Payment processing

Chantilly, Va.-based electronic biller Online Resource Corp last week announced it was granted a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a broad range of biller service provider bill payment transactions.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd. has inked a deal to process transactions for Cash Plus Australia Pty Ltd., which operates a network of nonbank ATMs in Australia, the Australia-based bank announced May 3. The Cash Plus network includes 160 ATMs deployed in high-traffic locations in Australia.

Monett, Mo.-based Jack Henry & Associates yesterday reported net income for its fiscal third quarter surged 28%, based on a 19% rise in revenues.Net income for the third quarter was $31.6 million and revenues were $215.5 million.

Inside Contactless is buying the secure microcontroller business from chip maker Atmel Corp., France-based Inside announced today.

Euronet Worldwide Inc., which conducts the majority of its operations outside the United States, last week reported net income of $2.8 million for the first quarter ended March 31. The Leawood, Kan.-based electronic-payments processor reported a net loss of $12.3 million during the same period last year. Revenue totaled $250 million, up 7% from $233.7 million.

The day when the U.S. joins many other large markets globally in converting to EMV chip-and-PIN cards from magnetic stripe versions will not occur any time soon. But it will come eventually, observers predict.

Independent sales organizations may realize such benefits as lower costs and faster sales cycles from using digital signatures and contracts, but they likely will find difficulty adopting a technology not widely used in the payments industry. Potential legal difficulties also exist, and not all processors and sponsor banks may approve of digital contracts, note observers.

Banks are ready to spend more on technology, but concerns over compliance expenses could keep some of them from moving forward soon with major upgrades.

As competition for clients intensifies and margins grow increasingly thin, many independent sales organizations are seeking ways to reduce costs, increase efficiency and stand out from competitors. One method gaining consideration is the use of digital signatures and contracts.

Fiserv reported a 17% rise in first quarter earnings Thursday, even as revenues slid by about 1%.

Smartphone-based transactions represent an opportunity to grow U.S. card acceptance, which largely has become commoditized because most brick-and-mortar merchants accept payment cards. However, the challenge for independent sales organizations and other resellers of smartphone-based point-of-sale products may be locating mobile-merchant clients, observers say.

Sterling Payment Technologies Inc. in November launched a merchant-security compliance program with the goal of ensuring Sterling’s merchants meet the criteria established by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

Four witnesses testifying April 28 before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on credit card interchange regulation agreed on one thing: A handful of the largest banks benefit most from interchange. And the potential effect of interchange-rate regulation on smaller community banks and credit unions, which struggle to compete against the giants, is murky.

RegaloCard LLC, a fledging mobile-payments company, announced April 28 it has inked agreements with several prepaid phone card distributors to place its card-based funds-transfer service in more than 100,000 retailers across the United States. The Miami-based company’s service is designed to enable consumers to receive funds from the U.S. to use to pay for products and services as participating store locations in Central America.

Restaurateurs may have another reason to use pay-at-the-table terminals from Ingenico S.A., which has added software to the devices to help lower the interchange rates for credit and debit card transactions.

A majority of qualified security professionals that assess compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard believe encryption is the most-effective means of protecting card data, according to a study released April 27 by Thales Group and the Ponemon Institute.

Fidelity National Information Services yesterday reported that first quarter net income almost tripled to $93.6 million after last year’s combination with Metavante Technologies.

A directive Visa issued last week should make it clear to online merchants that they are not allowed to offer consumers third-party offers without asking for their card information a second time, the card brand noted in an April 27 statement.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. said that even though consumers are willing to use online person-to-person payments, banks have to be proactive in making the service visible.

Visa Inc. officials say they are displeased with a recent decision by Woolworths Ltd., Australia’s largest retailer, to process debit card transactions domestically and bypass the credit card network in a bid to save millions in fees, according to local news reports.