News

June, 2014

• 2 June

  Growth Perks up on the ACH Network, Though Check-Based Payments Continue to Decline

  The national automated clearing house network enjoyed its second-strongest first-quarter performance in the past five years, with 3.8% transaction growth year-over-year, according to statistics released Monday by NACHA, the network’s administrative agency. n The new growth energy comes as the 40-year-old electronic payments network readies a proposal to speed up …

May, 2014

• 29 May

  Square Launches a ‘Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You’ Merchant Cash-Advance Service

  The merchant cash-advance and non-bank small-business loan sectors have boomed in recent years, with startups, established providers, and PayPal Inc. all seeking to tap merchant demand for capital that banks haven’t met. Now comes merchant processor Square Inc. with a new merchant cash-advance (MCA) service called Square Capital. As it …
• 29 May

  Priority Payment Merges with Cynergy Data As ISO/Processor Consolidation Presses on

  The merchant-acquiring business continued its consolidation trend on Wednesday with the news that Priority Payment Systems LLC has merged with Cynergy Data LLC. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, has created an independent sales organization processing some $20 billion annually for 125,000 merchant clients. Comvest Partners, a West Palm …
• 29 May

  Dwolla Adds Next-Day Transfers, Harnessing the ACH System

  Dwolla Inc. is in the next-day transfer business now. The alternative-payment network announced Thursday it is offering the service for withdrawals from Dwolla accounts to its users’ bank accounts. Relying on the automated clearing house system, the transfer service is an opportunity to use an existing network while Dwolla continues …
• 29 May

  Tens of Thousands of Merchants Use the Web To Find a Processor, But ISOs Fare Poorly

  There’s at least $30 billion in annual volume up for grabs among merchants using the Web to seek out a processor. Trouble is, independent sales organizations are really lousy at Internet marketing, according to a report released this week. Indeed, ISOs, banks, and point-of-sale software vendors spend about $17 million …
• 28 May

  Entertainment Providers Among the Top Targets for Online Fraudsters, Report Finds

    Entertainment companies providing cable, satellite, and pay-television services experience the highest rates of global fraud, says 2Checkout Inc., an e-commerce payment-services company, in its inaugural Fraud Index report. The index is based on transaction data made via more than 600 million devices that connect to 2Checkout’s payment service. Columbus, …
• 27 May

  Intuit Becomes an Electronic Bill-Pay Player With Its Acquisition of Check Inc.

  By Jim Daly In what’s shaping up to be a very busy year in the vibrant world of electronic bill payments, financial-management software provider Intuit Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to buy online and mobile bill-pay services provider Check Inc. for $360 million. Rumored for about a month, the deal …
• 25 May

  Mobile-Capture Fraud Is Under Control, But Many Banks’ Risk Policies Are Primitive

  As mobile remote deposit capture continues its transition from niche to mainstream financial service, a new study affirms earlier research that bankers’ fears about losses were largely overblown. At the same time, mobile remote-capture newbies do a less sophisticated job of risk management than their more experienced colleagues. The findings …
• 22 May

  Tim Hortons Adds a Mobile-Payments Function to Its App

    Diners visiting a Tim Hortons restaurant in Canada and the United States now have a new way to pay for their meals and coffee. The restaurant chain, which has more than 3,600 Canadian locations and 870 in the United States, has added a mobile-payments function to its smart-phone app. …
• 21 May

  Veteran ‘Payments Guys’ Create Bitnet to Ease Bitcoin Acceptance for Large Merchants

  Bitcoin may remain volatile and controversial, but the digital currency holds enough potential that it is starting to attract seasoned payments professionals, particularly in the business of merchant acceptance. Witness Bitnet, founded in January by a pair of former executives with payments processor CyberSource Corp. to make it easier for …