News

May, 2008

• 8 May

  Cap One Says Its Decoupled Debit Card Pilots Ended on Schedule

  Capital One Financial Corp. ended a pair of merchant pilots involving its decoupled debit card product because the tests were scheduled to end, a spokesperson for the financial-services company tells Digital Transactions News. “They were initiated as pilot programs and they've run their course. That's it,” says the spokesperson in …
• 7 May

  Stats Show a Surge in Paying Banks Now Receiving Check Images

  Some recent statistics indicate banks are making significant headway in their ability to receive and clear electronic check images. PaymentsNation, a major clearing house for checks and check images, reported this week that the number of routing and transit numbers (R/Ts) receiving check images reached 5,275 at the end of …
• 7 May

  Eye on Earnings: Hypercom, ORC, USA Technologies, Jack Henry

  Some high-profile payment-industry technology providers are reporting increases in their operating measures but are still struggling to make a profit in 2008 as they expand or try to compete in a tough market. –Boosted by demand in North America for countertop terminals and more networking and other services revenues, point-of-sale …
• 6 May

  Now Live, NACHA’s Secure Vault Payments Looks to ‘Ramp up’ in ’08

  NACHA's online-payments pilot went live March 31 with one bank and one merchant and expects to have three to five more financial institutions, three to five more merchants, and between three and five billers participating by the end of the year, an official with the Herndon, Va.-based organization says. “The …
• 5 May

  A Diversifying Heartland Snaps up Alliance Data’s Merchant Unit

  Best known for its focus on restaurant merchant acquiring, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is about to become a major force in acquiring card transactions for petroleum retailers and convenience stores thanks to its pending, $77.5 million acquisition of Alliance Data Systems Corp.'s Network Services unit. Alliance Data recently put that …
• 1 May

  Moosejaw Not Part of a Strategy to Do POS Payments, PayPal Says

  While some observers have been predicting for some time that alternative-payment processors that handle transactions for online merchants will soon extend their services to the physical point of sale, Moosejaw Mountaineering's decision to start accepting PayPal at cash registers in its seven stores does not represent a conscious plan to …
• 1 May

  Robust for Years, Debit Growth Expected to Weaken, Study Says

  Perhaps the hottest payment product going for the past several years, debit cards are showing signs of cooling off. “It's almost become a broken record that debit transactions are growing at double-digit rates, but we're seeing a slowing in that rate,” Tony Hayes, a partner at research and consulting firm …
• 1 May

  Google Checkout Hints No Ill Effects Since Merchant Pricing Resumed

  Google Checkout, the payment service of Internet search leader Google Inc., continues to add merchants and charge volume, according to a Google executive. But Google remains guarded about revealing exactly how Checkout is faring with merchants, especially after the reintroduction of acceptance pricing in February marked the end of more …

April, 2008

• 29 April

  A Renewed Effort at ACH-Based Driver’s Licenses Maps Its Plans

  A veteran of previous efforts to turn driver's licenses into payment cards is working with the operator of an online consumer-loyalty network on a plan intended to introduce automated clearing house transactions tied to shoppers' driver's licenses at brick-and-mortar stores by 2009. Linda Bryant, who has formed a processor called …
• 29 April

  ‘Challenging’ Times for Visa, MasterCard, But Debit Surges Ahead

  Their networks continue to handle ever-increasing transaction volumes, but the chief executives of both MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. warn of “challenging” times for the U.S. payments market, particularly credit. Still, both bank card networks in the past 24 hours reported strong profit growth for their quarters ended March 31. …