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Mobile-banking and payments application developer Firethorn Holdings LLC scored a coup this week when Verizon Wireless, the nation's No. 2 mobile-phone carrier, announced it had picked Firethorn as a strategic partner for mobile banking and would preload Firethorn's system onto newly issued phones. The agreement means the nation's two largest …
Read More »Yodlee Pairs Up with Western Union in Expedited Bill-Pay Play
The already competitive world of electronic bill payments heated up this week with the announcement that wire-transfer leader The Western Union Co. and payment-technology provider Yodlee Inc. together will provide online bill-payment services, including expedited bill payments. Their pitch: direct access to more than 4,000 utilities, financial institutions, mortgage companies, …
Read More »BancorpSouth out to Show Smaller Banks Can Succeed in M-Banking
At a time when companies as big and diverse as Google Inc., eBay Inc.'s PayPal, the bank card networks and others are all moving into mobile banking and payments, a regional bank in Mississippi has emerged as one of the more experienced players in the embryonic market. Tupelo-based BancorpSouth Inc. …
Read More »M-Banking Will Beget M-Payments, But Not Without Labor Pains
Though still in its infancy, mobile banking will balloon from 1.68 million to 34.9 million users over the next four years, laying the groundwork for mobile payment channels such as physical-world transactions via near-field communication (NFC) and mobile commerce, a new report argues. Already, report author Nick Holland, a senior …
Read More »Pulse Takes Aim at the ACH with New Recurring PIN-less Service
Pulse EFT Association LP, which has become the latest electronic funds transfer network to introduce a commercial PIN-less debit service that allows cardholders to make recurring payments to certain billers, sees the service as a way to take payment market share from the automated clearing house network. “It's a great …
Read More »How We Have Managed to Turn the SSN into an SOS
Data Insecurity Part 2 In a purely physical world, if you lost your wallet, and your Social Security card with it, you had a pretty good idea that something was amiss, and could report the loss and replace the card, if needed. Today, in a relentlessly electronic life, the Social …
Read More »More Consumers Use Card Sites to Pay Bills, Manage Accounts
Consumers' willingness to pay credit card bills online is rising rapidly, with 524 million transactions in 2006, a 27% jump over 414 million payments in 2005, according to survey data from comScore Inc. The most recent online payment volume, which represents payments consumers make at card issuers' Web sites, is …
Read More »CheckFree Deal Vaults Fiserv into Front Ranks of Bill Payment, ACH
Electronic bill-payment and presentment technology may be CheckFree Corp.’s sexiest products, but bank processor Fiserv Inc. will be get access to other fast-growing markets when its planned $4.4 billion cash acquisition of CheckFree, announced Thursday, closes. Most notable, perhaps, is that CheckFree just happens to be the leading provider of …
Read More »Online Resources’ $45 Million ITS Deal Beefs up Its Biller Business
In a deal that will expand its client base of billers by 50%, Online Resources Corp. on Thursday announced it is buying Internet Transaction Solutions Inc. for $45 million in cash and stock. The Chantilly, Va.-based bill-payment processor says ITS, which processes payments for some of the country's largest collections …
Read More »Card-Based Bill Payments Take Another Step with Billeo Product
Billeo Inc., whose software streamlines online bill payment for consumers, this week announced new product enhancements that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company hopes will allow banks to earn more bill-payment revenue. It also extends the company's reach into online shopping with a new software component that automatically fills out online …
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