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Eyeing an expanding opportunity in debit card processing for health-related accounts, Metavante Corp. has appointed a president for its Healthcare Payments Solutions division. John M. Reynolds, a 20-year veteran in banking and a former executive at Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Service, takes over the unit, which was formed only last …
Read More »Heartland Buys Debitek, Pushes Deeper into Small-Value Payments
Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a publicly held acquiring processor based in Princeton, N.J., announced today it has acquired Debitek, a provider of closed-loop stored-value systems based in Chattanooga, Tenn., from terminal maker Ingenico Corp. Terms of the transaction, which was structured as a stock purchase, were not disclosed. The deal …
Read More »Motorola Looks to Start Commercial M-Wallet Service by Summer
Motorola Inc.'s new payment software for mobile phones, called M-Wallet, will begin commercial rollout within three to six months with wireless carriers, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based technology company tells Digital Transactions News. A test of M-Wallet is already in progress, officials say, though they can't give details. The company is in …
Read More »With Some Network Help, ShopNBC Cuts Its Prepaid Card Losses
Writeoffs stemming from transactions on prepaid cards, which had been swelling at online merchant ShopNBC, have eased considerably in the past few months, the retailer reports. Bad debt attributable to the plastic accounted for 3% of total writeoffs for 2005 at ShopNBC, which sells jewelry and electronic gear online at …
Read More »A Startup Readies a Payments Network Based on Driver’s Licenses
A startup company led by the former head of a processor of automated clearing house transactions is readying a network that will allow consumers to use their driver's licenses to pay for goods at the point of sale. Boulder, Colo.-based Combined Payments Network LLC plans to formally unveil its product, …
Read More »PayPal’s Small Bite of Physical Stored Value May Herald Bigger Things
In a move that could herald a thrust into the rapidly growing point-of-sale stored-value payments market, PayPal Inc. is processing prepaid accounts behind cafeteria payments for its own employees as well as for those of two other technology companies in Silicon Valley. For the past year, the online-payments processor, a …
Read More »PayPal’s Off-eBay Merchant Efforts Hit Paydirt with Dell Signing
EBay Inc.'s PayPal payment service continued its diversification effort beyond the eBay online auction community this week by adding computer giant Dell Inc. to its growing fold of mainstream merchants. PayPal also unveiled an online gift-certificate program for merchants that expands upon an eBay gift-certificate plan launched two years ago. …
Read More »Survey: Popularity Propels Gift Cards into Consumer Mainstream
Some 59% of adults, or an estimated 131 million people?either bought or received a gift card over the year from August 2004 to August 2005, a study released today reveals. In part, this has meant that the electronic stored value cards are gaining popularity as gifts for a more diverse …
Read More »Report: Patent Case Threatens to Cripple U.S. Prepaid Wireless Market
The outcome in a patent-infringement case in May is hindering the development of the prepaid wireless business in the U.S. at a time when the market is already behind overseas markets in usage, a report released by a major research firm says. According to the report from the Yankee Group, …
Read More »ECOM Readies an Anonymous Prepaid Card for Web and Point of Sale
After five years of development, Boca Raton, Fla.-based startup ECOM Financial Corp. is planning to introduce an anonymous, disposable prepaid card that will clear transactions through the MasterCard network and be usable for purchases on the Internet as well as at the point of sale. The company, which says it …
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