Mobile Payment Industry News

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Will eBay Pay Later for Bill Me Later Acquisition?

Image representing eBay as depicted in CrunchBase

This story is from last week and I thought it made some interesting points which have coincided with some of the discussions I've had with associates...and there is one thing everybody agrees on. The big winners in this acquistion were the BillMeLater shareholders. We are apparently now (since December) "officially" in a recession. Worse than that, we are also in a severe "credit crisis" and people will tbe forced to turn to debit and cash as their cards get maxed out, or their balances get lowered. The risk is the credit worthiness of consumers using the BillMeLater platfrom. On the other hand, with credit tight, maybe more people will utilize it for budgetary concerns. After all, it is cash, it's just cash later, so maybe it'll work, but there certainly are some opposing forces they have working against. them. Like the article says...it appears, at the very least, eBay overpaid for BML.

At worst, they'll have $100 million in defaults on the books from 2008...

Was Ebay's BillMeLater Acquisition A Huge Blunder? - washingtonpost.com

Michael Arrington - TechCrunch.com

When eBay paid $945 million for BillMeLater in October, we blinked. The business assigns credit at the point of sale to ecommerce customers who can't use credit cards because they don't have them, have maxed out credit limits, or choose not to. It charges fees much like a credit card - currently 19% interest.

The credit markets were already a wreck in October, with accelerating defaults on credit card accounts. And worse, the securitization markets were starting to shut down, meaning credit companies couldn't get the debt off their books.

Still, a BillMeLater investor said not to worry. Their model is different than the credit card companies, he said, because they only issue credit on a per-transaction basis. Fast forward a month and a half, though, and things are much worse. Credit default rates are expected to hit 10% next year as personal bankruptcies soar, and the securitization markets are flat out closed.

And I don't really buy the argument that BillMeLater has a better model than the credit card companies. Card companies can (and do) lower credit limits in bad times, so they don't have much more exposure on credit limits compared to BillMeLater. Also, most of BillMeLater's customers don't qualify for credit cards in the first place, or are tapped out. That makes this debt super sketchy. And BillMeLater's credit models were created in a world of 5% default rates (the average over the last ten years), which are nowhere near as bad as what's coming.

On top of all of this, BillMeLater is pushing incentives that give people zero payments until April 1. What a teaser to buy stuff people can't afford for the holidays. This is adverse selection at work. People who don't need to wait until April 1 to pay won't use it. Those that do will, and those people are likely to be big credit risks.

At the very least eBay seems to have overpaid for BillMeLater. At worst they may have huge losses on the product next year. In 2008 they'll do $1 billion in payment volume. You can do the math on a 10%+ default rate.

Major Credit Card Hack Starting?

Credit Card Hackers in New Attack?

It's the last thing cash-strapped banks need right now: Holders of credit and debit cards are reporting an epidemic of unauthorized charges on their bills.

Could this be a sign of a massive card-fraud operation in the making?

A company called Adele Services, based in Melville, N.Y., has been charging cards small amounts — 21 to 29 cents. Such charges are usually attempts by card fraudsters to test whether a particular card number is valid.

The range of complaints suggests the people behind the Adele charges have gotten their hands on a sizable database of credit cards.

Here's some more on this breaking news from ars technica:

"A wave of unauthorized microtransactions is currently sweeping the accounts of a number of US credit card holders, though the size andscope of the fraud scheme have not yet been determined. Beginning on oraround November 20, consumers apparently began to notice smallcharges—typically for 19-29¢—appearing on their bank statements oronline account information. These small withdrawals or deposits aretypically test fees, sent to verify account authenticity. Paypal, for example, makes two small deposits in a user's bank account in order to verify its authenticity.

While legitimate companies will reverse the fee (or occasionally let you keep the extra quarter), thieves use the transactions to verify that a credit card number is good. If the deposits complete successfully, the hacker knows he's got a live card (or a live card number). The next step, at least usually, is to burn through the account's balance as quickly as possible before anyone notices what's happening.

Beginning on or about November 20, various card holders began complaining online about unauthorized microtransactions that were suddenly showing up on their accounts. The charges fit the model described above, and were labeled as coming from Adele Services. Adele Services appears to be a dummy corporation; the 1-800 number listed as the customer contact point is disconnected and there's no official
website.

The company may not officially exist, but that hasn't stopped it from continuing to test accounts. It's impossible to state how many card holders have been pinged in this manner, but the number of online reports is growing steadily.

Theories on which company's security was breached abound, although the mob of sages has collectively ruled out PayPal, given the number of non-PayPal users affected. Amazon seems to be a current favorite, based on the fact that a number of the irate forum posters recently shopped there. The factual likelihood that any number of random people have recently shopped at Amazon given the size of that company, and the time of year is much higher than some of the more fervent posters would like to admit.

For the time being, it's a good idea to keep a close eye on the day-to-day activities of your credit/debit account. If you want to be on the safe side, take a moment and review your financial institution's rules on contesting charges. The rules of this procedure can vary significantly from bank to bank. If you've been hit by these types of unknown charges (whether from Adele or another company), please let us know about it.

At this point, there's nothing much more than circumstantial evidence of a data breach. Such breaches can be disastrous when they occur, as TJ Maxx demonstrated back in 2007. It's possible that whoever is running Adele is working off randomly generated numbers, however; we won't know until more information becomes available."

Large-scale hacks have happened before; the worst was in 2005, when hackers obtained a file of 40 million card numbers from CardSystems, a credit-card processor. While most consumers worry about shopping with Internet retailers, online card databases are rarely the problem. In 2007 insecure cash registers at TJ Maxx and Marshalls stores exposed 45.7 million cards.

2nd Heaviest Online Spending Day on Record

E-Commerce Spending Jumps 15% on Cyber Monday to $846 Million, the 2nd Heaviest Online Spending Day on Record

Eclipsed Only by Green Monday 2007 with $881 Million in Online Spending

RESTON, VA, December 3, 2008 – comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 31 days of the November through December 2008 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $12.03 billionhas been spent online, marking a 2 percent decline versus the corresponding days last year. However, Cyber Monday saw $846 million in online spending, up 15 percent. The four-day period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday saw e-commerce spending jump 13 percent as both weekend days and Monday all achieved double-digit gains.

2008 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2007 Non-Travel (Retail) Spending Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore, Inc.
Holiday Season to Date	Millions ($)
Holiday Season to Date	2007	2008	Pct Change
November 1 – December 1	$12,217	$12,025	-2%
Pre-Thanksgiving	$10,035	$9,588	-4%
Thanksgiving and Later	$2,182	$2,437	12%
November 27 (Thanksgiving Day)	$272	$288	6%
November 28 (“Black Friday”)	$531	$534	1%
November 29-30 (Weekend)	$645	$769	19%
December 1 (“Cyber Monday”)	$733	$846	15%

*Corresponding days based on equivalent shopping days relative to Thanksgiving (October 27-November 26 2007)

“Mark Twain might have said: ‘Rumors of the death of online holiday shopping have been greatly exaggerated’,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni “Consumers are clearly responding positively to retailers’ aggressive online discounts. With Cyber Monday promotions beginning in earnest over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumers have finally begun to open their wallets, setting off a streak of four consecutive days of extremely strong growth, and culminating in a Cyber Monday that racked up an impressive $846 million in online spending, up 15 percent over last year and ranking it as the second heaviest online spending day on record. This is an extremely encouraging development for retailers and we can but hope that their aggressive discounting has still left room for profits.”

Consumers Seeing Less Foot Traffic in Retail Stores

The most recent comScore holiday retail survey, conducted from November 28 - December 1, revealed that some additional insights into consumers view of the 2008 holiday shopping season.

Some of the key survey findings include:

More than half (51 percent) of consumers indicated that the level of promotions and discounts is higher this year than last year, while only 12 percent said that there appeared to be fewer, suggesting that retailers are having to be more aggressive in discounting to spur consumer spending.
39 percent of consumers said that there seemed to be fewer people out shopping in retail stores this year than last year, while only 7 percent thought there were more.

Weekly Online Holiday Retail Sales

Members of the media interested in receiving the data behind the chart for use in a

graphical epresentation, please contact press@comscore.com

About comScore
comScore,
Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and
preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information,
please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate.

Contact:

Andrew Lipsman
Senior Analyst
comScore, Inc.
312-775-6510
press@comscore.com

Money Transfer Survey from Upaid

Latin America eager to embrace mobile money transfers

Latin Americans living in the USA are keen to adopt money transfer using the less traditional method of a mobile phone, according to a survey commissioned by Upaid, the leading mobile payments provider.

During tough economic times, consumers are looking to cost-effective ways of continuing money transfer to friends, family and loved ones. The majority of those questioned (61%) are spending over US$75 a month on fees and commission associated with cross-border payments, with many considering their current method of money transfer "expensive".

Two thirds of those who transfer money via a shop find it expensive, particularly those sending money to Uruguay, Haiti, Belize and Aruba, with a unanimous 100% of respondents thinking transferring money this way was costly. Many more respondents found other methods of transfer more affordable, with less than half believing money transfer via cheque or telephone is expensive (44% and 46% respectively).

The more traditional methods of transferring money are currently most popular, with the majority (80%) having visited a shop. However, nearly three quarters of those surveyed were keen to use mobile as a method for transfer in the future. The majority (70%) of those that currently use mobile phones to transfer money are males aged 25 to 34.

All respondents thought that the most beneficial aspects of money transfer via mobile was instantaneous transfer of funds, no commission on money transfer, the ability to transfer money directly to a family member's bank account, and the ability to directly pay for a family member's phone credit or to utility bill.

The most popular countries for Latin Americans living in the USA to send money are Mexico (41%), Puerto Rico (12%) and the Dominican Republic (6%).

Stephen Gibb, Upaid CIO, comments on the research, "As the global economic crisis continues and more and more money is transferred from US citizens looking to send funds to Latin American countries, people are looking to a cost effective, easy-to-use method that is safe and timely. The mobile phone is a perfect fit for money transfer due to its ubiquitous nature and the fact that it is carried with a user nearly all the time." He continued: "Just over half of respondents believed using a mobile to transfer money was currently expensive, though the willingness to adopt this method of transfer shows that consumers either expect the cost of money transfer to come down or that the cost is not prohibitive for the benefits it provides."

Upaid commissioned Research Now to survey US citizens transferring money to countries across Latin America.

About Upaid

Upaid is the mobile and online payments specialist. Applications range from the recharge of prepaid accounts via SMS, to electronic bill payment and presentment, to billing for mobile content. The Upaid platform supports a complete eco-system for mobile commerce, giving users the choice of an operator-driven or independent billing system.

Upaid holds a portfolio of over 1,000 granted patents in the arena of e- and m-commerce. We work with Brazil's leading mobile operators and banks to enable recharge transactions, serving a user base of over 50 million consumers, processing 2 million transactions per month. Upaid holds the franchise for VISA Mobile Service in the CEMEA region. Upaid has offices in the US, UK, and Brazil. Upaid is a registered trademark of Upaid Systems, Ltd. For more information, please visit www.upaid.net .

Source: Company press release.

Cyber Holiday Pulse Index

The Cyber Holiday Pulse Index is an index based on order activity at 25 large Internet retailers. Chase Paymentech is a payment solution provider serving online retailers, restaurants and other businesses.

E-commerce order volumes rose yesterday on one of the most important online shopping days of the year, according to a major payment processing company. However average order sales were significantly down. The result: Overall sales volume on Cyber Monday was essentially flat, growing less than a half-percent compared with the same day in 2007.

The "Holiday Pulse Index" found transaction volume at 25 major retailers rose by 14.5 percent Monday. However the average value of each transaction fell 12 percent compared with last year's Cyber Monday.

Aaron Press, director of market analysis for Chase Paymentech, said in a statement that the lower order totals for individual purchases are consistent with payment activity during much of November. "For the entire holiday season, the slower rise in sales volume compared to the steeper increase in transactions has resulted in the average ticket being lower on most days," he said. Ticket prices is defined as the average dollar spent per transaction.

Yet spending for the season to date has been a little more aggressive than the Cyber Monday snapshot. Since the beginning of November, transaction count has climbed 25 percent, and sales volume has increased 11 percent. The average ticket has come in 12 percent below last year's level, according to Chase Paymentech.

Separately, content infrastructure provider Akamai says traffic volume to retail sites in North America spiked yesterday. By 10 a.m. on December 1, online visits to Akamai retail customer sites had already surpassed 2007's peak visits per minute. The heightened traffic continued well into the evening.

There are some indications that higher traffic volume may not be a sign of higher spending, but rather an indication that people are investing more time in hunting for coupons, discounts, and other deals. According to Google keyword trends, consumers are conducting more searches for such promotions than in past years. Among the queries that climbed significantly this season are "coupons," "Black Friday ads," "discounts," and "free shipping."

ComScore and Nielsen plan to report their Cyber Monday spending and traffic estimates tomorrow. The HomeATM Blog will highlight the data in a follow-up report.

mFoundry Behind Alltel Wireless App

Alltel Wireless to launch Alltel Wallet with mFoundry

US wireless network Alltel Wireless will launch a mobile wallet service called Alltel Wallet based on mFoundry’s mobile wallet platform in early 2009.

Alltel Wallet is to include various mobile banking services, offering customers access to a large variety of US financial institutions. Alltel Wireless recently launched a free mobile banking service called Alltel Mobile Banking, offering customers mobile access to accounts from many financial institutions. The Alltel Wallet will provide its customers access to the same financial institutions as well as access to a series of other payment services.

mFoundry will provide Alltel with the necessary platform to plug in enhanced financial services and other advanced functions from selected third party developers. mFoundry’s mobile wallet platform comes with pre-built modules for peer-to-peer remittances and other payment services to help developers deploy new features.

mFoundry’s mobile financial services platform is based on Mojax technology which allows Alltel to offer third party developers the ability to add modules to the wallet. Mojax is an Ajax application framework. Unlike traditional frameworks, Mojax applications (Moblets) do not run within a browser and are not subject to the availability and quality of a network connection. Mojax is a plug-in capable mobile development framework that offers developers additional access to core device capabilities like Camera API, Location Services, Contacts and more.

7 Things to Know About Gift Cards

I've posted quite a few times on the subject of gift cards over the past 30 days. There's a lot of things to consider when purchasing a gift card. Here's some good advice from SmartMoney if you're considering buying one this holiday season...

7 Things to Know About Buying Gift Cards

Just look at how the mighty have fallen. Sales of gift cards -- typically the most-requested holiday gift – have fallen dramatically this holiday shopping season as budget-crunched consumers hunt for ways to save.

“Consumers are putting all their focus into finding bargains,” says Daniel Horne, an associate professor of marketing at Providence College in Rhode Island. Instead of going straight to the cash register to buy a $25 gift card, a shopper is more prone to spend $20 on an item marked down from $25, he explains. Add to that concerns about the growing number of retailers that are going out of business and gift cards become even less of an attractive option for shoppers.

As a result, gift card sales are expected to fall 6% this holiday season to $24.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. (Over the four-day Black Friday weekend, gift card sales were down 10%, with just one in five shoppers buying one).

Yet, shoppers don’t have to abandon gift cards altogether -- especially when the alternative is taking a blind guess at what someone on your shopping list really wants. Just proceed with caution. Here's what you need to know to guarantee that buying a gift card will be worthwhile.

Steer clear of troubled retailers

Avoid buying a gift card from a retailer that has filed for bankruptcy protection, or may do so soon, warns Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumer League, a consumer advocate. While stores in Chapter 11 may continue to sell and accept gift cards, they can also put restrictions on their use. Sharper Image, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, stopped accepting cards temporarily, then required shoppers to make purchases worth at least double the value of their gift cards. Linens ‘N Things, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May, will only accept cards in its store during its liquidation.

If a retailer files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection -- which liquidates the company rather than allowing it to reorganize -- the card balance is almost certainly a lost cause, says Greenberg. “You’re in a long line behind other unsecured creditors,” she says. Most claims return just pennies on the dollar, if anything at all.

Look for FDIC coverage

Your safest bet is to buy a gift card issued by a bank, says Gwenn Bézard, research director for Aite Group, an independent financial services market research company. In mid-November, the FDIC expanded its coverage of consumers’ assets at insured financial institutions to include prepaid gift cards. Should the bank go under, the card balance is covered up to $250,000.

Weigh the fees

Although they offer better protections than store gift cards, bank-issued gift cards do have one pitfall: purchase fees. Discover (DFS: 9.43*, -0.54, -5.41%) and American Express (AXP: 20.43*, -0.33, -1.58%) both charge $3.95 per card, for example, and Chase (JPM: 28.16*, -0.37, -1.29%) charges $3.50. U.S. Bank (USB: 25.80*, +0.03, +0.11%) charges $3.95 if you buy at a bank branch, or $6.95 plus shipping when you purchase one online. Skip these cards if the charges are more than 10% of the balance, says Greenberg. Fees that high aren’t a good deal for the giver or the receiver.

Swap out unused cards

Still hanging on to unwanted cards from last year? Sell or trade them before any dormancy fees kick in. Gadget and home goods retailer Brookstone is letting consumers exchange gift cards of any value (even a penny) from any other retailer for a 15% in-store discount. And on gift card swap sites such as CardAvenue.com and SwapAGift.com, users often receive bids just a few dollars below the face value of their cards.

Take advantage of promotions

To entice consumers to spend more, many retailers are offering discounts with a gift card purchase. Papa John’s offers a free medium one-topping pizza ($10 value) with every $25 card purchased. Through Dec. 8, chain B.R. Guest Restaurants is offering 20% off gift cards purchased online.

Wait until the last minute

Plenty of gift cards carry expiration dates and some even have maintenance fees that kick in after as little as six months of inactivity. To help give your recipients a little more time on the clock -- nearly half of consumers still haven't redeemed the gift cards they received over the holidays by the end of January, says Bézard -- save your gift card purchase until the last minute.

Spend in January

Fewer gift card purchases now mean fewer shoppers redeeming them in January, which could pose a problem for cash-strapped retailers looking to extend their holiday season profits into the new year. Postholiday, retailers may start extending discounts to shoppers who use gift cards, says Horne. (Last year, both Best Buy (BBY: 20.03*, +0.08, +0.40%) and clothing retailer New York & Company offered such incentives.) American Express also routinely extends special discounts for using its cards at participating retailers, such as 15% off a purchase of $75 or more at Virgin Megastore.

Get in the Loop

Leslie Parker writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about Prepaid Cards and talks about the differences between Closed Loop and Open Loop Prepaid Cards. Look for Open Loop cards to become more popular in the future...

Get in the loop Lesley Parker - Sydney Morning Herald
December 3, 2008

The prepaid card that helps consumers set spending limits is challenging its credit and debit rivals.

The mounting popularity of debit cards is one indication that Australians are losing their appetite for credit. But there's another alternative for consumers who like the convenience of a card but find debt distasteful - prepaid cards.

Many consumers will have come across prepaid cards in the form of gift cards - cards with a set value that are branded by a retailer to be used in its particular outlets.

These are known in the industry as "closed loop" cards because you can't use them outside that store. They're also described as "disposable" cards because once you've used up the face value - $50, say - you throw the card away.

But there's another prepaid card, the reloadable "open loop" card, which can be used almost anywhere and replenished with further funds. These have been in Australia for a couple of years. These cards look and feel like a Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card but don't provide access to borrowed money and aren't linked to a bank account. You don't need a bank account to get one and generally no credit check is required. That makes them useful for people who wouldn't qualify for a credit card but who need a plastic card to pay bills, shop online or travel.

You load a prepaid card with funds, usually by transferring money online or via phone banking.

Of course, there are costs involved and these vary depending on the card issuers and the way they've structured their product. You may be up for an application fee plus transaction fees for withdrawals and deposits and possibly fees for services such as balance inquiries. Check the fine print. You'll also need to confirm that the card is reloadable and what happens if you lose it. While losing gift cards is like losing cash, reloadable cards can usually be cancelled in the same way you'd cancel a lost credit or debit card.

There has been huge growth in prepaid cards in the US - by one estimate the number of cards on issue soared from 25 million in 2004 to 1.1 billion by the end of 2006 - but that's partly because they're used for social security payments there. Also, the US has a larger population of the "unbanked" - people who by choice or otherwise don't have a bank account.

In Australia, Heritage Building Society has carved out a business running prepaid card programs with partners such as Visa and has issued 500,000 prepaid cards since 2006.

Retail Finance Intelligence business development director Charles Green says all the major banks have open-loop cards. "So, as long as [merchant] acceptance doesn't continue to be an issue, familiarity with them should grow," he says, referring to the fact Coles and Woolworths don't allow you to pay for your groceries with a prepaid card.

MWE Consulting principal Mike Ebstein says the open-loop prepaid card is in its infancy as a method of payment. However, he says, the use of the Visa-MasterCard type will probably grow.

"They're for people who want the convenience of a plastic card but without the exposure that comes from having an associated line of credit or access to deposited funds," Ebstein says. That makes them useful for giving children pocket money, "where you don't want to put temptation in their way".

Green says research shows the most common uses of open-loop cards are shopping generally, online shopping in particular and personal travel.

Travelex's prepaid card, the Cash Passport, is available in five currencies. Travelex's website says the PIN-protected card allows you to lock in an exchange rate before you travel and you can use the card in ATMs overseas.

Visa's general manager for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, Chris Clark, gives the example of a young person heading overseas for a "gap year" after school. He or she can load a travel card with as much as $25,000 in funds, depending on the product, and live off that while moving around. Alternatively, parents might help their travelling offspring by feeding a prepaid card each month with, say, $1000 to help with budget control.

Ebstein says prepaid cards appeal to the budget-conscious. "You could have a number of cards for specific uses, allocating money to various 'silos'," such as holidays, clothing or entertainment.

Heritage Building Society chief executive John Minz says prepaid cards also have benefits in limiting fraud. "One of the risks when travelling is card skimming," he says. "The contents of a credit card's magnetic strip can be copied. But purchase one of these Visa cards with a certain value and . . . there are no personal details on that card, no card numbers, no account information."

OrderDynamics and CardinalCommerce Partner

Canada's leading On-Demand eCommerce provider announces partnership with CardinalCommerce to enable alternative payment brands to its customers.

Toronto, ON (PRWEB) December 3, 2008 -- OrderDynamics Corporation, Canada's leading on-demand eCommerce solution provider, is pleased to announce its partnership with CardinalCommerce, the worldwide leading enabler of payment brands. The partnership will leverage CardinalCommerce's universal merchant platform, Cardinal Centinel®, to enable multiple payment brands for the Order Dynamics customer base.

OrderDynamics Customers, through a single integration, can now immediately provide over fifteen branded payment methods on their front-end web eStores. The OrderDynamics platform now maintains a single, secure interface to Cardinal Centinel® to enable payment brands such as: Verified by Visa & MasterCard® SecureCode™, Amazon Payments™, Bill Me Later®, Ebates™, eBillme™, eLayaway™, Google™ Checkout, Green Dot® MoneyPak®, MyEcheck, PayPal™, RevolutionCard™, Mazooma™, ClickandBuy®, and more.

"Our Customers can access these services though their management dashboard and automatically integrate the payment services with their current eCommerce shopping cart solution." explains Steven Berkovitz, VP Development. "Providing alternative payment methods to shoppers is an important way for online merchants to gain new customers, increase sales conversions, and make the eCommerce shopping experience more secure and convenient." Berkovitz continues "Through our Dynamic Merchandising concepts we aim to provide the best eCommerce tactics to help our Customers drive revenues and control costs. This is how we evaluate and prioritize enhancements to our eStore websites, eCommerce shopping cart, Fulfillment & Inventory Control, email Marketing, and all aspects of our on-demand eCommerce platform." The development and integration of the Cardinal Centinel platform is part of an overall new feature release strategy that OrderDynamics maintains as part of their services.

About CardinalCommerce Corporation

CardinalCommerce Corporation is the global leader in enabling authenticated payments, secure transactions, and alternative payment brands for both eCommerce and mobile commerce. Cardinal Centinel® enables payment brands such as Verified by Visa, MasterCard® SecureCode®, PayPal™, eBillme™, Bill Me Later®, Google™ Checkout, MyECheck, NACHA® Secure Vault Payments (SVP), Green Dot® MoneyPak®, Ukash™, eLayaway™, Ebates™, Amazon Payments™, RevolutionCard™, Mazooma™, ClickandBuy®, and more to a network of over 30,000 merchants and merchant service providers. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, with facilities in the United States, Europe and Africa, Cardinal services a worldwide customer base.

About OrderDynamics Corporation

OrderDynamics Corporation is a privately owned company that has provides turn-key eCommerce solutions to businesses looking to grow their online sales solutions. The success of OrderDynamics is highly attributed to its response to real Client requirements and Dynamic Merchandising concepts which provide superior control and help drive revenue. The OrderDynamics solution is designed for online merchants and services different business such as retail, manufacturing, business-to-business, complex online retail, and more. OrderDynamics officially launched its on-demand eCommerce solution in 2006 after 2 years of research and development.

CyberMonday Better Than Expected say Etailers

According to Internet Retailer, CyberMonday was a good day. One etailer (eBags.com) even posted 50% sales growth over last year...

The Monday after Thanksgiving was better than expected, retailers say

The doom and gloom of the economy continues, and online sales on Friday, the big shopping day after Thanksgiving, barely registered growth, up a mere 1%, according to web measurement firm comScore Inc. But yesterday appears to have brought better news, based on reports from several online retailers about sales Monday, the day after Thanksgiving weekend that’s typically the first of the big online shopping days of the holiday season.

Retailer eBags.com posted an all-time record day, with sales yesterday growing 50% compared with the same Monday last year, says Peter Cobb, co-founder and senior vice president. The retailer offers numerous products, including more than 12,000 handbags. It placed nearly all of them on sale and realized 51% sales growth in handbags yesterday compared with the same day last year. The merchant also ran a 20% off promotion on all products, and $10 cash back on all purchases made with PayPal.

Target Corp. had a good day yesterday, a spokesperson says. “Sales were up a solid double-digit percentage this year versus the same day in 2007. And we have found the average order size is slightly higher than last year,” she says. “We have continued our focus on emphasizing our value message as well as our biggest free shipping offers ever and deeply discounted items.” (continue reading)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Visa Forms Joint Venture with Yalamanchili

Visa looks to expand worldwide presence with payments processing JV

Visa has formed a payments processing joint venture with India-based Yalamanchili Software Exports in a bid to tap fast developing regions like Asia Pacific and Latin America.

The card network holds a controlling interest in Visa Processing Service (VPS), which is headquartered in Singapore and begins operations this week serving existing clients.

The firm will specifically target business outside of Europe and the US, notably Asia Pacific, Latin America, Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Initially, it will focus on providing financial institutions, processors and other payment companies with pre-paid and debit processing. However it will also offer credit, ATM, money transfer and private label processing, as well as a range of payments services, including risk and fraud management, mobile applications, loyalty and cardholder support.

As part of the agreement Yalamanchili will provide its suite of Narada software products - a multi-currency, multi-language platform for debit, prepaid and credit payment transactions, gateway services for international and domestic networks, and acquiring applications, including ATM terminal driving.

E-Commerce in US Drops 4% in November

US e-commerce registers first year-over-year drop: down 4% in November 2008 - study

US online shopping dropped 4 percent to $8.19 billion during the first 23 days of November as compared to $8.51 billion posted during the corresponding period of the previous year, according to a study.

This is the first-ever year-over-year drop in e-commerce spending in US since the e-commerce category was established, the same study reveals. Such a drop is the result of low consumer confidence in online shopping, as well as a "tight disposable income". For this holiday shopping season, the study predicts that online retail spending is to be in line with the holiday sales during November-December 2007, namely $29.2 billion.

The research firm which conducted the study, comScore, says that holiday online retail spending for the last months of 2008 is to remain flat as a result of a volatile stock market, declining housing prices, inflation and the instable job market.

According to a second survey conducted by the same company between 21 and 24 November, 33 percent of US consumers claim they have not started to make purchases yet. The respondents who are willing to make online purchases this holiday season have expressed their intention to reduce holiday spending by taking advantage of various promotions or free services (39 percent), spending more time looking for deals on the internet (37 percent), making use of online coupons or those received via emails (31 percent), turn to comparison shopping engines (25 percent) or make purchases on online auction sites (21 percent).

Faster Payments Reaches £25 Billion Fast!

Launched last May, after six months, FPS can process 717 transactions per second and is "fast" approaching 60 million total transactions...

Faster Payments reach GBP 25 billion in only six months

UK Faster Payments Service (FPS) has processed GBP 24.9 billion of transactions in its first six months. The Faster Payments Service enables electronic payments, typically made via the internet or phone, to be processed in hours rather than days.

Two thirds of all phone and internet payments are now processed through the FPS, announces UK payments association APACS. FPS can process 717 transactions per second, according to VocaLink, UK payments processor which supplies the central network for the FPS. Since it was launched in 27 May 2008, VocaLink has processed 59.7 million faster payment transactions.

The types of payments that can be made through FPS include single immediate payments, forward-dated payments and standing orders. At present, 13 banks and building societies are utilising the new service. FPS was developed in response to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) calling for an alternative to the existing systems Bacs and CHAPS. FPS is a joint project between VocaLink, APACS and the UK banks. The financial institutions involved in delivering the system account for 97 percent of all payments made.

Montreal Men Arrested in London Card Scam

Police are urging London businesses to be cautious after arresting two Montreal men from "a very organized group" tampering with debit-card pads and ATM machines.

On Nov. 11, police said a local business discovered the store's debit pad had been tampered with and called police. The next day, police arrested two suspects at the Greyhound Bus terminal on York Street as dozens of people and media waited for the demolition of the Brunswick Hotel. Police handcuffed and searched the suspects, who were taken away in a police van. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a third suspect.

"This is a very organized group which travels between cities targeting unsuspecting victims by compromising their debit and bank cards at ABMs and retail terminals," said Const. Amy Phillipo. "This is accomplished by installing additional readers to capture the information on the magnetic stripe on debit cards and the PIN number used by the consumer."

Meanwhilie, Phillipo said merchants can help by treating debit-card pads like cash by ensuring they are secure and not left unattended.

81% of UK to Use Internet for Xmas Shopping

Over 80% of UK buyers to make purchases on the internet for Christmas

A study indicates that 25.17 million customers across UK representing 81 percent of the UK's online population (which stands at 33.06 million) have expressed their intention to make online purchases for Christmas.

The main reasons online shoppers give for their decision are the ability to make purchases at any time of the day and smaller prices.

The number of those willing to purchase at least one Christmas gift online reaches 29.09 million, accounting for 88 percent of the UK online population, while over a quarter of those involved in the study announced plans to buy eleven or even more gifts on the internet.

Price is the main reason which prompts UK online adult males to buy products online instead of from a brick-and-mortar shop, while for women, the most important factor is the fact that they can buy online at any hour of the day or night. The same study reveals that 96 percent of UK online customers aged between 18 and 24 are planning to buy one or more Christmas gifts on the internet in 2008.

Online shoppers' greatest fear is that of never receiving the products, followed by security concerns and being exposed to online fraud when buying from a website they have never used before.

The study was conducted by GfK NOP on behalf of Ivobank, among 1,000 UK adults.

Mayaysia Airlines Selects WireCard for Internet Payments

Malaysia Airlines selects Wirecard payment services for ticket sales on the internet

Malaysia Airlines selects German electronic payment services provider Wirecard's platform for airline ticket sales on the company's website.

Customers who do not own a credit card can use the Wirecard internet payment service, which allows them to make internet purchases via a virtual MasterCard-branded card. The online payment service Wirecard allows consumers to make payments at millions of locations across the world which accept MasterCard. In addition, registered users can receive or send money orders to one another.

Wirecard has partnered with more than 10,000 companies active in various industries to automate their payment processes.

Source: www.wirecard.com

CRYPTOCard's Two Factor Auth/Pay Card

CRYPTOCard launches combined two-factor authentication & payment card|

Canadian two-factor authentication technology developer CRYPTOCard launches its new CD-1 Credit Card Display token, a combined two-factor authentication (2FA) payment card aiming to secure card-not-present online and telephone transactions.|

The CD-1 combines authentication and payment card technologies into a credit card-sized device which generates one-time passwords, thus allowing customers to log into their online or telephone banking accounts. CRYPTOCard representatives indicate that the new CD-1 Credit Card Display token seek to help users fight online banking fraud by securing card-not-present based transactions via an integrated device for consumers combined with an integrated software service for banks.

Black Friday Sales Up 1% Over 2007

US online shoppers spend USD 534 million on Black Friday, up 1% as compared to 2007

Statistics indicate that US online spending during Black Friday hit USD $534 million in 2008, which represents a 1 percent increase as compared to the USD $531 million reported in the corresponding period of 2007.

For the first 28 days of the November - December 2008 period, online buyers have spent USD 10.41 billion, a decline of 4 percent over the same period of the previous year, when e-commerce spending reached USD 10.83 billion. During Thanksgiving Day, online sales have grown by 6 percent from USD 272 million in 2007 to USD 288 million in 2008.

Data released by internet marketing research company comScore reveals that the busiest part of Black Friday as far as online sales are concerned was the period between 12:00 hrs and 16:00 hrs, when the highest share of Black Friday online sales was recorded, namely 24 percent, while between 8:00 hrs and 12:00 hrs the share of money spent reached 23.1 percent.

UK Card Fraud 14 Times Higher Overseas

Fraud on UK cards 'higher overseas'

Fraud losses on UK credit and debit cards are 14 times higher overseas than they are in this country, a report claims.

The introduction of anti-fraud measures in the UK, such as chip and pin, has pushed card fraud into countries where the system has not yet been introduced and fraud protection is weaker. A similar pattern is being seen in other European countries, such as France and Spain, according to a report by industry consultant Peter Welch.

He said losses from overseas fraud accounted for 40% of total losses on UK credit and debit cards in 2007, rising to 43% in France and around half of all losses in Spain.

But he said because international card usage is much lower than domestic usage, overseas fraud losses are far higher as a proportion of the amount being spent, with international losses on UK cards actually 14 times higher than ones in this country relative to turnover.

Figures from payments group APACS show that card fraud rose by 25% in the UK to £535 million during 2007, despite the introduction of chip and Pin leading to a 67% fall in losses on the UK high street during the past three years to £73 million.

Counterfeit fraud rose by 46% last year to £144.3 million, mainly due to fraudsters copying UK cards and then using them abroad.

Mr Welch said card providers were also facing a growing threat from so-called card not present fraud, with the fraudulent use of credit and debit cards to buy items over the internet, telephone or by post accounting for three-quarters of domestic losses in the UK in 2007, compared with only around a third in 2004.

Overall, credit and debit card fraud losses in the UK are far higher than in France and Spain at 0.094% of card turnover in 2007, nearly twice as high as France's 0.049% and almost four times greater than Spain's 0.024%.

The higher losses in the UK are likely to reflect the fact that more cards are in issue in this country and there is also a greater use of credit cards.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

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