Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The youth market may not be the slam dunk for mobile payments that payment processors, card issuers, and merchant acquirers have thought it would be. According to survey results released this week, some 62% of persons aged 16 to 43?the so-called Gen X and Gen Y?say that using cell phones …
Read More »First National Merchant Solutions Shifts Toward ISOs for Growth
Long quiet on the reseller front, First National Merchant Solutions is signing up independent sales organizations as part of a strategic shift mapped out by its new president, Diana M. Mehochko. The merchant-acquiring unit of First National Bank of Omaha signed up half a dozen ISOs last year and is …
Read More »Eye on Acquiring: TSYS Rechristens Vital; VeriFone-RBS Lynk Deal
A year after it acquired the 50% interest in Vital Processing Services that it didn't already own, Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) has renamed the merchant-acquiring processor TSYS Acquiring Solutions and announced several new product lines. The Columbus, Ga.-based company, which is known primarily as a processor for card-issuing banks, …
Read More »FastLane Launches Its POS Advertising Program with a $2 Million Deal
Boulder, Colo.-based Combined Payments Inc.'s FastLane, a new network that converts driver's licenses into loyalty and payment cards, Thursday announced that it had secured its first advertiser as part of a point-of-sale program that will share revenues with participating merchants. The $2 million deal involves the La Jolla, Calif., office …
Read More »Pay By Touch Looks for ‘Network Effect’ from Chicago Concentration
Electronic point-of-sale transactions secured by biometric scans may get a boost now that Pay By Touch Inc. has switched on processing service in 204 Jewel-Osco stores in the Chicago area as well as in the rest of Illionois, and in Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The San Francisco company's latest implementation …
Read More »MobileLime Announces A New NFC Platform for Cell-Phone Payments
Boston-based Vayusa Inc., whose MobileLime network serves some 80 merchants for payments initiated from consumers' cell phones, plans to begin supporting transactions based on the near-field-communication (NFC) standard in the second quarter. Announcing its new NFC platform today, the company says consumers with MobileLime accounts will be able to use …
Read More »December Brought No Holiday Cheer to Those Fretting over Phishing
December was an ominous month for banks, retailers, processors, and other service providers concerned about the safety of the Internet commerce channel. Although the reported number of phishing incidents declined in the last month of last year, that drop masked alarming increases in the number of malicious Web sites launching …
Read More »SMS-Based Promotions Fuel Grocer’s Interest in Cell-Phone Payments
Four months after introducing a marketing system that communicates with customers' mobile phones, Broadway Marketplace has had such positive sales results its top executive says the Cambridge, Mass.-based supermarket will add an electronic payment function within the next two months. The store, which last September began using a service called …
Read More »With GE Consumer Finance, AmEx Claims Seven Bank Card Issuers
American Express Co. has announced the seventh financial institution to agree to issue AmEx cards since the New York-based travel-and-entertainment giant began courting banks for its network two years ago. GE Consumer Finance, a Stamford, Conn.-based unit of General Electric Co., said it will issue cards on AmEx's network that …
Read More »TextPayMe Aims Its Nascent Cell-Phone P-to-P Service at Web Markets
A tiny startup in Redmond, Wash., has signed up about 500 users for its week-old person-to-person payment service based on mobile phones and expects to launch a commercial service in 2006. With a head count of three, including two former Microsoft Corp. employees, TextPayMe Inc. allows individuals with cell phones …
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