Electronic Checks

Universal Air Travel Plan, which processes corporate travel payments for some 200 accepting airlines around the world, is opening its network to third-party Internet transaction processors as part of a strategy that could significantly boost network volume and bring consumer transactions through its settlement system for the first time. Ralph …

New York-based SVPCO, architect of an image-exchange network serving some of the nation's largest banks, this week switched on a new service that allows users of its network to clear check images automatically. The new automated settlement function, which comes about a year after the network began flowing images, effectively …

Fiserv Inc. is buying electronic bill-payment processor BillMatrix Corp. in a $350-million deal expected to close by Sept. 30. Dallas-based BillMatrix processes payments on cards and through the automated clearing house for more than 120 clients, among them utilities, insurers, lenders, and phone carriers. It is a pioneer in the …

Although the conversion of paper checks into electronic transactions at billers' lockboxes and other central locations is growing at a torrid rate, it will level off by 2008, in part because check volumes are dropping faster than expected, according to a new research report. The 3-year-old conversion process, in which …

Little noticed until now, a small, privately held technology company on Long Island this week scored a major victory in a patent-infringement case that is sending shock waves throughout the electronic payments business, observers say. One direct result, they say, could be sharply higher costs for banks and third-party processors …

In a move that could have widespread implications for the fledgling business of check-image exchange, a small, privately held company holding patents on key elements of check imaging and processing filed patent-infringement suits today against four major banks. The federal suit, filed by Melville, N.Y.-based DataTreasury Corp. against Bank of …

Star Systems Inc. will begin processing bill payments through its electronic check-conversion service, Star Chek Direct, by the end of the year, according to officials at the network. In the bill-payment scenario, consumers will be able to pay billers in certain low-risk industry categories, such as insurance and utilities, by …

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 …

Viewpointe Archive Services, a check-image archive and exchange owned by some of the nation's largest banks, has signed its second client for its non-archive exchange service, called Pointe2Pointe. Columbus, Ga.-based Synovus Financial Corp., a holding company for 41 southeastern banks, follows Compass Bank, which signed up with Viewpointe early last …