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Star Systems Inc. will begin processing bill payments through its electronic check-conversion service, Star Chek Direct, by the end of the year, according to officials at the network. In the bill-payment scenario, consumers will be able to pay billers in certain low-risk industry categories, such as insurance and utilities, by …

A proposal to impose an estimated $17 per-transaction fee on banks that enter automated clearing house transactions on behalf of payees for items returned as unauthorized has been rejected by the membership of NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based rules-setting body for the ACH. According to a notice NACHA sent to its …

Key Corp. said today it has made an agreement with Genpass Inc. that will allow agent banks in Key's ATM network to add access to 12,000 ATMs in GenPass's MoneyPass network, a surcharge-free system. The Cleveland-based banking company, which operates 2,200 ATMs, said current and future agent banks in its …

Contactless payment technology picked up momentum with yesterday's news that 7-Eleven Inc. is adopting the technology chainwide and that Sheetz Inc. has completed installations at all 309 of its stores. And, contrary to some observers' argument that contactless payment will be held back by the absence of special breaks on …

U.S. Bancorp's acquisition earlier this week of Genpass Inc., operator of MoneyPass, a surcharge-free ATM network, is expected to dramatically expand the reach of ATMs that don't levy surcharges to cardholders. Elan Financial Services, a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, already operates a network of 4,000 surcharge-free ATMs called FastBank Free, …

With card interchange rates becoming a subject that even central bankers are beginning to ponder, a long-time analyst of the electronic-transaction market has released a report arguing that overall acceptance costs are often more favorable to merchants in the U.S. than overseas and that merchants would be better off developing …

A Washington, D.C.-based organization formed early this year by retail-industry trade groups says it is beginning to work out a plan of attack that it hopes will lead to regulation of the fees card-accepting merchants pay issuing banks. After years of friction between banks and merchants over the subject, this …

Micopayments processor BitPass Inc., Menlo Park, Calif., is moving into uncharted territory for digital content by enabling payments for episodes of a new film being produced by a studio controlled by Daniel Myrick, best known as creator and co-producer of “The Blair Witch Project.” The so-called webisodes of “The Strand,” …

Sensing a trend within banks toward pulling together credit, debit, checking, and other electronic payments-processing operations, IBM Corp. is getting ready to push an all-purpose retail payments engine for both bank back offices and third-party transaction processors. “It's a payments hub, and it's cheaper, faster, and easier to maintain,” than …

Online merchants are interested in alternatives to credit cards for payment, but set high hurdles for alternative payment methods to overcome, including the need for authentication, for a smooth, uninterrupted customer session, and for reasonable pricing from processors that doesn't tax merchants to develop a user base for the processors. …