Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Fraudsters are running an online trading post for highly sophisticated code that allows criminals to more easily steal consumers' log-on credentials, Social Security Numbers, PINs, and other confidential information, according to the latest report from RSA Security Inc.'s Anti-Fraud Command Center. The fraudster Web site, which RSA analysts call a …
Read More »Online Holiday Sales Track with Last Year, But Average Tickets Drop
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 …
Read More »Schools And State Agencies Eye NACHA’s Online Payment System
Secure Vault Payments, the online payment system that NACHA has been piloting since last spring, is catching on as a bill-payment alternative among colleges and state agencies, says Kendall Myles, the executive who is heading up SVP merchant recruitment for NACHA, the regulatory body for the automated clearing house network. …
Read More »Online Merchants May Have a Tougher Time with Fraud in 2009
While online merchants managed to keep a lid on fraud losses in 2008, a faltering economy could make 2009 a costlier year, a leading expert says. “It'll be interesting to see if merchants can hold fraud rates steady” next year, says Doug Schwegman, director of market and customer intelligence at …
Read More »Processors Jockey for Position in Fast-Growing Digital-Content Market
While most attention in e-commerce is focused on enabling payments for Web sites run by major chains, airlines, and other hard-goods merchants and sellers of high-end services, some processors have begun to carve out stakes in a corner of online commerce that doesn't get as much notice?digital goods. This week, …
Read More »Why NYCE Plans To Test Two Online PIN Debit Systems in Parallel
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 …
Read More »Banks Make Strides in Fighting ID Fraud, But Lag in Mobile Alerts
Financial institutions have made big strides in fighting identity fraud over the past year but still lag in preventing the crime by using such technologies as mobile alerts, according to a report released this week by Javelin Strategy & Research. “Despite so many consumers having mobile devices, banks are still …
Read More »Burden of Final UIGEA Rule May Not Be As Heavy As Some Expected
For a financial-services industry in the throes of economic upheaval, the final rule for implementing the controversial Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA)?issued on Nov. 12 by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve?represents another set of requirements with which to struggle. But for many banks and …
Read More »PayPal’s Chief Proposes Direct Links Between Banks And PayPal
Often viewed by retail banking officials as public enemy No. 1, PayPal Inc. sent its top executive to a major banking-technology exhibition on Thursday to propose closer collaboration between banks and the San Jose, Calif.-based non-bank e-commerce payments processor. Indeed, PayPal president Scott Thompson suggested banks and PayPal create direct …
Read More »NYCE Revives ‘Safe Debit’ Name for PINless Debit Test Set for ’09
Electronic commerce hasn't been the slam-dunk for the electronic funds transfer networks that it has been for Visa and MasterCard. One of the biggest issues has been if and how to facilitate Internet transactions from PIN-based debit cards issued by the EFT networks' member banks and credit unions. Now Metavante …
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