Debit Cards

The latest credit card charge-volume figures from the nation's top three banks show big declines, portending weak results when other issuers, merchant acquirers, and Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. report their fourth-quarter earnings in coming days. On Friday, Bank of America Corp. reported fourth-quarter purchase volume of $56.6 billion on …

Processors' experimentation with debit cards is taking on even more variety with the entry of Wilmington, Del.-based startup Maverick Network Solutions Inc. into the market. Maverick, which has brought together a handful of long-time payment-industry executives and received $1.5 million in venture funding in December, expects to begin a pilot …

Despite a sputtering economy, online merchants overall are breaking even with last year in terms of holiday sales, and the largest e-commerce sellers are running slightly ahead, according to statistics released this week. Web-based sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 19 totaled $24.03 billion, a 1% decline from the equivalent …

An extended cobranded credit card pact between Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Express Co., announced on Tuesday, also has merchant-acquiring and debit card implications, and it provides further evidence of how airlines in a weak economy can raise cash from their issuing and acquiring partners. AmEx, issuer of Atlanta-based …

In another sign of sweeping changes in the Canadian payment card market, Visa Inc.'s Visa Canada unit last week published interchange rates on its Web site for the first time. The posting comes at a time when merchants are complaining about higher rewards-card acceptance costs and expressing fears that possible …

The NYCE electronic funds transfer network, which last month said it will pilot PINless purchase transactions online, has become the second EFT system to agree to test Web-based debit card transactions secured by PINs. While Steven A. Rathgaber, president and chief operating officer at Secaucus, N.J.-based NYCE, says many of …

Select-A-Branch ATM Network LLC, the startup that offers electronic multibank branding on its ATMs, is about to bust out of the Northeast thanks to a new pact with TRM Corp.'s Access To Money network. The exclusive distribution agreement-in-principle deal would give Select-A-Branch potential access to about 3,000 ATMs in convenience …

Signs are pointing to fewer merchant-account bookings by independent sales organizations, and that's translating into fewer orders for VeriFone Holdings Inc., the largest U.S.-based point-of-sale terminal developer. Last week, VeriFone reduced its revenue projections for its fourth quarter ended Oct. 31 and fiscal 2008. In a conference call late last …

A startup company called Bling Nation Ltd., which debuted this week, plans to combine contactless-payment technology with an on-us approach to debit transactions that it says will cut transaction costs for both community banks and merchants. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based processor is in discussions with five financial institutions and plans …

Nearly one-third of U.S. Bank customers who have been issued a contactless debit card have performed at least one contactless transaction since the bank's program began in June, an executive with the bank said on Wednesday. “So far, it's looking really promising,” Michael Shepard, group product manager for consumer credit …