Payment processing

Jacksonville, Fla.-based JM Associates Federal Credit Union is the first financial institution to use Star CertiFlash, a new PIN debit application offered by First Data Corp.’s Star Network that advances point-of-sale security using one-time card number technology.

Banks have gotten over the fear that offering online account transfers will put them at risk for deposit flight.

Banks may soon do the work of their vendors as they are handed the tools to design software for core banking functions — just as new services demand that systems be developed with greater speed.

Among the companies supporting alternative payment services, PayPal Inc., a division of eBay Inc., remains the dominating force and continues to grow, new research from New York-based management-consulting firm Auriemma Consulting Group shows.

Wincor Nixdorf and HID Global, a provider of secure identity systems, have introduced an ATM system with a contactless smart card reader, allowing a single piece of equipment to process ATM and automatic fare collection transactions.

Merchant-services company Newtek Business Services Inc. has become a member of Charge Anywhere LLC’s certified distributor program, South Plainfield, N.J.-based Charge Anywhere announced Dec. 7.

CashEdge Inc., known almost exclusively as an electronic payment provider, is venturing into new and potentially lucrative territory with plastic gift cards.

Assurance Investment Partners Inc. has added merchant-processing services to the list of offerings to its clients with its investment in Veritas Merchant Services LLC, a Louisville, Ky.-based independent sales organization, Assurance announced Dec. 8.

More than three-fourths of all U.S. noncash payments in 2009 were made electronically, a new Federal Reserve study indicates, representing a 9.3% annualized increase since the Fed’s previous study that revealed that in 2006 two-thirds of noncash payments were electronic (see report).

The allure of double-digit payment card transaction volume growth and recent deregulation have prompted Elavon Inc. and Credicard, a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc., to form a merchant acquiring joint venture in Brazil, Elavon announced Dec. 9.

China’s largest telecommunication operator China Telecom Ltd. is partnering with the Bank of China Ltd. and China UnionPay to offer a mobile-payment service in the city of Ningbo in China’s Zhenjiang province.

The Qatar Central Bank, the apex banking body in the Middle Eastern country, has given its nod to mobile funds-transfer and payment services in Qatar.

As MasterCard Worldwide’s website remains inaccessible, its SecureCode payment-verification system seems also to have gone offline.

PARIS–Amid the steady drumbeat of recent mobile-payments announcements, interoperability has emerged as the watchword for developers as they bring their new innovations to market.

PARIS–As contactless payment catches on in certain pockets of Europe, key facts are emerging about what slows and accelerates adoption of the payment method, according to Mark Austin, head of contactless at Visa Europe.

PARIS–The official unveiling this week of the Open Standard Public Transport Alliance, which is developing an open security standard for mass-transit fare-collection systems, illustrates the type of broad collaboration needed to advance the payments industry, its participants suggest.

PARIS–The security of smart cards has as much to do with the financial payoff that hackers stand to gain from unraveling the data inside them as it does protecting the technology.

Green Dot Corp. has seen interchange revenue from its active prepaid debit cards rise 95.6 % during a 21-month span, according to PaymentsSource data.

MasterCard Worldwide has added two services to its existing fraud-detection system, enabling card issuers in the United States and parts of Europe, including Ireland and the United Kingdom, to protect cardholders and reduce fraud-related costs, MasterCard announced on Dec. 7.

MasterCard Worldwide is in the process of suspending payments to WikiLeaks, according to a spokesperson for the card brand.