Electronic Checks

Payment companies devote countless hours and millions of dollars to protecting sensitive customer and payment data from outside computer hackers, but the theft of 2.3 million customer records announced today by check and card processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) shows that employee theft remains a serious?and difficult?problem to …

After years of steadily reducing the number of offices processing checks, the Federal Reserve Banks announced on Tuesday they plan to have just four regional centers providing paper check processing services by March 2011. Since the Fed system began restructuring its check-processing operations in 2003, it has already cut the …

CyberSource Corp., which on Monday announced it is buying rival online gateway provider Authorize.Net Holdings Inc. for $565 million in stock and cash, plans to leverage Authorize.Net's relationships with independent sales organizations and other third-party resellers to reach small e-commerce merchants. The transaction, expected to close this fall, “dramatically accelerates …

Remote deposit capture, already a hot product in electronic payments, is poised for explosive growth, according to a report released this week. More than 2,900 U.S. financial institutions had implemented remote capture, or were in the process of doing so, by the end of March, a number that will climb …

With an eye on increasing customer traffic but also on lowering payment-card acceptance costs, several retailers are readying PIN-based loyalty programs built on processor First Data Corp.'s new ConnectPay platform that lets customers pay without presenting a card or writing a check. ConnectPay's pilot retailer is Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & …

Two milestones announced this week indicate the rapidly growing adoption of image exchange for check processing. SVPCO, which handles paper checks and runs an image exchange network as part of the New York-based The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC, announced on Tuesday that imaged items exceeded paper checks in both …

The back-office conversion e-check code has been live for nearly two months now, and, as many predicted with its March 16 debut, it came in like a lamb. There have been few, if any, high-profile product launches or other splashy events associated with the new automated clearing house payment option. …

Total image-exchange volume quintupled in the 12 months through March, while the percentage of items clearing at paying banks as images rather than as paper substitute checks grew to 64% from 36%, according to the most recent statistics compiled by the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization. In a further sign …

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that appears to rein in the ability of certain technology patent holders to press their claims against alleged infringers is likely to have little or no impact on what has been a highly effective enforcement campaign by a company that holds patents bearing on check …

Bolstered by its recent acquisition of Carreker Corp., CheckFree Corp. is working on a product that will allow banks to view and manage both check and automated clearing house data in one integrated file. The new system, which will also permit long-term storage of ACH data, will be linked to …