Competitive Strategies

MasterCard International and Visa International, which are now both offering platforms in the U.S. for contactless card transactions based on radio-frequency identification technology, have agreed on a common communications protocol and on testing requirements for the technology. The agreement should mean that payment devices branded by one of the associations …

Dallas-based processor TransFirst today began marketing a Web-based payments-processing engine that was developed by a company it acquired a year ago and is currently being used by 3,500 merchants. Called Transaction Central, the new product acts as a virtual terminal for physical merchants and a payments gateway for Net retailers, …

Not only is the sheer volume of phishing attacks rising, but the sophistication by which fraudsters are fooling unwitting Internet users is increasing, as well, according to a recent report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The organization of law-enforcement agencies, security-software companies, and payment networks says it observed several new …

Mobile virtual network operators are finding success in re-selling carriers' prepaid wireless service in part through their efforts to penetrate the youth and elderly markets, which are far less saturated than other age groups, according to a leading researcher. Adding to the MVNOs' ability to pick up new subscribers in …

VECTORsgi said today that recent sales of its software have positioned its systems to control potentially 40% of the volume of check-image exchange. The announcement indicates that, although full-scale transmission among banks of digital check images may still be years away, banks are jockeying to be ready for image exchange, …

NCR Corp. is acquiring Tidel Technologies Inc.'s ATM business for $10.2 million in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter. Following a terse announcement released this morning, spokesmen for both companies referred to an 8-K filing Tidel is expected to make later today with the Securities and Exchange …

Nashville, Tenn.-based iPayment Inc., a publicly held independent sales organization processing for 125,000 small merchants, reported strong results for the fourth quarter of last year and for all of 2004, driven mainly by increased economies of scale from merchant-portfolio acquisitions. Revenue jumped to $101.4 million for the quarter and $364.2 …

The ATM Exchange, a supplier of ATM parts and service, will begin selling next month a retrofit product for older ATMs that upgrades them to run on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. The product, called 3DES Plus XP, also renders ATMs compliant with so-called triple-DES encryption requirements laid down by …

The advent of ATMs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system is making it easier for banks, retailers, and other machine deployers to add revenue-generating features to the machines, including advertising. PNC Corp., a Pittsburgh-based bank, has found success in introducing advertising and couponing capability as it swaps out older ATMs …

Any signature-based debit card product that banks in the Pulse electronic funds transfer network may issue with Discover Financial Services Inc. will most likely offer interchange income equal to what they earn on Visa and MasterCard signature debit, the top executive at Pulse says. “Any [signature-debit] fees will have to …