Technology

The rise of small card-not-present transactions for virtual goods and other online services is helping to fertilize runaway growth of micropayment-based card-fraud schemes, at least one consultant contends.

When my client called me June 21 in a panic saying they had just received a call from Springbok representative to let them know Springbok was closing its doors, I had to bite my tongue and only whisper to myself "I told you so."

Two payments companies, BluePay Processing LLC and Trustwave, separately last week announced new encryption services for merchants.

Springbok was mostly a B2B prepaid provider, so the CARD Act would have a minimal effect on its business. The company was founded by two people, one of whom was so upset that he and his wife couldn't redeem a gift card to pay for movie tickets that he founded Springbok.

The Federal Trade Commission on June 28 asked a federal court to halt an international identity-fraud scheme that it says generated more than $10 million in fraudulent micropayment charges on U.S. consumers’ credit and debit cards.

Consumer confidence fell sharply in June after rising for three consecutive months, The Conference Board Inc., a New York-based research organization, reported June 29.

Small-business owners’ overall confidence fell slightly in June as concerns about temporary cash flow increased, the results of a survey Discover Financial Services released June 28 suggest.

MasterCard Worldwide has promoted Ajay Banga, president and chief operating officer, to chief executive officer, effective July 1. Banga also was named a member of MasterCard’s board of directors. Banga succeeds Joseph W. Selander, who will become executive vice chairman until his retirement on Dec. 31. MasterCard also promoted Alfredo Gangotena to chief marketing officer from global products and solution lead for MasterCard in Europe. Gangotena replaces Lawrence Flanagan, who is retiring.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Golden 1 Credit Union has launched a new person-to-person (P2P) payment service called EZPay Personal Payments that allows members to send money electronically to other individuals with Internet access.

Obopay Inc. is trying something new. Again.