ATM & Debit News articles from April 2004

ATM & Debit News archives from April 2004

McDonald's To Dump Speedpass.
April 1, 2004... Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's Corp. will discontinue as of June 30 a Chicago-area test begun in 2000 in which some 440 restaurants have accepted ExxonMobil Corp.'s Speedpasses for payment, according to ExxonMobil. When a Speedpass is waved...

U.S. Wireless To Sell Its Assets.
April 1, 2004... U.S. Wireless Data Inc., which recently sold its Synapse POS gateway business to NBS Technologies Inc. to focus on payment card acceptance at vending machines, has filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. The New York-based company,...

Consumers In 2003 Spent $40 Billion On Prepaid Gift Cards.
April 1, 2004... Consumers last year loaded $40 billion onto prepaid gift cards, many of which were offered by merchants at their stores to encourage repeat visits. In the future, more and more merchants and other issuers will form partnerships with third...

Vendors Combat Fraud With New Software Offers.
April 1, 2004... Identify theft and electronic payment fraud are on the rise, as are consumers' concerns. The latest scam involves "phishing," in which fraudsters use e-mails that link to fake Web sites to lure consumers into providing such sensitive...

Can Offline Debit Also Dominate Payroll Cards? The Verdict Is Still Out.
April 1, 2004... Financial institutions have gained handsome revenues over the years from the interchange generated from customer use of signature-based [offline] debit cards. And while offline debit cards are making inroads in the burgeoning prepaid card...

Debit Fraud Detectors.
April 1, 2004... Company And Products: Fair Isaac Falcon Fraud Predictor and Merchant Profiler Card Alert ACI Worldwide Proactive Risk Manager Source: Fair Isaac, ACI Worldwide. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights...

NYCE Deal To Let Canadians Use Debit Cards In U.S.
April 1, 2004... Participating Canadian issuers' customers this fall will be able to shop with their debit cards in the U.S. under an agreement announced today signed by NYCE Corp. and Acxsys Corp., whose eight shareholding financial institutions developed...

Payroll/Benefit Card Market.
April 1, 2004... Average Payroll: $900* Average Benefit: $300* Market: 13.5 million unbanked workers Market Limitation: Use of direct deposit Source: Financial Insights-IDC. *Per month. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights...

EFunds Extends Co-op Contract.
April 1, 2004... EFunds Corp., the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based transaction processor and ATM operator, will continue its contractual relationship to provide members of the Ontario, Calif.-based Co-op network of credit unions surcharge-free access to the 7,000...

MoneyPass Adds More ATMs.
April 1, 2004... Genpass Inc. has signed a deal with Mapco Express for Union Planters Bank-branded ATMs deployed in 60 of the Irving, Texas-base company's convenience stores and six family centers to join Genpass' MoneyPass surcharge-free network. The deal will...

Wal-Mart Hit With Card Glitch.
April 8, 2004... Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data Corp. says a computer-hardware glitch led to double and triple billing of 800,000 credit and debit card transactions at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. First Data Merchant Services, which processes card...

Star Wins Two, Loses One.
April 8, 2004... First Data Corp.'s Star network won two contract renewals this week but lost a financial institution to Visa USA. Cleveland-based KeyBank Corp. says it will continue using Star as the preferred network switch for its 2,200 ATMs and more than 3...

Some Issuers Make Cardholder Choice A Debit Strategy.
April 8, 2004... Financial institutions, seeking to secure the most revenue from their customers' debit card purchases, have implemented over the past few years strategies ranging from PIN-usage fees to rewards programs to encourage cardholders to use their...

Time Runs Out For Food Stamps In An EBT World.
April 8, 2004... In the early 1990s, government-entitlement programs were delivered via paper food stamps and cash-assistance checks. But now, with PIN-based electronic benefits transfer debit cards on the verge of replacing all paper food coupons, the...

ATM Imaging May Boost Efficiency, But Fraud Controls To Remain In Place.
April 8, 2004... Making images of checks deposited at ATMs and electronically exchanging those images for posting and settlement will not eliminate ATM deposit fraud. But the fraud-control measures needed for imaging ATMs may soon cost less and take less time...

Vendor To Enable Web Payments For Canadian Debit.
April 8, 2004... CertaPay Inc., Canada's person-to-person Internet payment system, is working on a service that will enable consumers to use their debit cards to pay for purchases on the Web. CertaPay, which is owned by Canada's big financial institutions, says...

TWS At A Glance.
April 8, 2004... Headquarters: Clearwater, Fla. Core Business: ATM Deposit Software Bank Clients: National City, PNC, TCF, ABN AMRO Source: TWS Systems. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com...

Key EBT Statistics.
April 8, 2004... Monthly Participants 21.3 million Monthly Households 9.2 million Source: USDA Food & Nutrition Service. Food-assistance benefits only. Figures based on monthly averages. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights...

7-Eleven Chooses CashWorks.
April 8, 2004... 7-Eleven Stores Inc. is replacing Certegy Inc. with CashWorks Inc. to provide check-cashing services for 1,000 of its Vcom multifunction ATMs. CashWorks and 7-Eleven are based in Dallas. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. CashWorks will...

Bank One Signs With Allpoint.
April 8, 2004... Chicago-based Bank One Corp. has signed up with the Bethesda, Md.-based Allpoint surcharge-free ATM network for use by holders of the bank's prepaid Visa Direct card. The card is used for payroll disbursements and as a payment vehicle for...

Jack Henry To Buy E-Classic.
April 15, 2004... Jack Henry & Associates Inc., a Monett, Mo.-based debit card transaction processor and software provider for financial institutions, has agreed to buy e-ClassicSystems Inc. E-ClassicSystems is a major provider of software products that manage...

Allpoint Gains JP Morgan.
April 15, 2004... Another major financial institution has signed up the Bethesda, Md.-based Allpoint surcharge-free ATM network. New York City-based JP Morgan Treasury Services, a division of JP Morgan Chase & Co., will use Allpoint to give payroll card...

Surcharge-Free ATMs Are Part Of RBC's U.S. Strategy.
April 15, 2004... Another major Canadian bank, Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada, is tying its entry into the U.S. banking market in part to widespread customer access to surcharge-free ATMs. The move comes despite Toronto-based Canadian Imperial Bank of...

Retailers Unhappy With Non-Merchant 'Gift Card' Growth.
April 15, 2004... The National Retail Federation, which represents the nation's merchants, wants members of Visa USA and MasterCard International to comply with the same escheatment and other state rules for prepaid gift cards that apply to merchant gift cards....

MasterCard Audits Sites, Performance As It Prepares For A Maestro Push.
April 15, 2004... MasterCard International, which in 2003 completed an audit of the number of U.S. merchant locations that accept its PIN-based Maestro debit cards, this year is reviewing the performance of those sites. MasterCard says it intends to use positive...

RBC Centura At A Glance.
April 15, 2004... Owner: Royal Bank Of Canada ATMs: 300 Market: Florida, Georgia Debit Cards: 300,000 Source: RBC Centura Bank. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.cardforum.com

U.S. ISOs, Off-Premise ATM Maker Establish A Beachhead In Britain.
April 15, 2004... The business of independently operating ATMs essentially is a U.S. creation that began in the mid-1990s, when bans on assessing surcharges on individuals who use ATMs were lifted. Now, several U.S. independent sales organizations are parlaying...

Top U.K. ATM ISOs.
April 15, 2004... Company ATMs Hanco: 4,000 TRM: 2,600 MoneyBox: 2,500 Source: Retail Banking and ATM&Debit News. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com...

Star Supports ATM Graphics.
April 15, 2004... First Data Corp.'s Star Systems is debuting its remote delivery of ATM graphics and other content through a new service using Internet-Protocol based communications. Star says Pittsburgh-based PNC Corp. is using the service to deliver...

NCR Expects A Better Year.
April 15, 2004... NCR Corp. is raising its expected earnings for 2004 to $1.10 to $1.15 per share, according to guidance issued prior to the April 29 release of NCR's first-quarter earning report. According to the firm's guidance, NCR, the Dayton, Ohio-based ATM...

Pulse Volume Still Rising.
April 22, 2004... The Pulse EFT Association says its first-quarter transaction volume rose 35%, to 353.3 million transactions from 262.4 million during the same period last year. The totals include all debit transactions, including gateway volume, processed by...

Visa, Wal-Mart Deal Details Told.
April 22, 2004... Citing unnamed sources, an April 15 Morgan Stanley report says Wal-Mart Stores Inc. negotiated a deal with Visa USA in which the retailer is paying issuers the same interchange rate for signature-based Visa check card purchases as it does for...

Visa's Debit Sales Exceed Credit.
April 22, 2004... Visa International's global debit sales volume for the first time has surpassed its credit sales volume. The association April 20 said global Visa debit card sales volume reached $1.48 trillion in 2003, up 17% from 2002's total, while Visa...

Star Sees Windows Opening For Its New ATM Service.
April 22, 2004... Nearly every ATM maker these days is marketing machines that use Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. Though Windows still is used on only a small fraction of the 380,000 ATMs deployed in the U.S., the nation's leading electronic funds...

Palm Desert Bank Seeing Growth In Cash Management.
April 22, 2004... Stores that stock their own ATMs using their own cash pay relatively little in cash-management expenses. For other off-premise ATM operators, though, cutting cash-supply expenses appears to be a growing priority. Palm Desert (Calif.)...

Processors, Terminal Manufacturers Could Cut Costs By Cutting Wires.
April 22, 2004... Efforts to broaden personal-computer access to the Internet using wireless broadband telecommunications likely will have positive cost implications for processors and other suppliers of point-of-sale terminals. As such suppliers of broadband...

Issuer Is Giving 'Rewards' To Charities.
April 22, 2004... For debit cardholders, issuers are finding, giving can be just as rewarding as receiving. Cleveland-based Charter One Financial Inc. last week announced the launch of a debit card affinity program called Make-A-Difference MasterCard. As an...

Palm Desert Bank At A Glance.
April 22, 2004... Headquarters: Palm Desert, Calif. ATM Business: Cash Management ATMs Serviced: 12,000 ATM Vault Cash: $400 million Source: Palm Desert Bank. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved....

SEC Clears Base24 Company.
April 22, 2004... Transaction Systems Architects, parent of ACI Worldwide, producer of Base24 transaction-authorization software, says the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission no longer is investigating the Omaha, Neb.-based company, and the agency will not...

First Data Buys Cashcard.
April 22, 2004... First Data Corp. has completed the purchase of processor Cashcard Australia Ltd. for an undisclosed price. Combined with First Data's existing Australian operations, the companies say they will process annually more than 1 billion...

MasterCard Expands PayPass.
April 29, 2004... MasterCard International has expanded its contactless PayPass radio frequency identification payment system into lower Manhattan with members Citigroup Inc. and JP Morgan Chase & Co., says Gerald Hubbard, MasterCard vice president. Both banks...

FDC's Card Revenue Up 4%.
April 29, 2004... First Data Corp.'s Card Issuing Services unit reported first-quarter revenues of $558 million, up 4% from $534 million in 2003's first quarter. The unit also had a $97.9 million operating profit, up 31% from $75 million. At the end of March,...

Processor Questions First Data's Goals In NYCE Bid Process.
April 29, 2004... The sale of Montvale, N.J.-based NYCE, the nation's second-largest PIN-based debit network, probably will not be completed until late summer. But the bidding process already is generating some heat. At least one bidder has a concern over...

Consolidation Slows Among Top ATM ISOs.
April 29, 2004... Consolidation among large ATM independent sales organizations has slowed, as the companies have been working to shore up finances and to grapple with impending new ATM requirements. Merger activity involving mid-size ISOs, though, remains...

Debitman Hopes To Boost Issuance By Rewarding Processors, Resellers.
April 29, 2004... Merchant-friendly Debitman Card Inc., which slowly but steadily has increased the number of merchants accepting its branded debit cards since the network began just over a year ago, last week launched a multi-pronged strategy aimed at...

Top 10 U.S. ATM ISOs 2004.
April 29, 2004... ATMs Company 2004 2003 1. EFunds 17,200 15,700 2. E*Trade 15,000 15,000 3. Cardtronics 12,500 11,000 4. NetBank ...

Free IFX Publication Helps Developers with New Standards.
April 29, 2004... Electronic funds transfer transaction software improvements usually come with a cost. But a new, 400-page guide that explains a new set of ATM and point-of-sale inter-terminal messaging protocols is now available for free. Called the...

Key Players At Debitman.
April 29, 2004... John Lannan, board chairman and CEO. Responsible for strategic direction and company performance. R. Scott Hatfield, president and COO. Responsible for daily activities, including sales, marketing, technology, accounting and...

Health Debit Card Companies Disagree Over Who Added New Functions First.
April 29, 2004... Two leading providers of debit cards designed to reduce the amount of paper tied to health care spending have followed up on recent Internal Revenue Service guidelines to upgrade their programs to take even more paper out of the system. The...

Key MBI, Evolution Facts.
April 29, 2004... Evolution MBI Benefits Debit cards: 900,000 600,000 Issuers: KeyBank, BankFirst, Zions Bank Wells Fargo Source: Medibank Inc., Evolution Benefits Inc. ...

Diebold Net Income Rises 13%.
April 29, 2004... Diebold Inc., a leading ATM manufacturer based in North Canton, Ohio, says its net income during the first quarter ended March 30 rose 13%, to $29.2 million from $25.9 million in the first quarter of 2003. First-quarter revenues increased 21%,...