Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Contactless debit cards will make their formal debut in Canada next year with the launch of Interac Flash from Acxsys Corp.’s Interac Association, Canada’s national debit network. Interac’s first two Flash issuers are Scotiabank and RBC Royal Bank, which will roll out their first contactless cards next summer. The first …
November, 2010
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22 November
Retailers See Gift Cards Boom As They Stress Reloadability
Closed-loop prepaid cards are growing more slowly than their newer, open-loop cousins, but recent numbers from big payment card processor First Data Corp. show the closed-loop sector still has plenty of life. First Data’s monthly SpendTrend report for October shows reload dollar volumes on closed-loop cards increased 25.2% from October …
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18 November
Visa Suggests an Interchange Plan to the Fed; Merchants Blast It
Visa Inc. and a prominent law firm serving financial-industry clients want the Federal Reserve Board to regulate debit card interchange by setting an “average effective interchange rate” and then letting the payment card networks set their own rates as long as the average interchange rate on transactions subject to regulation …
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18 November
Observers Express Caution About the Carriers’ New NFC Venture
Forty-eight hours after the announcement by a trio of major wireless carriers that they plan to launch a point-of-sale mobile payments system, reaction from expert observers and others in the industry tends toward caution about the immediate prospects for Isis, the carriers’ joint venture. Isis is expected to launch some …
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17 November
Hypercom Makes Nice With VeriFone, Agrees to Buyout
Six weeks ago, point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc. made an unsolicited, $283 million cash bid for smaller U.S. rival Hypercom Corp., an offer Hypercom immediately rejected as too low and described as “opportunistic and intended to disrupt our business.” Hypercom went so far as to adopt a so-called poison …
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17 November
Once ‘Bearish,’ a Payments Researcher Smiles on Mobile Payments
The rapid development of mobile payments in the U.S. is starting to make believers out of skeptics. Boston-based Aite Group LLC, a payments consulting and research firm, had been one of those skeptics, but it released a report on Wednesday predicting U.S. mobile payments of all kinds will total $214 …
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16 November
Wireless Carriers Unveil Isis, Their Mobile Payments Joint Venture
In a move the payments industry had expected since early August, the nation’s largest wireless carriers on Tuesday announced they had formed a joint venture to run a point-of-sale mobile-payments network. The new company, known as Isis, will be headed by Michael Abbott, formerly an executive with GE Capital’s proprietary …
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16 November
Mitek Books a Profit As Mobile Demand Perks up
Mobile remote deposit capture software provider Mitek Systems Inc. posted a profitable last quarter of fiscal 2010 as more resellers and financial institutions adopted its products for taking pictures of checks from smart phones. And while San Diego-based Mitek has big expectations for its flagship Mobile Deposit application, the company …
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11 November
NetSpend Vows to Diversify Beyond Troubled MetaBank
With regulatory problems overshadowing its main issuing partner, prepaid card program manager NetSpend Holdings Inc. says it is optimistic that it will be able to form partnerships with other issuing banks. n NetSpend is looking at proposals from a number of regional and national banks to provide sponsorship services, chief …
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11 November
Consumer Groups, Banks Battle to Influence Fed’s Debit Rules
Recent meetings between Federal Reserve staff members, consumer groups, and payments executives show just how divergent the views are as the Fed prepares the first-ever regulations on U.S. payment card interchange. Consumer groups are pushing for “at-par” debit card interchange—essentially, no interchange. A big regional bank, however, said the Fed …