ATM & Debit News articles from February 2006

ATM & Debit News archives from February 2006

Co-Op Ends TRM ATM Deal.
February 2, 2006... The Co-Op Network of credit unions said Tuesday it has notified TRM Corp. it will no longer incorporate 5,000 of TRM's ATMs into the network's surcharge-free ATM network for its members. Excluding TRM ATMs will shave the number of...

Debitman Gains Two Grocers.
February 2, 2006... Two supermarket chains, Binghamton Giant Markets Inc. and HAC Inc., announced plans to issue PIN-debit cards on the Debitman network. Debitman is a merchant-based alternative to bankcards that uses the automated clearinghouse system to route...

NCR Pulls Ahead In Earnings, But ATM Sales Lag Behind.
February 2, 2006... ATM manufacturer NCR Corp. had a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter with higher profits, despite falling revenues. Meanwhile, NCR's number one competitor, Diebold Inc., took a hit in the fourth quarter, with earnings falling 76% compared to...

Prepaid Firms View State Rules As Looming Threat.
February 2, 2006... American Express Co. is drawing a line in the sand over AmEx-branded gift cards. AmEx is blacking out distribution of its AmEx-branded gift cards in states with the most restrictive regulations on network-branded, prepaid gift cards. ...

Cardtronics Buys Allpoint To Expand Revenue Stream Beyond Surcharging.
February 2, 2006... Cardtronics Inc., the largest independent operator of ATMs in the U.S., appears poised to move into new ATM revenue territory, beyond reliance on surcharge revenue. Cardtronics' recent purchase of Allpoint, the largest surcharge-free ATM...

New/Pending Gift Card Rules*.
February 2, 2006... Arizona: Requires disclosure of expirations and fees Connecticut: Excludes gift cards from abandoned property laws Georgia: Requires detailed disclosures for gift cards Hawaii: Bans fees, requires two-year expiration dates ...

Spin-Off At First Data Excludes Star.
February 2, 2006... Among the assets that First Data Corp. plans to retain while it spins off it Western Union money-transfer business is its Star ATM and PIN-debit point-of-sale network. Star continues to show promise, Henry C. "Ric" Duques, First Data's chairman...

Deluxe: Fewer Checks In Use.
February 2, 2006... The fourth-quarter 2005 earnings from Deluxe Corp., the nation's largest check printer, is a good barometer of the decline in checks. Deluxe reports net income down 17%, to $39 million in the fourth quarter of 2005 compared to $47 million in...

MGM No Mirage For GCA.
February 2, 2006... Las Vegas-based independent service operator Global Cash Access Inc. has signed a multi-year contract with MGM Mirage Casino in Las Vegas to deploy more than 200 self-service QuickJack Plus kiosks offering cash-based slot ticket redemption. The...

MasterCard Volume Up 14%.
February 9, 2006... MasterCard International reported across-the-board growth in 2005. Cardholders worldwide used 749.3 million MasterCard-branded cards for 19.1 billion transactions. Purchase volume rose 14%, to about $1.18 trillion, with the U.S. generating $589...

Paur Stepping Down.
February 9, 2006... Stan Paur is stepping down as president and CEO of the Houston-based Pulse EFT Association network. Paur spent 23 years at Pulse and is one of the debit industry's most outspoken proponent of PIN-debit cards. Paur will become chairman of the...

Consumers Use Credit Less.
February 9, 2006... Consumers are using their credit cards less and their debit cards more, according to the 2005/2006 Study of Consumer Payment Preferences from the American Bankers Association. Consumers used their credit cards for 19% of in-store payments in...

Florida Next To Allow ATM Fees On Foreign Cards.
February 9, 2006... If J. Michael Brown has his way, Florida will soon join 14 other states that allow ATM deployers to surcharge non-domestic debit cardholders. Brown, president and CEO of New Orleans-based independent sales operator Innovus Inc., is backing...

Lobbying For Prepaid Firms Is In The Cards.
February 9, 2006... For every growing industry, groups usually form to promote that industry's interests. Such is the case with those who view the growing use of bank-issued, prepaid debit cards as a replacement for cash and checks and a potential new revenue...

New Study Shows UK Consumer Uncertainty Surrounding Surcharges.
February 9, 2006... While fees for using ATMs have been allowed in the United Kingdom for six years, a recent survey shows ATM users in the country are still confused when it comes to telling the difference between machines that charge and ones that are free. ...

Debit Suit: Is Uncle Sam A 'Person?'.
February 9, 2006... The United States government may be one of the nation's largest acquirers of debit transactions. But it is uncertain whether the government has a right to some of the $3.05 billion merchants won as part of the settlement of a lawsuit over...

Jack Henry Shows Gains.
February 9, 2006... Jack Henry & Associates Inc., a provider of debit card and ATM processing and ATM software, reported last week an 8% increase in its second-quarter fiscal 2006 revenues to $147.4 million from $136 million for the same period last year. Net...

Credit Union 24 Volume Up.
February 9, 2006... The Credit Union 24 Network reports record monthly transaction volume of 18 million transactions routed through the EFT network in December 2005, an increase of 23% from December 2004. (c) 2006 ATM&Debit News and SourceMedia, Inc. All...

MasterCard To Lower Fees.
February 16, 2006... MasterCard International says it will lower processing fees for European debit transactions starting this spring and will put in place a uniform interchange structure for the euro zone beginning in 2008. Merchants pay an interchange fee to...

Prepaid Olympic Cards In Store.
February 16, 2006... Bank of America and Visa USA, sponsor of the United States Olympic team for the 2006 Olympic games in Turin, Italy, announced the creation of a Visa-branded prepaid debit card. The prepaid card features the image of a flag bearing the Olympic...

Pulse Turns Another Page In Network Story.
February 16, 2006... In 1985, the Pulse EFT network mark was on 5 million ATM cards. The network switched about 8.2 million ATM transactions a month at the time, according to the 1985 EFT Data Book of ATM&Debit News' predecessor, Bank Network News. There were no...

Discover Debit Challenges Visa, MasterCard.
February 16, 2006... Master Card International and Visa USA today remain the only signature-based debit brand for issuers. But that could soon change. Discover Financial Services LLC is making good on its promise to create a signature-based debit card to...

Co-Op Increases ATM Interchange, But Only For Retail Operators.
February 16, 2006... The cost for credit unions to have fee-free access to nonbank ATMs is going up for Co-Op Network members. The Co-Op, as of May 1, will increase interchange rates paid to nonbank ATM operators to 70 cents from 60 cents per ATM withdrawal....

AFFN, MasterCard Join Forces.
February 16, 2006... The Armed Forces Financial Network, or AFFN, and MasterCard International are forging closer network ties. U.S. troops deployed around the world and their families back home, can use their AFFN-branded debit cards to access MasterCard's...

NYCE Gains Two Issuers.
February 16, 2006... NYCE Corp. announced that the mid-Atlantic financial institutions Provident Bank and WSFS Bank have joined as members, bringing a combined 350,000 cardholders and more than 240 ATMs to the debit network. NYCE is a subsidiary of Milwaukee-based...

Heartland Acquires Debitek.
February 16, 2006... Merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has purchased Debitek from France-based terminal manufacturer Ingenico. Heartland says the acquisition positions it to handle prepaid transactions. (c) 2006 ATM&Debit News and SourceMedia,...

ATM Fraud Fines Cost Banks.
February 23, 2006... ATMs are an attractive tool for fraudsters and potentially costly for ATM owners who don't promptly report criminal activity at their machines, said Ken Sullivan, New York State Police investigator, in a presentation last week at the ATMIA...

Selander Illness Delays IPO.
February 23, 2006... MasterCard International President and CEO Robert W. Selander last week underwent surgery for early-stage prostate cancer, MasterCard disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Selander's doctor has ordered him to recover at...

Debit Making Tax Payments Less Painful.
February 23, 2006... The use of debit cards to pay taxes has not quite caught up with the more traditional paper checks and even credit cards. But rewards and rebates this year are favoring the use of debit on a number of fronts, primarily to encourage the use of...

No Turning Back For Red Cross Relief Cards.
February 23, 2006... The American Red Cross is brushing aside reports of casino gambling, liquor purchases and luxury shopping sprees using its emergency debit cards. The Red Cross is not going back to the old system of supplying emergency relief via handouts of...

Russell Simmons On A Campaign To Remake Image Of Prepaid Cards.
February 23, 2006... Hip-hop music artist Russell Simmons, now as much a fashion and entertainment mogul as a songwriter, is taking aim at the banking industry. Simmons, in a keynote speech last week at the Prepaid Card Expo in Orlando, Fla., said traditional banks...

Link2Gov Goes Fishing For Payments.
February 23, 2006... A potential transaction processing market worth $3 trillion is not likely to all wind up as debit card payments flowing through the Web. But Nashville, Tenn.-based Link2Gov hopes a good deal of it will. Link2gov is a processor specializing...

EFunds In Transition.
February 23, 2006... EFunds Corp. reported a 9% drop in revenue in 2005, to $501.7 million, from $552.1 million in 2004. The revenue decline was expected and mainly due to eFunds' sell-off of its off-premise ATM division in 2004. EFunds' purchase of Wildcard...

Cardtronics Earnings Off.
February 23, 2006... The Cardtronics Inc. ATM independent sales organization announced its revenues increased 12.6% to $69.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2005. The firm saw a net loss for the fourth quarter of 2005 of about $0.9 million, compared to net income...