Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

December, 2011

• 21 December

  ACH Bill Payments Move into the Passing Lane

    The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service is bemoaning the accelerating shift by consumers away from sending everything from Christmas cards to bill payments by physical mail. But, on the other side of the coin, new data confirm that the automated clearing house is where a lot of former paper-based …
• 21 December

  Intuit Launches a Feature That Lets QuickBooks Online Users Accept Visa, MasterCard

  Bowing to feedback from small-business users, Intuit Inc. this week added the capability of accepting credit and signature debit cards to its QuickBooks Online product. The new capability allows users to accept Visa and MasterCard cards in addition to the existing ability to accept bank-account transfers through the automated clearing …
• 20 December

  PayPal Runs a Brief Test in Sweden to Check out Cloud-Based NFC for POS Payments

  In a move that could be seen as a precursor to mobile in-store payments using so-called cloud-based near-field communication (NFC), PayPal Inc. is testing an app that works with contactless stickers to allow consumers to access their PayPal accounts. The test, which is taking place at two stores in Stockholm, …
• 20 December

  Though They’ll Remain Popular, Debit Cards Will See Some Growth Clipped by Regulation

  Debit cards will remain popular with consumers, but the Durbin Amendment will take as much as three percentage points off its annual growth rate over the next five years, according to a new analysis from First Annapolis Consulting Inc. Some transactions that might have gone to debit cards will switch …
• 16 December

  Study Shows Merchants Still Store Massive Amounts of Unprotected Card Data

  n Of 2,736 scans worldwide since Jan. 1 using SecurityMetrics Inc.’s PANscan tool, 71% revealed merchant computer systems were storing unencrypted payment card data, an 8% increase from a similar survey in 2010, according to the Salt Lake City, Utah-based provider of PCI security solutions. The participating merchants ranged in …
• 15 December

  Dwolla’s New Instant Service Offers Immediate Cash For Impulse Purchases

  Dwolla Corp. on Thursday unveiled a credit option it hopes will appeal to users who want faster funds availability for spot or impulse purchases. The option, known as “Instant,” is available now and allows users to borrow up to $500 that they can use right away rather than waiting two …
• 15 December

  VeriFone Boss Says He Aims for Services to Account for Half of Revenue Within Four Years

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• 14 December

  Banks, Credit Unions Plan Mobile-Payments Moves in ’12; Are They Moving Fast Enough?

    Major financial institutions are prepared to make bigger investments in mobile payments next year, but may not be moving fast enough to ward off non-bank competition, according to a report issued earlier this week. The chief type of mobile payments these institutions will be pouring money into in 2012 …
• 12 December

  Using Malware And Skimmers, Fraudsters Harvest Card Data at Restaurant Depot, Lucky

    The data-breach Grinch is stealing Christmas from a big restaurant supplier and Lucky Supermarkets, a major West Coast grocery chain, both of whose payment card acceptance systems were compromised recently by fraudsters using different techniques. The breach at Queens, N.Y.-based Restaurant Depot LLC, which also does business under the …
• 9 December

  While NFC Continues to Lag, Starbucks’s Barcode System Logs 26 Million Mobile Payments

    With mobile payments based on near-field communication (NFC) technology struggling to gain acceptance, new figures from Starbucks Corp. provide yet another example of how non-NFC systems are jumping to a fast lead in the mobile race. The Seattle-based coffee king this week reported that it has handled a total …