News

March, 2013

• 28 March

  Banks’ Bill-Pay Sites Poised To Grow as Consumers Make More Online and Mobile Payments

    Consumers are paying fewer bills than they were in 2009, but paying more of them online and through mobile devices. Between 2009 and 2011 total consumer bill payments fell from 16.6 billion to 16.1 billion, according to a report released this week by Boston-based Aite Group LLC. The decline …
• 27 March

  AmEx Insures Its Bluebird Prepaid Card, but Enhancements May Not Ensure Success

    American Express Co.’s announcement that its low-fee Bluebird prepaid card account will be eligible for insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and offer checking account features could be a move to win more business from its upscale core cardholder base as well as provide more services to Bluebird …
• 27 March

  Today’s Data-Security Technology Just Doesn’t Cut It, Experts Tell E-Commerce Execs

    Like metastatic cancer, the cyberattacks originating from ordinary hackers all the way up to national governments seem to be getting worse by the day, according to security experts who spoke Wednesday to a conference of e-commerce executives. Case in point: last week, citizens of South Korea couldn’t use banks …
• 25 March

  Why ATM Skimming Fraud Jumped Ahead of Point-of-Sale Skimming in 2012

    Credit and debit card skimming at automated teller machines outstripped card skimming at the point of sale in 2012, according to a new fraud report from FICO Labs, a San Jose, Calif.-based predictive-analytics and decision-management software unit of Fair Isaac Corp. Twenty states also saw an increase in credit …
• 22 March

  NEBA Sale Will Close the Book on the Regional Bank Card Processing Associations

    The pending acquisition of the processing business of NEBA (formerly the New England Bankcard Association), a Wakefield, Mass.-based bank card issuing and merchant-acquiring association, by processor Primax will mark the end of an era. Founded in 1969, NEBA is the last of the 12 original regional processing associations for …
• 22 March

  MasterCard’s Wallet Fee: A Tool of Oppression, or One To Level the Acquiring Playing Field?

  Is MasterCard Inc.’s coming digital-wallet fee for online-payments providers such as PayPal Inc. a fair charge for systems that rely on the bank card networks to move their transactions, or a way for the established card networks to squeeze upstarts? That’s the gist of the debate that’s swept across the …
• 21 March

  Blackhawk Network Gives a Sneak Peak Into Its Inner Workings Ahead of Its IPO

  International expansion and broader distribution in the United States are among the major initiatives on tap for gift card and prepaid card seller and program manager Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. to grow its business, according a filing Blackhawk made this week in preparation for its planned initial public offering. Some …
• 21 March

  Mobile-Payments Startup LevelUp Expands Its Footprint With a New Heartland Partnership

  LevelUp, the mobile-payments unit of Boston-based SCVNGR Inc., announced a partnership with the big merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. on Thursday that will dramatically expand its national reach with merchants and make its white-label mobile app more affordable to merchants wanting to increase their loyalty marketing. The agreement gives …
• 20 March

  Retailer Genesco Sues Visa To Recover $13 Million in Disputed PCI Fines

    Sports apparel and accessories retailer Genesco Inc. has gone to court to challenge  $13.3 million in fines levied by Visa Inc. for alleged violations of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard. Genesco’s may be the first retailer lawsuit filed against a card network over the PCI security standards, according …
• 20 March

  EFT Networks and Discover Strike a Deal That Could Resolve a Chip Card Controversy

    With help from Discover Financial Services, regional electronic funds transfer networks this week took a major step toward ending a dilemma over how merchants can route PIN-debit transactions made on chip cards through EFT networks and still meet the Durbin Amendment’s transaction-routing requirements. Previously, the main routes available for …