Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
In an announcement with far-reaching implications for the electronic payments business, Discover Financial Services Inc. announced today it is buying the Houston-based Pulse EFT Association for $311 million “and other strategic value.” The deal, which the parties say will close by mid January pending approval from regulators and Pulse members, …
November, 2004
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15 November
Valista Breaks into U.S. Web Payments with AOL Premium Content Deal
America Online Inc. will begin offering packages of premium content on its Internet service through new software from Valista Ltd., an Ireland-based payment software company, the companies announced today. The new solution allows AOL to target and price particular packages, or bundles, to particular audiences, with special promotional pricing and …
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11 November
VeriFone Teams with McAfee to Offer POS Anti-Virus Software
Responding to a year that has seen a steady barrage of viruses, worms, trojans, and other malicious computer attacks, VeriFone Inc. and McAfee Inc. announced today they will offer the first anti-virus software product to protect point-of-sale terminals linked to the Internet. The software will be available starting early next …
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10 November
Celent: Image Exchange Will Nearly Pull the Plug on Check Conversion
Image exchange will account for 93% of all transit checks by 2010, marginalizing what are now some highly popular forms of electronic check conversion, including the fastest-growing form of e-check, account receivable conversion (ARC), according to new projections from Celent Communications. The New York-based research firm says today's nascent image-exchange …
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10 November
Fraud Losses Have Climbed 37% for Online Merchants, Survey Says
Fraud losses will total $2.6 billion in 2004 for Internet merchants, 37% higher than last year, with smaller merchants suffering the worst fraud. That's according to the sixth annual survey of online fraud from CyberSource Corp., a Mountain View, Calif.-based transaction gateway for e-commerce sites. The survey, which gathered responses …
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9 November
Criminals Escalate the Phishing War with an Alarming New Weapon
Up to now, phishing schemes only worked if the fraudsters could entice recipients of their e-mail to visit transaction sites tricked up to look like the real thing, such as a fake eBay site or spoofed online banking site. The sites would collect login and other confidential information the criminals …
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9 November
Visa Cuts Interchange for Utilities That Forgo Surcharges
Hoping to increase its penetration in consumer bill payments to gas, electricity, and other utility companies, Visa USA today rolled out incentives for utilities to accept its cards and to encourage more card transactions. The incentives include a lower credit and check card interchange fee on certain consumer card transactions …
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5 November
VeriSign Expects Its New Seal to Spread Rapidly on E-Commerce Sites
VeriSign Inc. says heavy promotion it's putting behind its new trust mark for e-commerce will drive the number of payment-gateway client sites displaying the mark from 40,000 currently to more than 70,000 by year's end. And it expects that number to double by the end of 2005. The Mountain View, …
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4 November
Image Exchanges Look to Volume Jumps Now That Check 21 Is Law
The fledgling networks that traffic electronic check images rather than paper checks are looking for bigger volumes now that the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, popularly known as Check 21, has finally become law. “Now everyone's jumping on the bandwagon,” says Mark Craig, general manager of Endpoint Exchange, …
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3 November
Visa’s New Debit Rates Help Interlink But Could Anger Merchants
Visa's decision to increase its interchange rates for PIN debit transactions on its Interlink network may generate more revenue for the network's issuers but will also create more interest in competing non-bank networks catering to merchants, according to some observers. Visa yesterday released a four-page document to member banks outlining …