With identify fraud posing a serious challenge to online bankers and merchants, technology vendors are starting to respond with hardware- and software-based solutions offering so-called strong authentication, which adds a second factor of identity to the standard user-name/password pair. Now Corillian Corp. has launched a product it says is the …

EBay Inc.'s PayPal payment service continued its diversification effort beyond the eBay online auction community this week by adding computer giant Dell Inc. to its growing fold of mainstream merchants. PayPal also unveiled an online gift-certificate program for merchants that expands upon an eBay gift-certificate plan launched two years ago. …

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has begun accepting cards issued on the Debitman Card Inc. network, a 5-year-old system that allows merchants to issue and accept PIN-secured debit cards and clear transactions through the automated clearing house. Wal-Mart began taking the Debitman card Nov. 1 at all 3,600 U.S. Wal-Mart and Sam's …

In a move that could lead First Data Corp. to sell its shrinking card-issuing operation, the Denver-based processor announced today it has hired investment banker Morgan Stanley to investigate options for the unit. The card-issuing business, one of three principal processing operations at First Data, has been rocked in recent …

Total losses from e-commerce fraud will hit $2.8 billion in 2005, up from $2.6 billion last year, with large and mid-sized merchants getting hit the hardest after several years of success in controlling the problem, according to a study released today. Although the overall rate of fraud loss will dip …

NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based organization that sets rules for the automated clearing house network, has released rules to allow banks and check-accepting businesses to distinguish checks written by companies from those written by consumers. The former are not supposed to be submitted to the network for settlement under NACHA rules, …

Some 59% of adults, or an estimated 131 million people?either bought or received a gift card over the year from August 2004 to August 2005, a study released today reveals. In part, this has meant that the electronic stored value cards are gaining popularity as gifts for a more diverse …

The United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading today said interchange fees paid by Visa acquirers to Visa issuers in the U.K. are anti-competitive, an action that could lead to regulatory action against the fee structure. In what it calls a “statement of objections,” the OFT said Visa's interchange structure, formally …

PayPal Inc. will use the transaction gateway it is buying from VeriSign Inc. for $370 million to thrust itself even more deeply into the business of acquiring transactions for small off-eBay Internet merchants, a senior executive for the transaction-processing unit of eBay Inc. tells Digital Transactions News. PayPal, which this …

More than two-thirds of treasury professionals within businesses that sell to consumers favor capping card interchange fees, according to a survey released today by the Association for Financial Professionals. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of these executives would trade rewards programs for lower interchange rates, even if their own companies lost incentives. …