Credit Cards

Fresh on the heels of a payment-processing initiative and a new branding campaign, the new chief executive of prepaid and fleet card specialist Comdata Corp.'s parent company told investors on Thursday that Comdata is in the acquisitions market. “The Comdata business is posting strong results driven by a proven, effective …

First Data Corp. chairman and chief executive Henry C. “Ric” Duques on Tuesday painted a rosy picture of the downsized card processor during his first earnings conference call since the recent spin-off of First Data's largest division, remittance kingpin Western Union Co. Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data posted net income …

Beyond a recent press release, First Data Corp. hasn't made a huge public splash about its new payment terminal, the FD-100. Yet the terminal is not just a box that processes payment card transactions. It's an element of First Data's multipronged strategy to get more business from small and mid-sized …

The costs of air miles and other perks and rewards account for 44% of bank card interchange, while card issuers' cost of funds and profit margins take 35%, and network branding efforts account for 3%, according to a new report issued this week. Just 13% of the acquirer-paid fee goes …

Top executives of card processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) on Wednesday portrayed a company that may be a bit bruised but is heading for better times. Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS even upped its 2006 profit projections and says earnings next year won't decline as much as previously forecast. TSYS late …

Facing many of the same pressures that led its rival MasterCard Inc. to go public earlier this year, Visa announced on Wednesday it plans to scuttle the membership-association structure that has characterized it throughout its 36-year history in favor of a sweeping reorganization that will lead to ownership by the …

It's not yet four months old, but already Google Inc.'s Checkout Internet payment service is making an impact, with 7% of online retailers surveyed in recent weeks by CyberSource Corp. having adopted it. That compares with 35% for PayPal, 24% for e-checks and other automated clearing house debits, and 16% …

The new president of Moneris Solutions Inc., the U.S. arm of Canada's leading merchant-acquiring operation, says he will diversify the company's distribution channels and at the same time seek profitable niches in a highly competitive industry. Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based Moneris currently derives most of its U.S. transactions from merchants booked …

Visa USA, which on Wednesday announced it has completed a massive, five-year project to overhaul its authorization platform, says the new system will allow the network to handle expected jumps in both the volume and diversity of electronic transactions. The overhaul, which its chief architect, John Partridge, calls “the single …

While many bankers and industry experts lament the continuing rise in volume of so-called substitute checks, the paper documents most banks require for clearing of items that had been converted into electronic image files, newly available industry data indicate the number of checks cleared as electronic images is rising even …