electronic transaction

As the flow of Chinese tourists into South Korea is rapidly increasing enthusiastic purchase of Korean products has resulted in a surge in the use of China’s dominant China UnionPay credit card in Korea.

As reported by BC Card who shares its payment network with China UnionPay142.1 billion won ($120.79 million) was charged to the Chinese credit cards between January to July, an increase of 163 percent from a year ago.

Visa announced that its social media network dubbed as the Visa Business Network (www.VisaBusinessNetwork.com) has been significantly enhanced and now small business owners can easily interact with peers in a collaborative way allowing them to get personalized help on goals ranging from growing their customer base to managing their business.

Sage North America announced the launch of its new mobile tool Sage Payment Boss which enables small businesses to accept payments made by credit card anytime from anywhere with just a 3G enabled phone and a merchant account.

Using Sage Payment Boss small businesses can choose Sage Payment Solutions or another merchant account provider, and all payments are verified on the spot, ensuring that small businesses get paid immediately. Once the transaction is complete a payee is sent an e-receipt.

A global provider of financial services solutions Fiserv Inc announced that The Westpac Group has selected online consumer, business banking and corporate services from Fiserv to power the bank’s Online Transformation Program. Westpac has chosen Corillian® Online and Voyager® banking solutions from Fiserv to serve retail banking customers, small and medium-sized businesses, and corporate customers across its unique brands.

A merchant-led trade association focused on ecommerce and epayments around the world the Merchant Risk Council (MRC) announced the newly created European Advisory Board that will expand MRC’s ambition to make ecommerce more efficient, safe and profitable in the European merchant community.

The advisory board consists of the European industry leaders who are committed to spearheading networking, education, benchmarking and advocacy programs dedicated to making electronic commerce more efficient, safe and profitable. The MRC European Advisory Board consists of:

Global Payments Inc., a leading provider of electronic transaction processing solutions, announced today that HSBC Merchant Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Global Payments located in the United Kingdom, has been appointed as the preferred supplier of card processing solutions to the 7,000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that make up the newly merged BHF-BSSA Group Trade Association.

 Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, today announces it is delivering national ID cards to Kuwait, as part of the government program commissioned by the country’s Public Authority For Civil Information. Al-Kharafi, an international private Kuwait-based company, is prime contractor for this nationwide program. The agreement appoints Gemalto to deliver electronic multi-application ID cards for citizens embedding contact and contactless smart card technologies, as well as plastic cards for foreign residents that implement highly secure printing features.

 SmartCard Marketing Systems Inc. reported that its Prepaid Card loading, Pin Debit and Bill Payment processing volume increased 407% for the month of August 2009 as compared to the same period last year.

The company says that its processing volume declined if compared with record highs in the first half of the year, but still the number of transactions climbed up by 370% from the same month compared to last year.

Paymark reports that New Zealanders are continuing to purchase with EFTPOS rather than rely on credit cards. Debit card use was up 7.8 % per annum for the month of May while credit card use remained flat at just 0.4 % rise. Paymark CEO, Simon Tong, commented that it was positive to see people were still choosing to spend money they already had in the bank, a trend that emerged earlier in the year, rather than racking up credit card debt during tougher economic times.

VeriFone Holdings, Inc., a global leader in secure electronic transaction solutions, today exhibited the breadth of its payment and management solutions for public transportation at the Mobility & City Transport Exhibition of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) World Congress and Exhibition here.