Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Peppercoin Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based micropayments startup, announced today it has signed on to process payments for Blue Note Records, a unit of EMI Music Publishing. Beginning in the first quarter of 2004, Peppercoin will deploy its technology to handle purchases of single songs from Blue Note's site, www.bluenoterecords.radioplayer.com. The …
Read More »Visa’s Wal-Mart Deal: Only the Opening Act
Look for Visa USA Inc. to attempt a few more deals with other major retailers similar to the arrangement it has reportedly struck with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The nation's biggest retailer announced today it will no longer accept MasterCard International Inc.'s signature debit cards, citing their high costs. Industry observers …
Read More »Special Deals Could Land the Card Companies Back in Court
The news that Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. are negotiating new debit-card acceptance deals with big retail chains and their acquirers in which the chains will pay lower transaction fees than what is standard for other merchants has already fueled speculation that the giant, bank-owned card networks are …
Read More »Visa’s Penalty Concession May Be Less Than Meets the Eye
Visa may be offering its debit card issuers a little leeway with regard to its controversial service settlement fee by allowing them to switch their card portfolios to American Express or Discover without incurring any penalties. But some industry observers don't think the offer will make any practical difference to …
Read More »No Clear Reading on Visa’s Penalty Policy Toward MasterCard
Payment executives shouldn't read too much into the legal interpretation of a recent policy decision by Visa to exempt its members that switch their debit card portfolios to American Express or Discover–but not MasterCard–from paying exit penalties. In a letter to members, Paul Allen, Visa executive vice president and general …
Read More »More Star Defections to Interlink Coming, says TowerGroup
Expect more big banks to follow Wells Fargo & Co. and Wachovia Corp. in switching their debit processing business from Concord EFS to Visa, according to an industry analyst. John Gould, director of consumer credit research for TowerGroup, a payments research company, says in the process of moving their debit-processing …
Read More »Shift to Electronics Surprises the Fed
The movement from paper-based to electronic payment is happening even faster than the Federal Reserve expected, and as a result the central bank is cutting its estimate of check volume while raising its check-processing fees. Effective Jan. 2, the Fed's fees for check services will go up by a blended …
Read More »EBT in Iowa: Better Late Than Never
The state of Iowa is in the final stages of its statewide rollout of debit cards to recipients in the state’s food-stamp program, a year later than an Oct. 1, 2002, deadline mandated for all states in federal legislation passed in 1996. Only California among the 50 states now remains …
Read More »How the Wal-Mart Settlement Could Pay for PIN Pads
This spring’s settlement between the bank-owned card associations and retailers led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been widely interpreted as a blow to the fortunes of so-called PIN-based debit, or debit card transactions effected by a consumer’s personal identification number rather than his signature. That’s because the settlement terms required …
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