.-based maker of contactless point-of-sale card readers and mobile-wallet applications, is raising $20 million in its third round of venture-capital funding. The lead investor in this latest round announced this week is none other than First Data Corp., the No. 1 payment-card processor. ViVOtech, First …

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that appears to rein in the ability of certain technology patent holders to press their claims against alleged infringers is likely to have little or no impact on what has been a highly effective enforcement campaign by a company that holds patents bearing on check …

Just as banks are starting to jump back into the mobile-banking market, a research report has emerged to indicate consumers may still not be ready to use their handsets for transaction services. Only 8% of online users who own a cell phone say they are interested in using the device …

Fledgling PIN-debit network Tempo Payments Inc. this week reported that Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the nation's largest merchant acquirer, is now offering Tempo acceptance. With Chase processing for more than 500,000 merchants, the agreement opens a huge new acceptance base to San Mateo, Calif.-based Tempo, though whether that potential is …

Reversing a marketing decision it made two years ago, Visa USA has attached a brand name to its contactless-payment platform. The name, payWave, will identify Visa's contactless technology around the world, serving the same function as MasterCard Worldwide's PayPass and American Express Co.'s ExpressPay contactless brands. Although the bank card …

If regulation can't be avoided, national trade groups often prefer federal regulation over regulation by states on the theory that one set of rules is less costly and easier to comply with than 50 different sets of rules. But when it comes to interchange, the National Retail Federation is challenging …

PayPal Inc. saw its transaction volume swell 19% in the first quarter, to 177 million payments, while its non-auction business expanded to 39% of all transactions in a performance widely credited with boosting parent eBay Inc.'s financial results for the period. News of the e-commerce transaction processor's performance comes just …

Chockstone Inc., a provider of customer loyalty marketing programs and stored-value solutions acquired Peppercoin Inc. for its card-processing and transaction-aggregation expertise, Chockstone’s top executive tells Digital Transactions News. The acquisition of Peppercoin, which will be merged into Chockstone, will allow the loyalty-marketing company to expand its offerings, says Jeff Lipp, …

Electronic transactions using unique numerical identifiers to mask account and routing data are rising fast, and now the company behind the technology expects it will be commercially available for consumer payments in about a year. The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC says corporate users made 80,459 transactions in 2006 using …

Never wanting for hype, the electronic bill-payment industry may actually have something solid to crow about. Bill-pay processor CheckFree Corp. released a survey this week saying that for the first time, Internet-connected households are paying more bills electronically than by paper check. Tempering the good news for the Norcross, Ga.-based …