Transaction Processing

With a number of processors and software houses having introduced applications over the past year to let merchants process cards on smart phones, many observers wondered how long it would be before the established point-of-sale terminal vendors entered this market. On Tuesday morning, the answer came with VeriFone Holdings Inc.'s …

The first statistics about the new automated clearing house code for international transactions are in, though it's too soon to draw conclusions about how popular the so-called IAT code will become. According to NACHA, governing body of the ACH, IAT had 303,802 transactions in September with a total value of …

Electronic payments are showing signs of life as consumers open up their wallets and purses early in this holiday spending season. But just how wide they'll open those wallets and purses as the season goes on is uncertain. The early take is that volumes are up from 2008's anemic levels, …

Low-hanging fruit it's not, but health care still remains one of the biggest untapped markets for electronic payments. A new report from Celent LLC estimates that $11 billion could be saved by automating just part of the health-care payments process. And a new industry group is forming to marshal the …

USA Technologies Inc., the provider of contactless card readers and wireless transaction-processing services for vending machines, laundries and other venues, has become the latest payments-industry tech company whose management finds itself embroiled in a fight with shareholders angry about losses and slumping stock prices. Malvern, Pa.-based USA Technologies sent a …

The increasing popularity of smart phones, which has given a big lift this year to consumer adoption of mobile banking and payments, has brought with it an ominous new threat of fraud. Last week, the Dutch security firm XS4All reported on a worm that infects iPhones and allows hackers to …

The Government Accountability Office's report about interchange came out on Thursday, and every group either for or against the controversial transaction fee has put its own spin on the findings since then. That raises the question of whether Congress will actually take action on three pending interchange bills. Forecasting Congressional …

Bringing small merchants into compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI, is no easy task, according to independent sales organization executives that have started PCI programs for so-called Level 4 merchants. “You call up Billy's Pizza and ask him about his firewall, and he's not going to …

First Data Corp. has begun integrating fraud-screening software from an outside vendor that it will offer on a per-transaction basis to its e-commerce merchants. The move brings the software, called Interceptas, within reach of tens of thousands of small online sellers at a time when online fraud is expected to …

An indictment handed down on Tuesday against a gang of hackers in the RBS WorldPay Inc. case sheds more light on the sophistication and intricate coordination with which criminal groups worldwide are attacking payment processors, particularly those in the U.S. More than a year after cybercriminals broke into the computer …