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Looking to bolster its business with retailers, Atlanta-based CheckFree Corp. this week unveiled its CheckFreePay Link service aimed at helping stores draw more walk-in traffic by offering bill-payment services for local utilities and other billers. CheckFree Pay's existing CheckFreePay network has 11,000 agent sites located in check-cashing outlets, grocery stores, …
Read More »As Image Exchange Traffic Climbs, More Banks Clear Image Files
Image-exchange volumes continue to climb at a steady pace, and so does the volume of checks settled through image networks as images rather than as paper substitute checks, new data show. SVPCO's Image Payments Network, which links 15 large financial institutions and is the country's largest image-exchange system, reported Monday …
Read More »Impact of Online-Gaming Law Seen As Mixed for Processors, Banks
Three days after Congress passed a law restricting payments for Internet wagers, what seems clear is that the implications for banks and transaction processors are mixed. Observers say the new law will likely prevent most U.S. banks or third-party companies that still process online gambling payments from continuing to do …
Read More »New Registry of Security Marks Aims at Thwarting Check-Image Fraud
Responding in part to unique security issues created by electronic image exchange in the U.S., the nation's largest settler of clearinghouse check volume this week introduced a registry for what it calls image-survivable security features to protect check images from fraud. The registry, operated by the Dallas-based National Clearing House …
Read More »After Some Delay, Check Imaging at ATMs Is Serious Business
Check imaging at ATMs is poised to become a big business, much bigger even than some experts had thought up to now. Driven by the Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century (Check 21), enacted in October 2004, banks are just now starting to equip machines to take so-called envelopeless …
Read More »IRDs Rising, But Image Clearing Is Going up Much Faster, Stats Show
While many bankers and industry experts lament the continuing rise in volume of so-called substitute checks, the paper documents most banks require for clearing of items that had been converted into electronic image files, newly available industry data indicate the number of checks cleared as electronic images is rising even …
Read More »Stuck in a Rut, POP E-Checks Get a Boost from Bentonville
After about two years of lackluster growth, e-checks at the point of sale started popping in the second quarter, according to new statistics from NACHA?The Electronic Payments Association. Sources tell Digital Transactions News that the force behind POP's sudden popularity is none other than Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest …
Read More »Study Says ATM Deployers Are Changing Tactics As Profits Fall
How much money financial institutions are making on their ATMs depends very much on where the machines are deployed, but in any case machine margins for banks and independent sales organizations alike are under pressure, forcing deployers to change how they view the technology. That's among findings contained in a …
Read More »More Than Six Months Out, the Buzz Builds for BOC
It doesn't go live until next March 16, yet the new back-office conversion (BOC) electronic-check payment option already is attracting a good deal of interest from payment processors and their customers looking to reduce volumes of paper checks and speed customer service. “We believe this new conversion code will definitely …
Read More »SVPCO Gains More Critical Mass As PNC Joins Image-Exchange System
All-electronic check image exchange got a boost this week with the addition of another large regional bank-holding company, Pittsburgh-based The PNC Financial Services Group, to SVPCO-Electronic Clearing Services' image-exchange network. Meanwhile, SVPCO reported today that it processed 3 million average daily items in July, up 17% from June's average. The …
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