Payment processing

Zions Bancorp., in its attempt to spot fraud, was gathering much more data than its technology could handle. While searching for a needle in a haystack, it was just piling on more hay.

A directive earlier this month from Visa Inc. designed to motivate merchants to support the EMV chip card standard for U.S. cards and payment terminals may spark a cottage industry in EMV training seminars and consulting.

Electronic funds transfer networks such as First Data Corp.’s Star are hearing increased chatter from financial institutions about securing and authenticating purchases at point-of-sale retail locations and online.

Representatives of 13 corporate credit unions and Co-op Financial Services have abandoned efforts to buy the payments functions from U.S. Central Federal Credit Union, the latest corporate initiative to fail, the representatives announced Sept. 2.

EFT Canada Inc. has completed its acquisition of the credit card gateway of privately held Linterna Technologies Ltd., the companies announced Sept. 2.

Growing use of its mobile payment services for banks increased Monitise PLC revenue for fiscal 2011, but the expense of developing new markets in Europe and Nigeria resulted in a pretax loss, the mobile-payments company said Sept. 1.

Large banks such as Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. have been working for years to build global payment “hubs,” or online-banking platforms their corporate customers may use to send and accept payments of different types and in foreign currencies to their customers and partners around the world.

As Visa Inc. has been ramping up its promotion of one-time-use card data for security, Discover Financial Services is winding down its support of a similar technology.

First Data Corp. will make two Trusteer services available for its clients to help protect Internet banking and to enhance compliance with new federal guidelines for online security, Trusteer announced Aug. 31.

Mutual of Omaha Bank, on a growth streak since its 2007 launch, has signed a long-term merchant-services agreement with First Data Corp., the companies announced Aug. 30.

In a move exemplifying efforts to move more cash and check payments to credit and debit cards, a national social network of babysitters and parents called SitterPals.com has signed up to use Square Inc.’s service to accept credit card payments for their services, the company announced Aug. 31.

Bank technology vendor S1 Corp.’s board told shareholders not to accept ACI Worldwide Inc.’s exchange offer, at least not yet.

The wireless carriers involved in mobile-payments venture Isis reportedly plan to invest more than $100 million into the project.

A prepaid card breach disclosed in May was accomplished by hackers who turned off the withdrawal limits on multiple card accounts, according to a new report.

Despite increasing activity involving mobile payments, consumers still trust credit card companies more than companies such as Google Inc., eBay Inc. or Facebook Inc.

TransFirst LLC, a company specializing in services that bridge the gap between ISOs and processors, is purchasing an ISO that has been a longtime client.

Boku Inc. has inked an agreement with two French wireless phone carriers to offer its carrier-billing service, a deal which will extend Boku’s reach to 32 million customers in France.

ACI Worldwide Inc. tossed the ball back into S1 Corp.'s court on Thursday as the two companies continue to squabble over competing acquisition proposals.

Visa Inc.’s announcement that it expects old, static PINs to eventually be “eliminated entirely” in favor of dynamic authentication is facing resistance–in particular because many are not convinced that the PIN is past its prime.

Enhancing the services it provides to merchants using its transaction-processing services, the Shazam electronic funds network on Aug. 23 unveiled an innovation it says will streamline merchants’ processes, particularly when authorizing PIN-debit transactions online.