Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The latest offer from the top executive of Nashville, Tenn.-based merchant processor iPayment Inc. to buy the company and take it private is higher than the one he presented this spring, but contains what appears to be a blunt statement to iPayment board members that they should accept the offer …
Read More »Survey: Retailers Still Falling Short in Consumer Data Security
Merchants have a long road ahead of them in securing the consumer transaction data they house in their databases, if a survey released this week is any indication. Fewer than half of retailers surveyed have a formal plan in place to handle database intrusions, and of those that do, only …
Read More »NACHA Sets Rules to Tell Business Checks from Consumer Checks
NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based organization that sets rules for the automated clearing house network, has released rules to allow banks and check-accepting businesses to distinguish checks written by companies from those written by consumers. The former are not supposed to be submitted to the network for settlement under NACHA rules, …
Read More »First American Buys Govolution, Enters Booming Bill-Pay Market
Consolidation in the rapidly growing electronic bill payment business continued today with the acquisition of Govolution Inc. by Fort Worth, Texas-based processor First American Payment Systems LP. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, hands First American an immediate stake in the business of processing taxes, fines, permit fees, …
Read More »Federal Regulators Get Behind Strong Online Authentication
A new guidance from federal banking regulators calling traditional user names and passwords “inadequate” for online banking could lead to a major push for strong authentication next year. The guidance, released last month by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, recommends what it calls multi-factor authentication, or identification systems involving …
Read More »Data Breaches, State Laws Drive Encryption Business for Ingrian
Widespread publicity surrounding the huge data breach at CardSystems Solutions Inc., coupled with a movement among the states to require disclosure of data compromises, is driving business for companies specializing in data security. “Consumers are up in arms about enterprises not taking security seriously enough,” says Karim Toubba, vice president …
Read More »PayPal Stuck at About 70% in eBay Volume, Though Accounts Boom
PayPal Inc. may be trying to process more transactions for e-commerce sites independent of its parent company, giant online auctioneer eBay Inc., but its latest quarterly figures indicate it still depends on eBay's auction activity for 69% of its transaction volume, a ratio that has remained virtually unchanged for months. …
Read More »How Pay By Touch Plans to Rely on CardSystems’ ISOs to Ramp up Fast
Pay By Touch Solutions, which earlier this week said it will buy the assets of CardSystems Solutions Inc. for an undisclosed price (Digital Transactions News, Oct. 17), plans to rely on the Atlanta processor's links with some 27 independent sales organizations to help sell its biometric-payments product to tens of …
Read More »Pay By Touch Trumps Bid from CyberSource for CardSystems
Pay By Touch Solutions, which said over the weekend it will buy the assets of troubled card processor CardSystems Solutions Inc. for an undisclosed price, apparently trumped an earlier bid for the same assets from CyberSource Corp. CyberSource, which withdrew on Saturday the offer it had made Sept. 23, says …
Read More »Phishing E-Mails Fell, But Phishing And Malware Sites Rose, in August
The number of unique e-mail campaigns sent as part of phishing frauds fell in August to 13,776, almost 400 fewer than in July and the lowest number since March, according to statistics released today by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a consortium of payments processors, software vendors, and law-enforcement agencies that …
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