ATM & Debit News articles from July 2003

ATM & Debit News archives from July 2003

Houses Close In On Checks.
July 3, 2003... Both Houses of Congress now have approved legislation that would alter the process of posting and settling checks by enabling electronic equivalents to be given the same legal status as paper checks. The Senate last week approved the Check...

Bank One Upgrading ATMs.
July 3, 2003... Chicago-based Bank One Corp. on July 1 announced that it is replacing 320 of its 1,000 Chicago-area ATMs as part of a two-year, $100 million national ATM-replacement project. The new machines will have enlarged screens with full-color graphics,...

Pulse Hikes POS Interchange.
July 3, 2003... The Houston-based Pulse electronic funds transfer association on Oct. 1 will increase by 20% the interchange merchant acquirers pay Pulse issuers for PIN-based debit card purchases. Under the new rate, acquirers will pay issuers a flat 18 cents...

More ISOs Turning To Third Parties For ATM Support.
July 3, 2003... Not too many years ago, many ATM independent sales organizations processed their own transactions and provided their own machine maintenance. Today, though, the number of ISO-operated ATMs processing their own transactions and providing their...

ISO Consolidation Continues, But Strategies Differ.
July 3, 2003... The business of operating nonbank-branch ATMs is taking a distinctly national turn among the top independent sales organizations. But there are sharp differences in the ISOs' business models and goals. The results of ATM&Debit News' annual...

Despite Better Brains And Technology, Genpass Still Awaits The Big Deal.
July 3, 2003... Since Genpass Inc. acquired the MoneyMaker electronic funds transfer network in 2000, the Fort Washington, Pa.-based company has dedicated resources toward hiring experienced EFT professionals and on enhancing its data-processing capabilities....

Top 10 U.S. ATM ISOs 2003.
July 3, 2003... Contracts Company 2003 2002 1. EFunds 15,700* 12,000 2. E*Trade 15,000** 11,000 3. Cardtronics*** 11,000 7,500 4. American Express 7,400...

Debit's Popularity Sparks Higher Fraud Losses.
July 3, 2003... Criminals are taking advantage of consumers' growing use of debit cards, as losses attributable to fraud are on the rise. During the first six months of 2002, the cost of counterfeit and other types of fraud among U.S. debit card transactions...

Third-Party ATM Support.
July 3, 2003... Function Level Outsourced Currency Management 25.6% Transaction Processing* 24.5% Maintenance 24.4% Facilities Management 9.4% Monitoring 6.3% ...

Hypercom Shuts Horizon Group.
July 3, 2003... Point-of-sale terminal manufacturer Hypercom Corp.on July 1 shut down the Horizon Group subsidiary it acquired in November 1998. The St. Louis-based company refurbished and resold POS equipment made by most major manufacturers. In a release,...

Arby's Canada Picks Moneris.
July 3, 2003... Arby's Inc., a subsidiary of New York-based Triarc Companies Inc., has selected Moneris Solutions Corp. to provide debit and credit payment processing systems to the 129 Arby's restaurants in Canada. Toronto-based Moneris will install and...

AmEx Explores Travel Card.
July 10, 2003... American Express Co., a leading issuer of traveler's checks, is conducting consumer research to gauge interest in an AmEx-branded prepaid travel card. During a recent focus-group session in Chicago, researchers used advertising story boards,...

Bank Drops Shared Deposits.
July 10, 2003... Chicago-based Bank One Corp. on Aug. 1 will stop taking deposits from other banks' customers at its 465 Chicago- area deposit-taking ATMs. And Bank One customers no longer will be able to make deposits at other banks' ATMs. A bank spokesperson...

Congress Nears Final Passage Of Check 21 Bill.
July 10, 2003... Both houses of Congress now have approved versions of legislation that would enable electronic equivalents of checks to be given the same legal status as paper drafts. The measures could revolutionize acceptance and posting of check deposits at...

BofA Move Fuels A Volume Drop For Plus Network.
July 10, 2003... The use of Visa U.S.A.'s Plus ATM network in the U.S. is falling. During the first quarter of this year, the network switched 118.1 million transactions, down 30% from the same period last year. The decline comes as the number of ATMs...

Canada Inches Toward Conversion To Smart Cards For Debit Transactions.
July 10, 2003... Visa International's Canadian organization announced recently a plan to convert most Visa-branded cards to smart cards in the next seven years, while at the same time converting point-of-sale terminals to accept chip cards. MasterCard Canada...

Processors' Roles Could Change With Lower Debit Rates.
July 10, 2003... Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International agreed to lower their signature-based debit card interchange rates by about one-third from Aug. 1 through the end of the year as part of their class-action settlements with U.S. merchants in the...

A State-By-State Comparison Of ATMs In The Visa Plus Network.
July 10, 2003... (part 1 of 2) State June 2003 June 2002 Change Alabama 4,947 4,812 135 Alaska 833 825 8 Arizona 6,334 6,091...

Check Imaging By Banks.
July 10, 2003... Adoption Rate: 83% by 2006 Investment: $1.9 billion annually by 2005 Annual Savings: $7 Billion Source: Celent Communications. Findings based on approval of check-truncation legislation this year. Copyright 2003 Thomson Media...

Anti-Skimming Device Available.
July 10, 2003... The Wincor Nixdorf ATM maker has developed a system to prevent fraudsters from stealing debit card information using card-skimming devices. The system detects the use of a skimming device and shuts down an ATM before the cardholder can enter...

Network Strikes Alliance Deal.
July 10, 2003... Alaska Option Services Corp. is providing ATM transaction switching for the newly formed Northwest Credit Union Alliance. The alliance of Pacific Northwest credit unions offers members no-surcharge, shared-deposit ATM services. Alaska Option...

Investors Get ATM Deposits.
July 17, 2003... PNC Financial Services Group Inc. is providing mutual fund account clients in its PFPC subsidiary the ability to make deposits at ATMs. PNC secured the service through the Star and NYCE electronic funds transfer networks, and the service is...

Mac's Re-Tools ATM Program.
July 17, 2003... Mac's Convenience Stores is installing 379 Triton ATMs with high-speed, TCP/IP communication capabilities in an equal number of Mac's Bigfoot, Dairy Mart, Handy Andy and Mac's stores in the U.S., Triton and Mac's officials say. Mac's also will...

Prepaid Cards' Rise Could Provide A Lift To The ATM Market.
July 17, 2003... Not long ago, there was only a trickle of ATMs that provided financial self-service products beyond cash withdrawals. But that trickle is turning into a torrent, spurred partially by the growth of prepaid debit card products. ATM makers...

A Drop In Iowa Plus Connections Has Visa Baffled.
July 17, 2003... Participation in Visa USA's Plus ATM network has grown steadily in recent years, with the network claiming a nearly 100% connection to U.S. ATMs. New state-by-state Plus figures indicate, however, that in one state, Iowa, the Plus mark either...

Lower-Cost PCs Might Hamper Sales Of Stand-Alone Payment Terminals.
July 17, 2003... Manufacturers of stand-alone point-of-sale terminals over the past few years have hoped for a catalyst to encourage merchants to replace their aging terminals. And today, the ability to connect to processors via the Internet is helping to...

Key Tender Retail Facts.
July 17, 2003... Headquarters: Toronto Launched: 1985 Software: Merchant Connect List Price: $400 Return on investment: 18-24 months Source: Tender Retail. Copyright 2003 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved....

Pulse Increases Interchange Rate For Bill Payments.
July 17, 2003... The Pulse electronic funds transfer network has switched PINless bill payments initiated by telephone since 1995. Last month, the Houston-based network's board voted to expand the service to include Web-based PINless bill payments. All...

Plus At A Glance.
July 17, 2003... ATM Connections: 364,334 ATM Growth: 2.2%(a) Highest State Growth: 6%(b) Steepest State Decline: 9%(c) Most State Connections: 39,376(d) Fewest State Connections: 766(e) Source: Visa USA. June 2003 data....

Fiserv Buys EDS's CU Group.
July 17, 2003... Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv Inc. and Electronic Data Systems Corp. announced July 11 that Fiserv will purchase EDS's Credit Union Industry Group for $218 million in cash. CUIG provides debit card, online bill-payment and transaction...

Brown Joins InteliData.
July 17, 2003... InteliData Technologies Inc., a Reston, Va.-based provider of Internet banking and electronic bill-presentment and payment technologies, has hired Anne M. Brown to lead its Payment Systems Group. Brown previously was senior vice president of...

Fiserv Merging Networks.
July 24, 2003... Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv Inc. July 17 announced it will consolidate its regional electronic funds transfer networks into a single ATM and point-of-sale brand called Accel/Exchange, the same name as its largest network. Accel will be the...

Visa To Launch Sweepstakes.
July 24, 2003... Visa USA will promote use of its signature-based Visa check card this fall during its second annual "Everyday Dreams" sweepstakes, which will offer cardholders a chance to win $36,500, or $100 a day for a year, Visa announced. Cardholders...

Networks, Big Banks Go Different Routes On Deposit Sharing.
July 24, 2003... ATM networks hope to make shared-deposit transactions more appealing by lifting surcharge bans and, in the case of Visa USA's Plus network, by adding the function itself. And federal legislation is expected to make it easier and cheaper for...

8 Bankers Groups Give Support To Fraud-NET System.
July 24, 2003... Financial institutions usually do not seek or want publicity concerning losses caused by ATM or debit card fraud. Yet, sometimes they have no choice, such as when a criminal repeatedly steals thousands of dollars worth of purchases or ATM cash...

AFFN Gives Kryptosima Its Approval To Route Internet PIN Debit Purchases.
July 24, 2003... A slew of vendors with payment terminals that attach to home personal computers over the years has tried to convince electronic funds transfer networks to let consumers use their devices to initiate PIN-based debit card purchases on the...

AOL To Offer Prepaid Visa Teen Card.
July 24, 2003... When America Online Inc. later this summer rolls out AOL 9.0 Optimized, the latest software that supports AOL and AOL for Broadband services, the online content provider will include in the offer a free Visa-branded prepaid card designed for...

Fraud-NET Supporters.
July 24, 2003... Colorado Bankers Association Florida Bankers Association Illinois Bankers Association Kentucky Bankers Association North Carolina Bankers Association Oklahoma Bankers Association Puerto Rico Bankers Association ...

Visa Allies With SafeCheck.
July 24, 2003... Visa USA and SafeCheck LLC will combine their services into a single method of electronifying check information at the point of sale. The combined service, which will use the VisaNet switch, could reduce by billions the cost to handle paper...

Diebold's Net Income Up 4%.
July 24, 2003... ATM maker Diebold Inc. says it earned second-quarter net income of $41.3 million, up 4% from $39.8 million during same period last year. Second-quarter revenues were $480.8 million, down 1% from $483.5 million last year. Quarter revenues in...

E*Trade ATMs Add NYCE Mark.
July 31, 2003... The nation's second-largest independent ATM operator, Menlo Park, Calif.-based E*Trade Financial Corp.'s E*Trade Access subsidiary, will add the Montvale, N.J.-based NYCE network logo to the 15,000 off-premise ATMs it operates. The agreement,...

SCA To Assume Prepaid Risk.
July 31, 2003... SCA Promotions Inc., a Dallas-based provider of prize coverage for contests and promotions, will provide American Express Co.-branded stored-value cards to clients at a discount. Bob Hamman, SCA president, says as an example that if a client...

ATM-Driving Growth Fueled Mostly By Acquisition Activity.
July 31, 2003... Providing transaction processing and settlement services for ATM owners or operators often can be a brutally competitive business in a slow-growth environment, the results of a new ATM&Debit News survey of the top-10 third- party ATM drivers...

Banks Could Play A Bigger Prepaid Role In The Future.
July 31, 2003... Companies other than financial institutions are largely responsible for the growth thus far in the prepaid debit card market. Financial institutions, though, could have a bigger say in prepaid's future growth, suggest the results of a newly...

Cell Phones Become Latest Technology For Contactless 'Card' Transactions.
July 31, 2003... Plastic payment cards are in most adults' wallet. Yet despite the ubiquity of debit and credit cards, efforts continue to seek ways to enable the use of card information without having to actually swipe the card. And new alternatives continue...

Top 10 Third-Party ATM Drivers.
July 31, 2003... 2003 2002 Company ATMs ATMs Change 1. Concord 96,100 91,000 5.6% 2. Genpass 28,000 24,300 15.2% 3. EFunds 24,000 23,700 1.3% 4. Fiserv ...

More Males Prefer Using Just ATMs.
July 31, 2003... Among U.S. debit cardholders with Internet access, just 10.9% use their cards only at the point of sale, while 11.1% use them just to get cash. And while men were only slightly more likely than women to use their debit cards for purchases...

Who Plans To Offer Prepaid Cards In 2003?
July 31, 2003... Large Issuers 60% Mid-sized issuers 30% Small issuers 8% All issuers 21% Source: American Bankers Association. Results are based on responses from 142 financial institution surveyed late in 2002. ...

Store Chain Chooses Fifth Third.
July 31, 2003... Mapco Express Inc., a Franklin, Tenn.-based company that owns 243 convenience stores in seven mid-Atlantic and southern states, will use Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions to process its debit, credit and electronic benefits transfer card...

Diebold Nets Quarter Profit.
July 31, 2003... Diebold Inc. generated $41.3 million in net income during the second quarter ended June 30, up 4% from $39.8 million generated during the same period in 2002, Diebold reports. Revenue in the North Canton, Ohio-based ATM maker's financial...