Payment processing

The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a final rule Dec. 21 to move to electronic payments instead of checks for federal benefits and nontax payments.

Targeting underbanked consumers in the United States, US Alliance Group Inc. and Chexar Networks Inc. have launched a check-cashing product that enables consumers to deposit checks directly into accounts tied to MasterCard-branded prepaid cards, US Alliance Group announced on Dec. 15.

Australia’s ongoing migration to using chip technology on payment cards instead of magnetic stripes, which the country will complete in 2013, should reduce the country’s card-fraud losses, according to the Australian Payments Clearing Association, a self-regulatory body of the Australian payments industry.

Various factors may have come into play regarding Ingenico S.A.’s Dec. 19 rejection of an unsolicited, nonbinding offer.

First Data Corp. now has a roster of more than 100,000 U.S. merchants handling transactions through its TransArmor security service, meeting a goal the company set when its launched the product nearly three months ago, the company announced Dec. 20.

The board of directors of Ingenico SA earlier today rejected an unsolicited, nonbinding offer to acquire the company (see story).

Many indicators from financial institutions, consumers and merchants suggest the United States payments industry is ready to adopt EMV chip-and-PIN technology, a new report suggests.

Ten merchants have signed on to use First Data Corp.’s eGift Social system for sending virtual gift cards online, the Atlanta-based transaction processor announced Dec. 17.

For Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and competing payments networks, a more critical provision than interchange pricing remains unresolved in the Federal Reserve’s proposed debit rules.

ATM manufacturers and operators saw a modest bump in their stock prices Dec. 16 following the Federal Reserve Board’s release of proposed rules that would dramatically restrict the interchange fees issuers receive for most debit card purchases.

Russian credit cardholders will spend 10% more this month on their holiday spending compared with what they spent last December, ZAO Citibank predicts in a Dec. 13 report.

The 258 McDonald’s restaurants in Russia now accept bankcards, the fast-food provider’s acquirer Russian Standard Bank announced Dec. 13.

Merchant cash-advance company AmeriMerchant LLC says the hundreds of merchant-services sales offices working with transaction processor First Data Corp. will have an easier time selling AmeriMerchant’s services through an agreement announced Dec. 14.

Consumers again are spending with their credit cards to purchase discounted goods early in the holiday season, suggests First Data Corp.’s November SpendTrend payment card transaction analysis of all store sales activity that First Data processes.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve this afternoon proposed rules aimed at lowering interchange fees on debit transactions that could cap fees at 12 cents per transaction, about what the current median cost of authorization, clearance and settlement is (see proposal).

Google Inc. is collecting the pieces for a major mobile payments system — but it is a long way from assembling them.

FICO announced Dec. 15 it has been awarded eight new patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for advances in credit scoring, credit account management, credit fraud management, insurance fraud management and other areas, bringing its portfolio of U.S. patents to more than 100.

A mobile-commerce company in Berkeley, Calif., says it has devised a means to enable mobile phones to communicate with chips in attached stickers to support true Near Field Communication payments and two-way communications between NFC chips.

William Smith relies on prepaid debit cards as he travels the country tattooing musicians in vans, trailers, hotel rooms and houses. The 32-year-old Ocala, Fla., tattooer (see photo) says he has no bank account, just a low-cost MoneyCard obtained from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

EMC Corp. has launched a consulting service designed to help prepare merchants to manage their payment-security needs, the Hopkington, Mass.-based security-technology company announced Dec. 15.