E-Commerce

MasterCard's recent decision to slash its interchange pricing for e-commerce merchants that adopt the bank card association's SecureCode authentication program should significantly improve the business case for the technology and put pressure on Visa USA to respond, industry sources say. “I can't imagine [Visa is] going to let MasterCard steal …

I4 Commerce Inc., which processes the Bill Me Later payment option on e-commerce sites, has adopted an online bill-presentment and -payment technology to allow accountholders to pay for their Web transactions. The service, which allows consumers to pay for online purchases with credit extended by I4Commerce, will use an application …

Internet transaction processor PayPal Inc. will handle settlement of payments between travel agents and hotels, car-rental agencies, and other non-airline travel suppliers as part of a single-source, electronic booking portal offered by a San Francisco-based startup company. The deal helps PayPal further its strategy of moving more payments outside the …

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 …

When Visa U.S.A. last month set out a new, stricter transaction-routing policy aimed at making sure all Visa payments flow through VisaNet, its backbone network, the rule's underlying purpose?to curb so-called on-us networking of transactions initiated with Visa cards?made headlines. But another, and less noted, part of the new policy …

Recent jumps in transaction activity and new business from both banks and billers have boosted optimism among online bill-payment processors and brightened their outlook for 2005 and beyond. Princeton eCom Corp., a 21-year-old processor in Princeton, N.J., ended 2004 having closed some 40 deals, including 34 with billers and six …

Reino Parking Systems Inc. said today it had deployed parking meters in locations around the U.S. that will accept credit card payments from either cards or mobile phones, with transactions processed through SunTrust Merchant Services LLC and Peppercoin Inc. The meters are equipped with card swipes, but users with cards …

A Woodside, Calif.-based startup company today began commercial production of a two-factor authentication system for Internet transactions and also announced its first customer for the product. PassMark Security LLC, which was founded last year, has sold its PassMark identification system to Stanford Federal Credit Union, Palo Alto, Calif. The 18-year-old …

Peppercoin Inc. today unveiled the third version of its processing system for small-value and micropayments transactions and announced a processing deal with First Data Merchant Services, which is expected to offer Peppercoin's gateway to its base of 3.5 million merchants. Peppercoin 3.0, which adds subscription and prepaid payment capability to …