Viewpointe Archive Services LLC this week introduced two products that, the company says, respond to rising volumes of imaged checks and could smooth the way for more financial institutions to participate in end-to-end image exchange. One of the products catches mismatches between check images and the data contained in associated …

A downward-spiraling economy is accelerating what had already been a rapidly developing trend for startups to introduce online payment methods as alternatives to bank cards. Indeed, one such company, Miami-based Mazooma Inc., launched a cash-based commercial service on Tuesday with the premise that consumers are looking for ways to buy …

With the recession throwing more and more people out of work by the day, payments processors are reporting that their merchants are experiencing sharp increases in e-commerce chargebacks stemming from so-called friendly fraud. This is the fraud that results when a consumer repudiates a transaction as unauthorized in hopes of …

This is the fourth installment of a six-part series exploring the impact of Web 2.0 on the payments business. Previous articles have dealt with the transition from the first generation of eCommerce to the emerging world of social networks and highly personalized interactions utilizing Web 2.0 technology. Consumers will be …

This is the third installment of a six-part series on how Web 2.0 developments are likely to transform the payments business. The online marketplace is morphing to payments embedded in top-line oriented-marketing services, and integrated infrastructure where small retailers can share the scale and cost savings of bigger players. Both …

As both a card issuer and payment card network, Discover Financial Services is feeling the sharp pinch of recession. Discover chief executive David Nelms indicated to analysts on Thursday that Discover would play a conservative game on the issuing side in 2009, but not necessarily so on the merchant side. …

Secure Vault Payments, the online payment system that NACHA has been piloting since last spring, is catching on as a bill-payment alternative among colleges and state agencies, says Kendall Myles, the executive who is heading up SVP merchant recruitment for NACHA, the regulatory body for the automated clearing house network. …

At a time of rising business failures and intense industry competition, United Bank Card Inc. says its new Harbortouch unit is producing what the big independent sales organization sought?enhanced merchant relationships and higher margins. In addition to card processing, Harbortouch offers small and mid-sized restaurants and retailers business-management hardware and …

The NYCE electronic funds transfer network, which last month said it will pilot PINless purchase transactions online, has become the second EFT system to agree to test Web-based debit card transactions secured by PINs. While Steven A. Rathgaber, president and chief operating officer at Secaucus, N.J.-based NYCE, says many of …

Financial institutions have made big strides in fighting identity fraud over the past year but still lag in preventing the crime by using such technologies as mobile alerts, according to a report released this week by Javelin Strategy & Research. “Despite so many consumers having mobile devices, banks are still …