First Data Corp. has announced a suite of comprehensive merchant payment solutions.

First Data currently offers, directly and through its partners, multi-lane and specialty retailers, convenience stores, grocery stores and hypermarkets a breadth of services including debit, loyalty card, gift card, e-check conversion, electronic benefits transfers (EBT), fleet card, smart card and credit card processing services. First Data processes virtually any payment while leveraging the existing synergies between its services and subsidiaries, such as PayPoint, ValueLink and TeleCheck. These relationships enable First Data to launch the only comprehensive suite of point-of-sale (POS) solutions tailored to meet the specific payment requirements of retail merchants.

Declan McCullagh writes about his concerns with privacy involving RFID tags.

Don't get me wrong. RFID tags are, on the whole, a useful development and a compelling technology. They permit retailers to slim inventory levels and reduce theft, which one industry group estimates at $50 billion a year. With RFID tags providing economic efficiencies for businesses, consumers likely will end up with more choices and lower prices. Besides, wouldn't it be handy to grab a few items from store shelves and simply walk out, with the purchase automatically debited from your (hopefully secure) RFID'd credit card? The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store. That's the scenario that should raise alarms--and currently the RFID industry seems to be giving mixed signals about whether the tags will be disabled or left enabled by default.

Supermarket retailer Giant Eagle, Inc. and BillingZone, LP today announced that Giant Eagle is utilizing BillingZone's apConnect˙ service to receive, review and pay its invoices. BillingZone, an operating company of eONE Global, is a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) services and offers companies the convenience of receiving and paying their invoices through one convenient service.

Dell announced this morning that it is entering the retail point-of-sale systems market.

We're following our retail customers' requests to bring their stores the same high performance and low cost of ownership we've already brought to their corporate office and datacenters," ssaid Joe Marengi, senior vice president, Dell Americas. "Dell's POS offering is an illustration of how Dell's direct model, which provides customers with customized products and services, works well in retail, a market that requires a seamless integration of technology, software and services across multiple locations."

Visa Canada held a conference in Toronto this morning for top online retailers. In a press release, Visa Canada reported online sales using Visa during the 2002 holiday season increased 103 percent. Also announced were survey results indicating that consumers are still concerned about security when purchasing over the Internet -- and would welcome the increased security of a password registered with their bank tied to their account.

Retailers who want to fully take advantage of the growth of online sales and fuel future growth need to adopt new Internet technology that will increase consumer confidence and reduce fraud," Internet authority Jim Carroll told the conference. "Systems like Verified by Visa(C) will make merchants more competitive and help them unlock the 85 percent of Canadian credit card holders who are avoiding holiday Internet shopping, many because of security concerns." "While holiday online sales showed a solid increase," Carroll said, "we cannot take for granted year-to-year growth without a breakthrough in online security; Verified by Visa(C) is that breakthrough and 2003 is the year."

Simon Property Group announced this morning that sales of its new gift cards in 47 trial malls were up 30 per cent over gift certificate sales in 2001 during the month of December.

Simon partnered with Visa to pioneer the Simon Gift Card as part of its commitment to provide shoppers with new innovative products and offerings that further enhance the shopping experience. The new gift cards provide customers with the convenience of a payment card that utilizes the Visa processing network and is used with the ease of a check card. Shoppers can use the Simon Gift Card, a prepaid card, anywhere Visa is accepted, like the many stores and restaurants within Simon malls nationwide.