Electronic Bill Payment

PIN-less debit may be gathering momentum for online bill payments, but not all potential billers are convinced they should offer the payment method, which depends on the same networks that switch PIN-based debit transactions at the point of sale and at ATMs. Because it carries lower acceptance costs than credit …

Eyeing what it sees as a huge opportunity in processing bill payments, U.K.-based Retail Decisions PLC's U.S. processing unit this month will begin offering the fastest-growing form of electronic check now available: accounts-receivable conversion, or ARC. Retail Decisions USA Inc., which has built its business providing a card-based risk-management and …

CheckFree Corp. will begin piloting PIN-based debit transactions in its extensive walk-in bill-payment network before the end of the year. The Atlanta-based processor is also investigating the possibility of adding a PIN-less debit feature to its online and telephone-based bill-payment network for so-called biller-direct transactions, though it has no definite …

Chase Merchant Services LLC has launched a processing and consulting arm aimed at helping billers set up and manage bill-payment services. In a press briefing today, Chase executives stressed the new service, called BillPay Recurring Biller Solutions, would embrace cards as well as alternative payment types such as the automated …

The cause of strong authentication for Web-based transactions took a major step forward today with the announcement from banking giant Bank of America Corp. that it is implementing a two-factor authentication system for its online banking service. With 13.2 million users, including 6.4 million bill payers, BofA's service is the …

Star Networks Inc., which processes more PIN-less debit transactions than any other network, is launching a pilot to test PIN-less debit for recurring payments and is exploring a concept that could extend direct debit of checking accounts to online shopping. The latter concept, says Tom Gandre, senior vice president of …

The process of converting paper checks consumers send to billers into electronic transactions is driving much of the growth of the automated clearing house, according to ACH statistics for 2004 released today. Accounts-receivable conversion, or ARC, transactions increased by more than 1 billion last year, accounting for 54% of the …

Minneapolis-based remittance processor MoneyGram International Inc. is acquiring ACH Commerce LLC, a processor of automated clearing house transactions, in a deal expected to close by June 30. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but ACH Commerce will remain based in Ooltewah, Tenn., where it was founded five years …

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 …

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 …