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Second-quarter financial results from Houston-based Cardtronics Inc. show the country's largest non-bank ATM operator has more than doubled the number of ATMs it runs, to 26,241, in the year from June 30, 2004, primarily owing to its $106-million acquisition in June last year of E*Trade Financial Services' portfolio of 15,000 …
Read More »Peppercoin Processes Cell-Phone Parking Payments in Las Vegas
Reino Enforcement Technology on Wednesday will begin processing parking fees on 15 meters in downtown Las Vegas through Peppercoin Inc.'s micropayment platform. The meters, which control 150 parking spaces in the city's business district, allow drivers to charge initial parking fees, as well as additional time, to credit and debit …
Read More »ORC Looks to Three PIN-less Debit Pilots This Year, Eyes Stored Value
Electronic bill-payment processor Online Resources Corp. plans to have three PIN-less debit pilots live by year's end, says Matthew P. Lawlor, chief executive of the Chantilly, Va.-based company. He sees high potential for the product in the stored-value and debt-collections markets, and hints the pilots will be aimed at these …
Read More »Citi Plans to Roll out 2.5 Million PayPass Key Fobs for RFID Debit
Citigroup Inc. plans to roll out 2.5 million key fobs for contactless debit card payment following a launch of the technology this fall in the New York area, the banking giant announced today. The so-called tap-and-go transaction devices will fit on consumer's keychains, and will be based on MasterCard International's …
Read More »C-Sam Touts ‘Wallet’ Software to Spark Mobile Payments in the U.S.
A small, privately held company based in the outskirts of Chicago figures it has the platform on which mobile payments will take off in the U.S., a market that up to now has not been favorable for handheld-based transactions. By the end of the year, C-Sam Inc. plans to have …
Read More »Losses to Phishing Less Than 1% of All Fraud on PIN Debit, Report Says
Concerns about fraud losses owing to the rapidly growing phishing trend may be overblown, at least when it comes to PIN debit at ATMs and the point of sale, according to new research from TowerGroup, a Needham, Mass.-based research firm owned by MasterCard International. While the number of reported phishing …
Read More »The Dark Side of Stored Value: Bad Debt for Web Retailers
The booming business in gift and other stored-value cards, which represent an increasing share of sales for merchants of all sizes, is beginning to have an ominous side effect for online merchants: a hike in bad debt. The prepaid plastic, which carries a fixed value in cash and can benefit …
Read More »Some Experts Question Gartner’s $2.75 Billion Debit Fraud Estimate
A major research firm's estimate this week that fraud losses on debit cards in the U.S. hit an estimated $2.75 billion for the 12 months ending in May might have struck a nerve, especially in the absence of hard data on the problem, but it also has experts raising questions …
Read More »Survey: Gift Cards Are Growing in Popularity As Customer Incentives
Customer incentives represent a growing new niche for gift cards, according to the results of a new survey. Of some 68 decision-makers canvassed, 52% said they are likely to offer gift cards as a customer incentive in the next 12 months. Of all industries represented in the survey, restaurants represent …
Read More »MasterCard Stats Show Continued Double-Digit Rise for Signature Debit
Signature-based debit continued to grow at double-digit rates in the second quarter, as indicated by statistics released today by MasterCard International. Total MasterCard signature, or off-line, debit volume hit $48 billion in the U.S., up 32.3% over the same period last year. The point-of-sale component of this activity was $29.1 …
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