News

January, 2012

• 4 January

  PayPal Boss Thompson Decamps for Yahoo Just As Key POS Strategy Unfolds

  PayPal Inc. on Wednesday lost its top executive just as the e-commerce processing giant has embarked on an ambitious strategy to handle transactions for brick-and-mortar stores. The departure of Scott Thompson, who has been PayPal’s president since 2008, also represents the second loss of a key executive at PayPal in …

December, 2011

• 30 December

  Protests Force Verizon Wireless To Drop Its Planned $2 Payment Fee

  n Bowing to an outcry of opposition, telecommunications giant Verizon Wireless cancelled a controversial $2 fee for one-time telephone and online payments just one day after announcing it. The carrier’s reversal came less than two months after Bank of America Corp. cancelled its enormously unpopular plan to charge some customers …
• 28 December

  New DoJ Interpretation Could Lead to State-by-State Online Betting, Despite UIGEA

  A 5-year-old law that bans U.S. banks and processors from handling online-gambling transactions won’t stand in the way of a U.S. Justice Department opinion released last week that appears to put the federal government's imprimatur on intrastate online betting. The DoJ on Dec. 23 released a 13-page memorandum giving states …
• 22 December

  Free-Equipment Pioneer United Bank Card Hints at Enhancements to Come

  Despite criticism that free point-of-sale terminals for card-accepting merchants undercut independent sales organizations’ profitability, the company that started the trend back in 2004 remains staunchly committed to the strategy. The investment in hardware is more than returned in reduced attrition, says Jared Isaacman, chief executive of United Bank Card Inc. …
• 22 December

  Christmas Season Throws Spotlight on a Developing Trend Toward Digital Gift Cards

  With Christmas day looming, retailers that issue digital gift cards, along with the vendors that supply them, are expecting a rush of last-minute purchases from shoppers who don’t have time to buy plastic cards. With e-cards flying out to the handsets of recipients at parties and in homes and offices, …
• 21 December

  ACH Bill Payments Move into the Passing Lane

    The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service is bemoaning the accelerating shift by consumers away from sending everything from Christmas cards to bill payments by physical mail. But, on the other side of the coin, new data confirm that the automated clearing house is where a lot of former paper-based …
• 21 December

  Intuit Launches a Feature That Lets QuickBooks Online Users Accept Visa, MasterCard

  Bowing to feedback from small-business users, Intuit Inc. this week added the capability of accepting credit and signature debit cards to its QuickBooks Online product. The new capability allows users to accept Visa and MasterCard cards in addition to the existing ability to accept bank-account transfers through the automated clearing …
• 20 December

  Though They’ll Remain Popular, Debit Cards Will See Some Growth Clipped by Regulation

  Debit cards will remain popular with consumers, but the Durbin Amendment will take as much as three percentage points off its annual growth rate over the next five years, according to a new analysis from First Annapolis Consulting Inc. Some transactions that might have gone to debit cards will switch …
• 20 December

  PayPal Runs a Brief Test in Sweden to Check out Cloud-Based NFC for POS Payments

  In a move that could be seen as a precursor to mobile in-store payments using so-called cloud-based near-field communication (NFC), PayPal Inc. is testing an app that works with contactless stickers to allow consumers to access their PayPal accounts. The test, which is taking place at two stores in Stockholm, …
• 16 December

  Study Shows Merchants Still Store Massive Amounts of Unprotected Card Data

  n Of 2,736 scans worldwide since Jan. 1 using SecurityMetrics Inc.’s PANscan tool, 71% revealed merchant computer systems were storing unencrypted payment card data, an 8% increase from a similar survey in 2010, according to the Salt Lake City, Utah-based provider of PCI security solutions. The participating merchants ranged in …