News

February, 2006

• 3 February

  Retailers’ Interchange Suits May Help AmEx More Than Merchants

  Merchant litigation against bank card interchange may end up benefiting bank card network competitors like American Express Co. more than retailers, a Wall Street analyst who has followed the interchange controversy cautioned this week. If successful in forcing Visa USA and MasterCard International and their members to cut interchange rates, …
• 2 February

  Interchange Cases To Yield Consolidated Complaint in 60 Days

  A consolidated complaint arising from some 47 interchange lawsuits filed by merchants and merchant groups against the bank card associations over the past seven months will likely emerge within 60 days, with certification of a class coming by fall, a lawyer representing some of the merchants said today. The various …
• 1 February

  Top Exec at the New Chase Paymentech Sees Smooth Transition

  With the melding of Chase Merchant Services and Paymentech L.P. going smoothly as the new Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, boss Michael P. Duffy foresees his giant merchant-acquiring firm doing more than $600 billion in charge volume this year. In an interview for a story to appear in Digital Transactions' March …

January, 2006

• 31 January

  Seeking More Issuers, Debitman Finds Two Among the Supermarkets

  Debitman Card Inc., which has been seeking issuers for its PIN debit processing network, announced two this week. Binghamton Giant Markets Inc. and HAC Inc., both regional supermarket chains, have agreed to issue cards on Debitman's network. HAC, which runs 67 stores in Oklahoma and Kansas, has begun issuing Debitman …
• 31 January

  Citi Will Issue Contactless Tokens for N.Y. Mass Transit Test This Spring

  Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank, which last year announced it would issue contactless tokens linked to customers' credit and debit card accounts in the New York metropolitan area, is now allowing those devices to be used in a test of radio-frequency-based electronic fare payments by the Metropolitan Transit Authority's MTA New York …
• 31 January

  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 …
• 27 January

  SECURE-eBill Starts to See U.S. Merchant and Consumer Adoption

  Eight months after rolling out its Internet payment service in the U.S., Ottawa-based MODASolutions says it is seeing results, both in merchant recruitment and in consumer adoption. The company, whose SECURE-eBill product allows consumers to pay e-commerce merchants in the same way they make electronic bill payments, won't disclose transaction …
• 26 January

  Investors Smile on First Data’s New Look, Western Union Spin-Off

  Despite some poor fourth-quarter financials, shares of First Data Corp. rose nearly 7% this morning after the big transaction processor announced plans to spin off its fast-growing and biggest subsidiary, Western Union, to First Data shareholders. Denver-based First Data also ended speculation that it might sell its lackluster Card Issuing …
• 26 January

  Click&Buy Will Expand Online Payment Options to Phone Bills April 1

  Webpay Inc.'s Click&Buy payment service, which handles largely digital-content sales, will begin processing transactions on consumers' phone bills April 1. The service will work with two so-far unnamed telecommunications carriers that together cover 55% of U.S. land-line subscribers, says Fabian G. Siegel, president and chief executive of Webpay, which has …
• 25 January

  Rapid Growth Puts Acquiring at 25% of Sales for Gateway CyberSource

  CyberSource Corp.'s acquiring business now accounts for fully a quarter of revenue for the Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of gateway and fraud-management services for e-commerce merchants, the company announced today. That represents significant growth from a year ago, when the fledgling acquiring business, in which the company offers and supports …