According to Strategic Management Partners, the overall cost per transaction of processing pricing did not decrease in 2004. While some high volume line items such as POS Authorizations did show a decrease from 2003 levels, the overall cost per transaction did not decrease due to add-on products offered by processors and the increase in manual line items. The study focused on the direct costs of high volume processing services Financial Institutions and ISO’s pay to third-party processing companies.
    In its annual benchmark study, SMP surveyed more than 20 of the largest U.S. acquirers representing a total of nearly 200 million monthly transactions. Financial institutions and ISOs also participated in the study.
    The report found a tremendous gap in what respondents pay for sponsorship. Fees were spread in a range of more than 4.5 cents a transaction– almost 20 times lower than the high cost point. While the cost per transaction did generally trend with the size of the portfolio, some mid-sized portfolios reported a lower cost than portfolios three to four times their size.
    The cost of BIN clearing has been expected to rise due to the increase in scrutiny.

    Other study highlights:

• Size still matters; the largest size portfolios have a 60% price advantage on the small portfolios for POS authorizations and a 70% price advantage on the total front-end authorization cost per transaction.
• In real terms, the large portfolio players have as much as a 10-cent (85%) cost advantage per front-end transaction.
• The relative cost to scale difference in the back-end processing area was less extreme. Here large portfolios had only a 1.5-cent price advantage on settled tickets, or a 47 percent price advantage on this key line item cost.
• However, for the total back-end settlement transaction, the large players had a 60 percent cost advantage vs. small acquirers.
• The file maintenance fee is increasingly being used as a “bundled” line item, with other functions being included in its price. We also found that a low ticket fee can sometimes translate into a higher on-file fee.
• Prices did not decrease as much as intuitively predicted, however the study found some downward trend in automated line items and some upward price movement in more labor intensive items.
• New products and services are being introduced by processors that are increasing the overall “bottom of the invoice” cost per transaction.
• When reviewing line item costs it is obvious that the mega processors tend to unbundle pricing while the smaller processors tend to bundle their costs. However, that pricing strategy does not appear to affect the overall bottom line cost. Interestingly, it has been demonstrated that unbundled pricing does not offer a price advantage to bundled pricing strategies.

    Electracash, Inc. recently introduced a new partnership facilitating eChecks for business payments. Aligning with 2ndSite, the partnership targets the Internet business payments arena by facilitating the acceptance and usage of eChecks for businesses conducting online trade with other businesses.
    Using eCheck processing directly via the Internet instead of paying by paper check speeds payments between businesses. Business-to-business payments over the ACH Network have grown to over two billion annually, following the growth that consumer-to-business eChecks enjoy.
    Visa has unveiled multiple monitoring tools that will allow the company to monitor the “health” of various payment streams through graphical displays that translate complex technical details into a real-time picture of Visa’s global payment infrastructure.
    The tools, called Visa Service Views, allow Visa to track every transaction running through VisaNet in real time.

    VeriFone, Inc., has completed the acquisition of the assets of GO Software from Return On Investment Corporation. The GO Software acquisition expands VeriFone's electronic payment transactions and value-added services offerings with PC- and server-based solutions, including PC Charge and RiTA Server. The PC-based POS payment processing software has an installed base of 150,000 businesses.

    Speedpass Network, a venture of Exxon Mobil Corporation, has renewed its relationship with First Data for customer processing services.
    Under the terms of the agreement, First Data will continue to provide the behind-the-scenes database processing. First Data will also provide Speedpass Network with Web hosting services.

    Lipman Electronic Engineering Ltd. has received orders totaling $7 million from banks and other customers in the Turkish market. These orders, for Lipman’s NURIT 8320 landline and NURIT 8010 wireless terminals, were expected to be supplied in full during the first quarter of 2005.
    Lipman also said that following the successful completion of a pilot project, its Italian subsidiary, Lipman Italia S.r.l., has received an order for its NURIT 8320 Landline POS terminals from EasyNolo s.p.a., a member of Gruppo Banca Sella. Lipman expects to supply this order through the end of the first quarter of 2005, with additional shipments expected throughout the year. In addition to the NURIT 8320 Landline terminals, Lipman expects to begin supplying EasyNolo with wireless and Ethernet-based products from its NURIT family later this year.
    EasyNolo is engaged in the sale, service and support of electronic payment solutions including POS terminals and related applications, within Gruppo Banca Sella.

    IRN Payment Systems has teamed up with WAY Systems Inc, to offer a mobile (POS) solution. WAY Systems, Inc., provides mobile payment transaction solutions that transform low-cost GSM mobile phones into secure wireless POS terminals using standard General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) networks. The handheld device, known as the Mobile Transaction Terminal (MTT), enables merchants to accept card payments virtually anywhere, anytime.
    WAY Systems MTT terminals target mobile merchants worldwide who historically were unable to process secure real-time transactions because of the lack of or high cost of telephone lines or insufficient wireless coverage.

    New Edge Networks has established an interconnection agreement with national electronic payment processor Paymentech. Under terms of the agreement, New Edge Networks will create and maintain redundant high-speed connections directly to Paymentech for secure card transactions over a private network.
    New Edge Networks has also reached an interconnection agreement with Chockstone Inc. allowing the national gift and loyalty card provider to extend broadband networking capability and electronic card-based programs to multi-unit restaurant chains.
    The agreement enables restaurateurs to introduce new electronic gift and loyalty card programs that offer real-time analytics-based promotions at the point of sale. It also allows merchants to cut by two-thirds the time to process card transactions over standard dial-up telephone lines.

    SMART System Technologies has appointed Dexit Inc. as its preferred supplier of prepaid functionality for everyday purchases in the United States. Likewise, Dexit has appointed SST as its preferred supplier to offer SST loyalty and reward services in Canada.

    RBS Lynk, has signed Hospitality Control Solutions (HCS) as the newest member of OneLynk Alliance, RBS Lynk's value-added reseller program.
    As part of the OneLynk Alliance, Hospitality Control Solutions will offer RBS Lynk's payment processing services to their customers.
    HCS, a leading provider of Aloha restaurant systems across the state of Tennessee, provides Windows-based (POS) solutions to a growing list of regional restaurant clients.

    Comerxia has implemented E4X Inc.’s solutions to help merchants increase international sales by displaying prices in their global shoppers’ currencies.
    Comerxia clients, including Wal Mart, Overstock.com, CosmeticMall.com, Luxottica.com and RitzCamera.com will now be to enable global customers to shop and pay in their local currency, knowing exactly what their final charge will be. At the same time E4X guarantees the amount merchants receive in their preferred currency, eliminating foreign exchange fluctuation risks.

    TPI Software LLC’s new SmartPayments software plug-in will now integrate data with Intuit’s QuickBooks software products. SmartPayments provides an electronic payment alternative that allows small businesses to use their existing merchant service provider or shop for competitive rates.

    Transaction Network Services Inc. has entered into a two-year contract with Cedecra Group under which Cedecra will outsource the end-to-end transmission of its transactional data to TNS in Italy.
    TNS has also expanded into the Japanese retail POS market through a five-year deal with Japan Card Network (CARDNET), one of Japan's leading credit card authorization and processing services.
    TNS will transport dial-up transactions from terminals in retail outlets enabling CARDNET to accommodate expanding credit and debit card transaction volumes, which have risen considerably since the company was established in 1995.

    Precidia Technologies’ POSLynx retail router recently achieved Class B certification with Global Payments’ GlobalNet @dvantage SSL gateway, which provides a direct Internet connection to Global’s East Host card authorization center
    The transactions will be transported from CARDNET terminals across Japan to CARDNET's server at its headquarters in Tokyo. TNS' secure and private network will route transactions that CARDNET's network currently cannot process.

    AnyDATA Corp. and Precidia Technologies have partnered to offer wireless connectivity option for dial-based ATMs.
    Certified by 41 CDMA carriers globally, AnyDATA modems enable users to transmit data over wireless networks. Precidia’s CellDial converts dial ATM transactions to Internet Protocol and provides the necessary link to the EMIII modem via a simple cable connection.

    First Atlantic Commerce, Ltd. recently achieved gateway compatibility with osCommerce, an open source, on-line shopping eCommerce system.
    FAC provides multi-currency transaction processing services through cGate, a secure, card payment system, in addition to business solutions such as 3-D Secure Payer Authentication, acquirer consulting and risk management services.

    CashEdge recently launched TransferNow 2.0, the expanded and updated release of its inter-institution funds transfer product.
    New functionality includes online funds transfer to accounts owned by other people, as well as future-dated and recurring transfers. TransferNow 2.0 also features new automatic account ownership verification.