Transaction Processing

Making transactions more efficient has long been a driving force behind the conversion of paper-based to electronic systems, but now a new report shows how efficiencies derived from electronically processed payments contribute to a national economy. The report, entitled “The Benefits of Electronic Payments in the Canadian Economy,” was released …

Having already announced last year its plan to shutter 13 check-processing facilities by the end of 2004, the Federal Reserve now says in a statement released this week it plans further closures. The announcement from the Fed does not indicate how many locations might be affected, nor is it specific …

While the burgeoning digital song market has focused attention on the potential for micropayments in the U.S., a Canadian processor has signed about 1,000 online merchants, the most recent of which is Puretracks, Canada's first and largest purveyor of digital songs. Vancouver-based Paystone Technologies Corp., which was founded in 2001, …

When TNS Inc. announced late last month that it had bought U.S. Wireless Data's Synapse processing gateway, it said it was planning to use the gateway's non-wireline transaction capability to help open high-potential markets like fast food (Digital Transactions News, May 27). But equally important to the company's strategy is …

The first U.S. parking meters equipped to process online authorizations for credit cards have gone live in Seattle. Moorestown, N.J.-based Parkeon Inc. has shipped the first 80 of its so-called pay-and-display parking terminals, which run wireless credit card transactions, for street parking in Seattle. Parkeon's contract calls for it to …

The stunning success of such ventures as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes music service, coupled with a huge, untapped potential in transactions, has many expert observers becoming more and more optimistic about the prospects for micropayment processing. That may bode well for recent startups such as BitPass Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., …

Brother International Corp., Bridgewater, N.J., a maker of office equipment such as computer printers and fax machines, has announced it is marketing a wireless device for use by mobile merchants and salespeople looking to be able to process credit card transactions in the field. The device, a Samsung SPH-i700 Pocket …

Pay By Touch, a San Francisco-based company that has been marketing a point-of-sale payment system that relies on fingerprint scans rather than cards or other devices to authenticate transactions, scored a sweeping victory today in litigation over the central patents to its technology. Judge Maxine Chesney of the U.S. District …

Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. is investigating a network glitch that caused “duplicate postings” Tuesday of debit card transactions secured by personal identification numbers at its stores, according to company representatives. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based supermarket chain, which operates 1,070 stores across 12 states in the Southeast, says the problem occurred from late …

TNS Inc. has acquired the primary asset of U.S. Wireless Data Inc., which in March filed for bankruptcy protection. Reston, Va.-based TNS, formerly Transaction Network Services, says its acquisition of New York-based U.S. Wireless Data's Synapse point-of-sale processing system strengthens the company's efforts to build its business in emerging transaction …