Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

February, 2004

• 27 February

  Information Architects Enters the Biometric Transaction Market

  Information Architects Corp., a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based provider of Web-based employee-screening technology, has announced it is entering the market for electronic point-of-sale transactions secured by cardholders' fingerprints. The company says it has acquired a U.S. patent (6,270,011 B1) that covers a fingerprint-scanning methodology for credit cards via scanners deployed at …
• 27 February

  First Atlantic Tries to Solve the 3D Secure Cost Issue

  With chargeback rates running well in excess of 1% on Internet transactions, Visa International and MasterCard International have for some time been pushing a form of online cardholder authentication, called 3D Secure, that is intended to make cardholders, issuers, acquirers, and merchants feel confident that Web payments are legitimate. But …
• 26 February

  First Data Completes Its Merger with Concord

  As expected, First Data Corp. completed its merger today with Concord EFS Inc. in a deal valued at $7 billion, based on the Feb. 25 First Data closing price of $40.79 per share. The acquisition of Concord means the combined company has 30,000 worldwide employees. It expects to take in …
• 25 February

  A Survey Shows How Fears of ID Theft Undermine Web Transactions

  A survey of consumers released today reveals that while most say they are more informed about identity theft, they feel no safer from it than they did a year ago, and more consumers are reluctant to give online retailers personal data than was the case last year. The survey of …
• 24 February

  Visa Hikes Credit Card Fees to Blunt AmEx’s Thrust

  Visa USA's increase in credit card interchange rates, announced today, are intended to help the giant bank card network keep its members' business in the face of recent efforts by American Express Co. to court banks as issuers of its cards, Visa says. As expected by many observers, Visa today …
• 23 February

  Taco Bueno Signs up for Cards Throughout Its System

  Carrollton, Tex.-based Taco Bueno Restaurants Inc. has become the latest quick-service restaurant chain to begin accepting credit and debit cards. Paymentech L.P., a Dallas-based transaction processor owned by First Data Corp. and Bank One, announced today it will provide processing services for card acceptance at all 124 Taco Bueno locations, …
• 20 February

  Star Expects to Beat Check Imaging to the Punch

  With its new real-time check-verification and settlement product announced yesterday, Star Systems Inc. will be offering merchants and transaction processors a service that converts paper checks to electronic transactions just as retailers and financial institutions are preparing for the advent of check-imaging technology. Though Maitland, Fla.-based Star, the nation's largest …
• 20 February

  MasterCard Buys TowerGroup to Beef Up Its Research Unit

  MasterCard International today announced it is acquiring TowerGroup, the Needham, Mass.-based research firm, from Reuters PLC for an undisclosed price. The 11-year-old TowerGroup, which focuses on payments-technology and financial-services research, will become part of MasterCard Advisors, a subsidiary through which the bank card company operates an existing research and advisory …
• 19 February

  Misclassifed Bust-Out Schemes: An $800 Million Fraud Gap

  So-called bust-out fraud is an old credit card crime that's not going away, and currently it's responsible for about $800 million annually in largely unreported fraud losses. That sober estimate came this week during a presentation on worldwide transaction-system fraud given by John Schettino, MasterCard vice president for security and …
• 18 February

  A System That Fingerprints” Mag Stripes Gets a Boost”

  A new technology that fights counterfeit card fraud by allowing a sort of “fingerprint” comparison routine based on magnetic stripes is getting its first commercial application with shipments having started within the past few weeks of card-personalization machines enabled with the technology. Kiran Gandhi, vice president for Carson, Calif.-based MagTek …