Think of electronic bill payments and, not surprisingly, the Internet usually comes to mind first. But many billers, especially banks, have yet to offer bill payments through telephone-based customer-service systems or automated interactive voice-response units, experts tell Digital Transactions magazine in an upcoming story on expedited bill payments. The Web's …

Another indication of the increased trafficking of electronic check images through image-exchange networks has emerged with a report from SVPCO that its Image Payments Network handled 50.8 million items in May, up 44.4% from April's volume. Average daily traffic hit 2.3 million images, a 31.2% jump from the previous month. …

ATM Direct, which this week announced agreements with an electronic funds transfer network and an Internet merchant to process PIN-secured debit card payments on the Web, has signed another online retailer, which will go live on its system in August, Robert Ziegler, senior vice president and general manager of the …

The drumbeat of data-breach disclosures continued Friday with the news that information linked to about 65,000 individuals?including credit and debit card data–were exposed when a burglar broke into a locked office in a YMCA facility in Providence, R.I., last week and stole a laptop containing the sensitive member information. According …

Because of the efficiency, savings, and convenience they bring to a system traditionally choked with paper, debit cards linked to flexible-spending accounts (FSAs) are turning into a hot growth market in electronic payments. Issuers will put 6 million of the cards in circulation in 2006, up 50% over last year …

Critics blasted away at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s plan to open a Utah industrial loan corporation for most of three days in late April, and now the world's biggest retailer is firing back. Wal-Mart filed a 14-page letter earlier this month with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. addressing the major concerns …

The chairman of the board of NACHA, the rules-setting organization for the automated clearing house network, looks for widespread adoption of a new point-of-sale payment application the association approved this week and says the network will try again this year to introduce a controversial fee aimed at controlling risk. Chairman …

A faster-than-expected ramp-up in transaction volume is forcing the country's largest image-exchange network to refigure its growth projections. The Image Payments Network, operated by SVPCO, a unit of New York-based The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC., handled 35.2 million check images in April, up 20.6% from March, according to statistics …

Online search giant Yahoo! Inc. is developing what appears to be a person-to-person payment service and may be weeks away from introducing it, but details of the new service remain unclear. A spokesperson for Yahoo! told Digital Transactions News this week the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company was “not ready to discuss” …

At a time when debit card fraud is generating unwelcome headlines, Visa USA is taking two new steps to enhance its information about fraud involving payment cards that rely on personal identification numbers for security. With the goal of spotting fraud trends early and keeping overall fraud under control, Visa …