European Commission To Scrutinize UK Mobile Commerce Venture

A European mobile wallet venture led by telecommunications operators has run into a setback.

It's called "Project Oscar" in Europe, but unlike the Isis telco-led mobile wallet partnership in the U.S., the overseas telco joint venture for creating a mobile wallet and a general clearinghouse for mobile payments must gain European regulators' approval in order to move ahead.

European Commission on April 16 announced plans to conduct an in-depth investigation of the joint project proposed last June by Telefónica UK, Everything Everywhere Ltd. (T-Mobile and Orange parent), and Vodafone UK. Read More >>

Acquirers Anticipate Merchant Ire From New Fee

The reality of Visa Inc.'s new Fixed Acquirer Network Fee will begin to sink in with merchants when their next monthly statements arrive, and most will not greet the new levy warmly, observers warn.

"Merchants are struggling to cut corners, and here we are with another fee," laments Ray Kenney, director of ISO partnerships at Cherry Hill, N.J.-based 1stPayGateway.Net.

The fee, which took effect April 1, may push some merchants to the "tipping point" of deciding to stop accepting Visa cards and seek other means of payment, Rod Katzfey, chief operating officer of Payleap LLC, a Warsaw, Ind.-based payments gateway, speculates. Read More >>

U.S. May Benefit From Europe's Fraud-Blocking Progress

When the U.S. broadly adopts chip-enabled payment cards, it is less likely a drastic increase in card-not-present fraud will occur like the spike Europe experienced after its conversion to the EMV card standard, an analyst tells PaymentsSource.

Certain regions of Europe, including the United Kingdom, saw a sharp increase in card-not-present fraud several years ago when EMV mandates forced issuers and merchants to adopt chip-and-PIN technology for point-of-sale transactions. Read More >>

PayDragon Brings Mobile Payment App To Food-Truck Vendors

PayDragon wants to simplify some of the hassles of collecting payments for time-pressed food-truck vendors and other small merchants.

The Los Angeles-based firm, a unit of mobile marketer Paperlinks, touts a speedy technology enabling consumers to securely order and pay for food with credit and debit cards via email, eliminating steps for merchants. Read More >>

Android Expansion Erases Limitation In Orange Mobile Pay Plan

When French mobile-network provider Orange hooked up with Barclaycard to offer Quick Tap mobile payment technology in the United Kingdom last spring, it had only one downside — a lack of handsets capable of using the new technology.

Orange's deal with Barclaycard through Orange parent Everything Everywhere Ltd. initially provided the mobile payment option only through Samsung Group handsets. Read More >>

Citi Offers 'Pay in Your Currency' Service in Philippines

Citi Philippines, a unit of Citigroup Inc., is working with Planet Payment to provide the currency processor's services to Citi's merchant clients in the Philippines.

Citi is offering Planet Payment's Pay in Your Currency Service, which allows travelers to pay in their home currency at the point of sale. The receipt displays the sale amount in Philippine Pesos and the customer's home currency. The receipt also lists other details, such as the exchange rate. Read More >>

ATM Vigilantes Strike Seattle Credit Union

An angry ATM customer who has been suing banks across the country the past three years over fee disclosures has struck again, filing suit April 12 against Seattle's Bellingham's North Coast Credit Union for allegedly failing to post on the outside of the machine fees charged to noncustomers.

The ATM customer, a New Yorker named Don Anderson, thus so far sued 32 credit unions and banks in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Nevada over the disclosure provisions of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, but last week's suit is the first West Coast institution targeted. Read More >>

ACH Payment Volume Rose 4% Last Year, NACHA Says

In 2011, automated clearinghouse payment volume totaled more than 20.2 billion transactions, up 4.4% from a year earlier, NACHA reported April 12.

NACHA attributed the increase to additional native electronic payments, more online payments by consumers and a rise in the use of the ACH network for vendor payments and business-to-business transactions. Read More >>