Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
As part of its efforts to rationalize its operations, First Data Corp. plans to consolidate its 12 U.S. data centers into three over a two-year period starting in the second quarter, according to a quarterly report the processing giant filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The total …
Read More »Approached by Suitors, eFunds Starts a ‘Strategic Review’
Processor eFunds Corp. today gave further momentum to a financial transformation of the transaction-processing business by announcing that it has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co. to explore what it calls “strategic alternatives” that could result in a merger. The eFunds disclosure comes just over a month after announcements …
Read More »Eye on Image Exchange: Volume Quintuples, SVPCO Gains in April
Total image-exchange volume quintupled in the 12 months through March, while the percentage of items clearing at paying banks as images rather than as paper substitute checks grew to 64% from 36%, according to the most recent statistics compiled by the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization. In a further sign …
Read More »A Startup’s Technology Starts to Accelerate M-Commerce
A Seattle-based startup that translates merchant sites to the mobile Web in a matter of minutes has doubled the number of sites it has signed up for its service in the last six weeks, according to the company's top executive. The company, mPoria Inc., now has about 30 sites signed …
Read More »Soaring Debit Traffic Helps Propel Revenue And Profit at MasterCard
Surging U.S. debit card traffic is helping to propel revenues and profits for MasterCard Inc. as the Purchase, N.Y.-based network marks its first full year as a publicly held company. Point-of-sale debit card activity for the company hit 1.5 billion transactions in the first quarter, up fully 48% over the …
Read More »Supreme Court Patent Ruling Won’t Affect Us, DataTreasury Says
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that appears to rein in the ability of certain technology patent holders to press their claims against alleged infringers is likely to have little or no impact on what has been a highly effective enforcement campaign by a company that holds patents bearing on check …
Read More »With Carreker in Hand, CheckFree Plans ‘All-Transactions’ File
Bolstered by its recent acquisition of Carreker Corp., CheckFree Corp. is working on a product that will allow banks to view and manage both check and automated clearing house data in one integrated file. The new system, which will also permit long-term storage of ACH data, will be linked to …
Read More »ACH Growth Sparking Membership Surge, NACHA Chairman Says
The rapidly increasing importance of electronic payment channels is behind the recent surge in membership at NACHA-The Electronic Payment Association, according to the Herndon, Va.-based association's chairman. Four financial institutions have joined NACHA as direct members?meaning they get a vote on rules governing the automated clearing house?so far this year, …
Read More »CheckFree’s Market Grows, But Biggest Customer Could Bolt
Never wanting for hype, the electronic bill-payment industry may actually have something solid to crow about. Bill-pay processor CheckFree Corp. released a survey this week saying that for the first time, Internet-connected households are paying more bills electronically than by paper check. Tempering the good news for the Norcross, Ga.-based …
Read More »Fraudsters Are Starting to Score Successes Against Online Banking
Most banks report that their online-banking and bill-pay channels are experiencing no or only modest increases in fraud, according to a new survey from Boston-based research firm Aite Group LLC. But that's no reason to rest easy, says the researcher who oversaw the survey. Aite surveyed 21 of the top …
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