While most attention in e-commerce is focused on enabling payments for Web sites run by major chains, airlines, and other hard-goods merchants and sellers of high-end services, some processors have begun to carve out stakes in a corner of online commerce that doesn't get as much notice?digital goods. This week, …

In another sign of sweeping changes in the Canadian payment card market, Visa Inc.'s Visa Canada unit last week published interchange rates on its Web site for the first time. The posting comes at a time when merchants are complaining about higher rewards-card acceptance costs and expressing fears that possible …

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 …

Often viewed by retail banking officials as public enemy No. 1, PayPal Inc. sent its top executive to a major banking-technology exhibition on Thursday to propose closer collaboration between banks and the San Jose, Calif.-based non-bank e-commerce payments processor. Indeed, PayPal president Scott Thompson suggested banks and PayPal create direct …

North American Bancard, one of the nation's biggest independent sales organizations, has established a new division it hopes will help merchants navigate tricky technological waters beyond payment processing, thereby increasing merchant loyalty. Troy, Mich.-based North American says the purpose of its new Alliance Division is to forge relationships with software …

Agents with independent sales organizations or even large merchant processors trying to sell prospective merchants on new point-of-sale technology can get the attention of decision makers, but only if they anticipate how a smart merchant will make a complex buying decision, a senior executive with the nation's largest restaurant chain …

A big change may be in the offing for Canada's point-of-sale debit market that could bring American-style percentage-based interchange to a system whose pricing currently is based on flat fees. The change could possibly even bring Visa and MasterCard debit cards to the country for the first time. The result, …

The softening economy so far hasn't taken a big bite out of payment processors' earnings, but it is having some effects. Meanwhile, processors continue to streamline their operations, integrate acquisitions, and roll out new services. ? Reflecting the recent weakness in consumer spending, big merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. …

A seemingly unremarkable magnetic-stripe card reader from a software company specializing in payment applications for users of eBay Inc.'s online merchant marketplace and its PayPal payment system is just hitting the market, but it could mark another advance for PayPal into the world of point-of-sale payments. The reader and its …

While hard data are not yet available, anecdotal evidence indicates consumers are pleased with a mobile-payments pilot in San Francisco using phones equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology and involving the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail system and Jack in the Box Inc. fast-food restaurants. “We've supported thousands of rides …