Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
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 …
Read More »RBS WorldPay Indictment Outlines Sophisticated Hacker Coordination
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 …
Read More »With Four Suits Pending, the VeriFone-Heartland Feud Escalates
The bare-knuckled fight between leading U.S. point-of-sale terminal manufacturer VeriFone Holdings Inc. and the big merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. keeps on escalating, with four lawsuits in three courts now pending. Both companies continue to crank out press releases, letters from their chief executives, and other public-relations missives that …
Read More »Payvment Uses a PayPal API to Launch a Next-Gen Shopping Cart
In a move that could change the way consumers shop and pay on the Web, a startup called Payvment is marketing a free shopping cart that lets online shoppers accumulate merchandise from a variety of Web sites?including Facebook?and then pay for all of it with a single checkout. “We call …
Read More »How Banks Are Looking to Become Serious Players in P2P Payments
Electronic person-to-person payments have been around this entire decade, but they're still largely the domain of specialists such as PayPal Inc. and a host of tech companies. But leading bank processors are getting into the P2P act, and if they're successful they could spur greater usage from the consumer mainstream …
Read More »Eye on Earnings: Heartland vs. VeriFone; MasterCard Is Cautious
Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is accusing VeriFone Holdings Inc. of “tampering” with Heartland customers after the San Jose, Calif.-based terminal company said it will terminate its support relationships with Heartland customers, effective Dec. 31. VeriFone says it will offer complete alternative support at no cost to affected merchants. Heartland merchants …
Read More »PayPal Unveils Platform X, And with It an Array of APIs And New Pricing
Hoping to inspire a burst of innovation beyond what it could expect to deliver within its own research-and-development budget, PayPal Inc. on Tuesday officially turned its global payment engine over to software developers with an array of new application programming interfaces (APIs). With the unveiling of the APIs, which took …
Read More »Cynergy Data Starts Life Anew After a Trip to Bankruptcy Court
Cynergy Data LLC, the big independent sales organization that filed for bankruptcy Sept. 1, got a second lease on life last week when the sale of its assets to The ComVest Group, a private-equity firm with holdings in other payment processors, closed. ComVest paid $81 million for Long Island City, …
Read More »Analysts: Processors Must Seek Growth in Non-Credit Card Markets
With credit card growth sputtering, an expanding debit card market will help lift transaction processors' volumes for the foreseeable future, according to new research from Goldman Sachs & Co. The investment bank also predicts processors will find robust growth markets in nascent channels like mobile payments and established debit-related markets …
Read More »Visa Readies a Canadian Debit Debut As Volumes Show Signs of Life
The first Visa-branded debit cards in Canada will be out in 2010's first quarter, Visa Inc. chairman and chief executive Joseph W. Saunders reported late Tuesday. Saunders, reviewing Visa's financial report for fiscal 2009's fourth quarter, also told analysts that signs of recovery from recession are starting to appear in …
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