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Critics blasted away at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s plan to open a Utah industrial loan corporation for most of three days in late April, and now the world's biggest retailer is firing back. Wal-Mart filed a 14-page letter earlier this month with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. addressing the major concerns …
Read More »Home Depot: No Designs on Payments with Deal to Buy ILC
In sharp contrast to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., leading home-improvement retailer Home Depot Inc. professes no intentions of getting into the payments business even though, like Wal-Mart, it plans to operate a Utah-chartered industrial loan corporation, or ILC, that would give it an entrée into financial services. Less than a month …
Read More »Image Volume Ramp-up in ’06 Beats SVPCO’s Own Projections
A faster-than-expected ramp-up in transaction volume is forcing the country's largest image-exchange network to refigure its growth projections. The Image Payments Network, operated by SVPCO, a unit of New York-based The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC., handled 35.2 million check images in April, up 20.6% from March, according to statistics …
Read More »ORC Chief Says Princeton eCom Play Will Help Build Scale
The deal may be expensive, but Online Resources Corp. expects its definitive agreement to buy bill-payment provider Princeton eCom Corp. to position the combined firm for future growth as electronic bill payments gain favor with consumers and companies. Chantilly, Va.-based Online Resources announced the $180 million cash deal this week …
Read More »In Wake of Big PIN Breach, Visa Tightens Debit-Fraud Controls
At a time when debit card fraud is generating unwelcome headlines, Visa USA is taking two new steps to enhance its information about fraud involving payment cards that rely on personal identification numbers for security. With the goal of spotting fraud trends early and keeping overall fraud under control, Visa …
Read More »Survey: Youth Market Not Sold on Mobile Payments, After All
The youth market may not be the slam dunk for mobile payments that payment processors, card issuers, and merchant acquirers have thought it would be. According to survey results released this week, some 62% of persons aged 16 to 43?the so-called Gen X and Gen Y?say that using cell phones …
Read More »MX Telecom Looks for Rapid Growth in SMS-Based Mobile Payments
The recent launch of mobile-payment services based on short-message service (SMS) transmissions is casting a spotlight on specialist gateways that provide links from payment processors to wireless carriers. One, MX Telecom Inc., counts among its clients both PayPal Mobile, which PayPal Inc. launched earlier this month (Digital Transactions News, April …
Read More »A BankAmericard Redux Poses Risks But Could Reap Rewards for BofA
The possibility that Bank of America Corp. could start its own payment card network and brand poses some big risks and would bring big expenses for the Charlotte, N.C.-based banking giant, though it could enable BofA to differentiate itself in a mature card industry, analysts say. Reports that BofA chairman, …
Read More »ATM Surcharges, Number of Banks Assessing Them, Rise Again
More banks than ever now levy surcharges on ATM transactions performed by non-customers, and the fee is now higher than ever, according to new data released this week by Bankrate.com, a service of Bankrate Inc. The average ATM surcharge is now $1.60, up from $1.54 in the fall of 2005, …
Read More »Eye on Acquiring: TSYS Rechristens Vital; VeriFone-RBS Lynk Deal
A year after it acquired the 50% interest in Vital Processing Services that it didn't already own, Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) has renamed the merchant-acquiring processor TSYS Acquiring Solutions and announced several new product lines. The Columbus, Ga.-based company, which is known primarily as a processor for card-issuing banks, …
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