ATM & Debit News articles from January 2003

ATM & Debit News archives from January 2003

Debit Volumes Still Rising.
January 9, 2003... Holders of MasterCard International and Visa U.S.A.-branded debit cards in the U.S. initiated 5.92 billion signature-based purchases during the first nine months of 2002, up 23.3% from 4.8 billion during the same period a year earlier. The...

Sullivan Replaces Boerstler.
January 9, 2003... Fifth Third Bancorp's Fifth Third Bank has named Robert A. Sullivan executive vice president for its renamed Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions. Sullivan is replacing Barry L. Boerstler, who is retiring. Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions...

Comdata To Launch An All-In-One Option For Businesses.
January 9, 2003... Comdata Corp., a pioneer processor of payroll cards for the trucking industry and of merchant prepaid gift cards, wants to delve deeper into business' operations to bolster its processing volume. The Brentwood, Tenn.-based firm plans soon to...

Contactless Cards Are Making Inroads With Speed And Convenience Benefits.
January 9, 2003... Well-established in transit, contactless chip cards are making headway for general payment use. Visa International and MasterCard International both have contactless initiatives, hoping to open up new opportunities for credit and debit issuers....

Project Action Put On Hold While Funding Is Sought.
January 9, 2003... Signature-based debit and credit cards continue to demonstrate their resiliency against challengers trying to infiltrate the Internet payment industry. The latest program to make the list of Internet-payment endangered species is Project...

Issuers May Be Missing An Opportunity By Not Touting Card Use To Pay Bills.
January 9, 2003... Debit cards may dominate the growth of electronic transactions at the point of sale, but thus far they seldom are used to pay recurring bills. However, that could change if financial institutions more aggressively market the concept to...

How Consumers Pay 'E-Bills'.
January 9, 2003... Method Usage Automatic Debit 45% Credit Card 29% Online (Biller) 23% Debit Card 20% Online (Bank) 17% Source: Dove Consulting. Findings based on survey of 444...

Concord Makes Board Changes.
January 9, 2003... Ronald V. Congemi, president of Concord EFS Inc.'s Star electronic funds transfer network, has stepped down from Concord's board but will remain as an advisor to the board and retain his network executive post. Newly elected members to...

TSA Gets Re-Audit Extension.
January 9, 2003... Transaction Systems Architects Inc., parent of the ACI Worldwide supplier of Base24 transaction-authorization software, has received another extension, until Jan. 13, from the NASDAQ Stock Market Inc. to complete a re-audit for fiscal 2000 and...

MasterCard Raises Debit Rates.
January 16, 2003... MasterCard International on April 4 will raise the interchange rates merchant banks pay debit MasterCard issuers, even though its current rates already are higher than those for Visa check cards. The new Merit III rate for common electronically...

Co-op, Publix Strike Deal.
January 16, 2003... Ontario, Calif-based Co-op Network has formally signed an agreement with the Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix Supermarket chain, which owns about 800 ATMs in 741 Publix supermarkets, to provide surcharge-free access to the Publix ATMs by Co-op...

PIN Volume Beats Anemic Retail Sales During The Holidays.
January 16, 2003... The all-important holiday retail-sales season may have been a major disappointment for retailers as the shaky economy made consumers edgy about spending. But shoppers who opened their wallets last month used their PIN-based debit cards in...

Star Survey Shows Identity Theft A Growing Concern.
January 16, 2003... Before pleading guilty in July to committing identity fraud and being sentenced to four years in prison, Ruby Hayward was able to get eight Illinois driver's licenses. She used the licenses and five other forms of official identification from...

Both Sides In The Wal-Mart Litigation Make Their Cases Before A U.S. Judge.
January 16, 2003... The ball is now in U.S. District Judge John Gleeson's court, no pun intended. After hearing summary-judgment arguments on Jan. 10 from both sides in the merchant class-action antitrust lawsuit that challenges Visa U.S.A.'s and MasterCard...

Concord Outbids Co-op For Credit Union Network.
January 16, 2003... Ontario, Calif.-based Co-op Network is unlikely to be challenged as the nation's premier credit-union electronic funds transfer network. One reason is that there are few other credit union networks left to acquire. But there are some. And...

Holiday Season PIN Use.
January 16, 2003... Network 12/02 12/01 Change Star 286.2 227.7 25.8% Interlink 75.6 56.7 33.3% NYCE 49.9 39.0 28.0% Pulse 40.9 33.8 21.0% Total 452.6 357.2 26.7% Source: ATM&Debit News...

2 Networks Show ATM Volume Gains.
January 16, 2003... Electronic funds transfer networks, whose ATM-volume growth has been declining, experienced surprising transaction gains last month. The Montvale, N.J.-based NYCE network experienced a 7.7% increase in ATM transactions in December,...

MasterCard Picks Kansas City.
January 16, 2003... MasterCard International will build a new back-up processing facility in Kansas City, Mo., replacing its back-up facility in suburban New York. MasterCard estimates the new site, to employ 30 technical workers, to cost $50 million. The site is...

Paychex Switches To Visa.
January 16, 2003... Paychex Inc., which since 1996 has offered a MasterCard International-branded payroll card to clients, has switched to Visa U.S.A.'s payroll card program. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company has reissued 10,000 payroll cards with the Visa brand,...

Issuer Liability In Wal-Mart Case A Debatable Topic.
January 23, 2003... Unless U.S. District Judge John Gleeson rules in favor of Visa U.S.A.'s and MasterCard International's Jan. 10 request to dismiss the case, the 6-year-old Wal-Mart class-action antitrust lawsuit appears set to go to trial April 28 in...

Banks Now Viewing ATM ISOs As Fodder For Acquisition.
January 23, 2003... A number of ATM independent sales organizations have been snapped up over the past two years. Among the most aggressive buyers have been processors, including Scottsdale, Ariz.-based eFunds Corp. and Memphis, Tenn.-based Concord EFS Inc.,...

POS Payments Using Cell Phones Take On A Slow, Midwestern Approach.
January 23, 2003... When Tom Johnson opened a sushi restaurant recently, it took him months to secure high-speed Internet access. And the delay resulted in the restaurant having to use a traditional dial-up system to accommodate debit and credit card...

Bank One Tests Debit Rewards.
January 23, 2003... Chicago-based Bank One Corp., which offers the United Mileage Plus rewards credit card in conjunction with United Airlines Inc., is considering expanding the program to include the approximately 4.5 million holders of its signature-based Visa...

BofA Launches Mini Card.
January 23, 2003... Bank of America, which last October rolled out a miniature version of its credit card that fits on a key chain, on Jan. 21 announced the launch of a mini Visa check card. The bank plans to issue the 1.5-inch-by-2.5-inch signature-based debit...

Payroll Cards Need.
January 23, 2003... More Marketing, Study Data Show A growing number of U.S. financial institutions and third-party vendors have entered the payroll debit card market during the past few years. But most employers and potential card-using employees remain...

Innovus At A Glance.
January 23, 2003... Majority Owner: Joseph Canizaro, Chairman, First Bank & Trust ATM Portfolio: 4,200* Source: ATM&Debit News, Innovus. *Based on 2002 ATM&Debit News survey and includes the Momentum Cash System ISO acquired last week. Copyright c...

Euronet Sells U.K Subsidiary.
January 23, 2003... Euronet Worldwide Inc. Jan. 17 announced the sale of its United Kingdom subsidiary, Euronet Services Ltd., in a management-led buyout to Bridgepoint Capital Limited for $29.6 million. Bridgepoint, a London-based private-equity firm, will...

NCR Cites Income Dip.
January 23, 2003... ATM maker NCR Corp. says a $43 million charge sparked by real-estate consolidation and so-called "re- engineering" efforts to improve future profitability will cause operating income for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 to fall between $75...

Visa Debit Rates Unchanged.
January 30, 2003... Visa U.S.A. in April plans to increase some credit card interchange rates but will leave as is its current rates applied to Visa check card purchases. These rate changes come after MasterCard announced its own rate adjustments that include rate...

BofA Expands Its ATM Brand.
January 30, 2003... Bank of America is expanding its ATM relationship with the Valero Energy Corp., which owns 4,200 convenience-store outlets. BofA will operate and brand 1,100 Valero-owned ATMs and provide software to enable the ATMs to support multiple...

Purchases Top ATM Use, But Poll Results Differ By How Much.
January 30, 2003... U.S. debit cardholders not only are using their cards more, but they also are using them to initiate purchases more often than to withdraw cash from ATMs. The results of two recent surveys, however, disagree on how much more often. One...

Community Banks Band Together For Processing.
January 30, 2003... Community banks on their own cannot match the lower per-transaction expenses incurred by higher volume "mega banks" for ATM and debit card processing. Moreover, large institutions also are more likely to be able to afford participation in the...

Starbucks' Success With Its Gift Card Opens Up A New Source Of Revenue.
January 30, 2003... Private-label gift card programs can end up being a lot bigger business than one might expect. At least that is the impression one might get from the Starbucks Corp. gift card program. Since its introduction in November 2001, the Starbucks...

TSA Earnings Much Less Than Previously Stated.
January 30, 2003... Transaction Systems Architects Inc. will not suffer the humiliation of being de-listed by NASDAQ Stock Market Inc. But the Omaha, Neb.-based parent of the ATM and point-of-sale transaction software company ACI Worldwide was forced to endure a...

Banks' ATMs 'Slammed' By Virus.
January 30, 2003... The so-called "slammer" computer virus that attacked computer server systems and shut down ATM operations at some of the nation's largest financial institutions suggests a need for banks and processors to stay on top of computer networking...

Top Small-Bank Processors.
January 30, 2003... 1) Fiserv 2) Jack Henry 3) Precision 4) CSI 5) Kirchman 6) Sparak 7) Bisys 8) Aurum Technology 9) Alltel 10) Metavante Source: Independent Community Bankers of...

How Debit Card Usage Findings Compare.
January 30, 2003... Survey POS ATM Total Pulse* 7.81 (72%) 3.11 (28%) 10.92 Star** 10.10 (52%) 9.40 (48%) 19.50 Source: ATM&Debit News, Pulse and Star. *Debit card usage among debit respondents who initiated at least...

NCR Reports Loss for 2002.
January 30, 2003... Calling 2002 "a difficult year," the world's leading ATM manufacturer, Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp., says that it experienced a 5% decline in revenue last year, garnering $5.6 billion compared with $5.9 billion in 2001. As a result of the...

Co-op Appoints New EFT Chief.
January 30, 2003... Gene Polito has been promoted to the position of president of EFT Services at Co-op Network, according to CEO Robert Rose. Polito primarily will be responsible for the Ontario, Calif.-based network's day-to-day EFT operations. Copyright...