ATM & Debit News articles from June 2003

ATM & Debit News archives from June 2003

BankFirst Issues Health Card.
June 5, 2003... BankFirst is issuing the HumanaAccess MasterCard that enables Humana employees with flexible spending accounts or health-care reimbursement arrangements to access those funds by swiping their card at the provider's office or pharmacy. The funds...

High Court Refuses ATM Case.
June 5, 2003... The U.S. Supreme Court May 27 refused to review two lower-court decisions repealing surcharge bans for ATMs owned by financial institutions imposed in San Francisco and Santa Monica, Calif., in 1999. The bans were challenged by Bank of America,...

MasterCard Boosts Cirrus, Maestro With Rules Changes.
June 5, 2003... Most regional ATM networks for years have offered their members the flexibility of joining alliances in which participants do not surcharge each others' cardholders but do surcharge non-participating issuers' cardholders, even when a...

ATMs Add Access To Western Union P2P Funds Transfers.
June 5, 2003... ATMs traditionally have been one-way machines. While consumers could use the devices to withdraw cash from their accounts, they could not use them to send money. Now they can. The world's largest money-transfer company, Western Union, a...

Internet Merchants Claim MasterCard, Visa Failed To Address Online Fraud.
June 5, 2003... A group of online merchants last month filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Visa U.S.A., MasterCard International, American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services Inc. contending the card companies failed to take appropriate...

Awaiting Antitrust Decision, First Data Cites Competition For Network Branding.
June 5, 2003... Regulators are still reviewing the planned acquisition of Memphis, Tenn.-based Concord EFS Inc. by Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data Corp. And there has yet to be a challenge to the proposal. If the merger goes through as proposed,...

First Data/Concord Combined Finances*.
June 5, 2003... Transaction Revenue $1.7 billion Total Revenues $2 billion Expenses $1.6 billion** Net Income $275 million *First quarter 2003 data. **Does not include taxes and interest expenses....

Visa, Police Shut Down E-Mail Scam By Crooks Seeking PINs, Card Data.
June 5, 2003... By their very nature, debit cards requiring signatures to initiate transactions are more vulnerable to fraud than ones requiring secret PINs. Crooks, though, want consumers' PINs because then they could access cash at ATMs from individuals'...

ACS Secures EBT Contract.
June 5, 2003... The Arkansas Department of Human Services has awarded a seven-year, $15.4 million electronic benefits transfer contract to Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. ACS says it will be the main contractor to manage Arkansas's PIN-based EBT...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 5, 2003... Coinstar Inc.'s NEC Truth MasterCard pilot launched in early April in Houston and Las Vegas is not winding down, as suggested in an article in the May 22 issue. Coinstar's Independence One MasterCard pilot is the program being phased out. ...

ATMs A Part Of Everyday Life.
June 12, 2003... A new survey conducted by Harris Interactive found that, on the 30th anniversary of the first ATM patent, ATMs remain one of the most-important modern conveniences, topping e-mail, in the everyday life of U.S. consumers. See page 3. ...

AmEx Threatens Lawsuit.
June 12, 2003... American Express Co. Chairman and CEO Kenneth Chenault told analysts June 4 that AmEx may sue Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International if the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a district court decision ordering the card organizations to...

Check Use Declined in 2002.
June 12, 2003... The number of checks processed by the Federal Reserve in 2002 decreased for the third consecutive year, according to the Federal Reserve System's annual report to Congress. The Fed reported that it processed 16.59 billion checks in 2002, a 1.9%...

House Passes Check 21 Act.
June 12, 2003... The U.S. House of Representatives on June 5 passed by a 405-0 vote the Check Clearing of the 21st Century Act. A similar measure, the Check Truncation Act, is currently before the U.S. Senate. Copyright 2003 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights...

MasterCard De-Links Its Credit, Debit Card Interchange Rates.
June 12, 2003... One of the top issues that spurred a successful merchant lawsuit against Visa U.S.A and MasterCard International was their so-called "honor-all-cards" rules requiring merchants to accept Visa and MasterCard signature-based, or offline, debit...

Discover Opens Novus To Retailers; Banks May Be Next.
June 12, 2003... An appellate court ruling is still pending in Visa U.S.A.'s and MasterCard International's appeal of a lower-court decision that struck down their rules prohibiting members from issuing Discover-branded cards. But that is not keeping Discover...

Hispanics Are Using Debit Cards More, But Their Prepaid Card Use Is Still Low.
June 12, 2003... Hispanic-Americans, now the nation's largest minority group with 37 million consumers, are using debit cards tied to demand-deposit accounts more often. But when it comes to merchants' closed-system prepaid gift cards, their awareness is...

Signature-Based Debit Volumes.
June 12, 2003... Transactions Visa Check Card 1.7 billion Debit MasterCard 443.2 million Cards Visa Check Card 132.6 million Debit MasterCard 50.2 million Source: Visa and MasterCard. Transaction volumes are for...

How Hispanics View Debit.
June 12, 2003... * 94% of respondents had used their debit card at least once to make a purchase, while 84% said they had made a debit card purchase within the previous three months. * Debit cards are the payment option of choice for purchases between $40...

Venerable ATM Still Holds Wide Consumer Appeal.
June 12, 2003... When stacked up against newer consumer technologies, the ATM seems quaint. But the machine, patented on June 4, 1973, still holds wide consumer appeal for its ability to put cash into consumers' hands without having to go to the bank. ...

Cardtronics Buys ATM ISO.
June 12, 2003... Cardtronics Inc., a Houston-based ATM independent sales organization, has acquired National Bank Equipment Corp., a Buffalo, N.Y.-based ATM ISO. With the purchase of National's 1,100 ATM contracts, Cardtronics has contracts for more than 11,000...

Genpass Shifts Execs.
June 12, 2003... Genpass Inc., the Fort Washington, Pa.-based owner of the MoneyMaker electronic funds transfer network and a leading ATM driver, has named Douglas D. Anderson president of its Genpass Card Solutions unit and William G. Raymond president of its...

Settlements Not For Best Buy.
June 19, 2003... Visa U.S.A.'s and MasterCard International's settlements in the merchant class-action lawsuit appealed to many members of the class, but not all. Last week, Best Buy, which opted out of the litigation, has filed its own lawsuit challenging the...

DOJ Seeks More Review Time.
June 19, 2003... First Data Corp. and Concord EFS Inc. announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has requested additional information regarding First Data's impending $7 billion stock deal to acquire Concord. A First Data spokesperson says the Greenwood...

Use Of Foreign-ATM Fees Drops.
June 19, 2003... A Federal Reserve survey of 620 financial institutions found a drop last year in the number of banks charging foreign-ATM fees. In 2001, 78.5% of banks and savings and loans imposed the fees on their cardholders. Last year the rate dropped to...

BofA, Mexican Bank Sign Pact.
June 19, 2003... Bank of America is offering its 17 million debit cardholders surcharge-free access to 1,770 ATMs in Mexico owned by Grupo Financerio Santander Serfin, whose own customers have surcharge-free access to BofA's 14,000 U.S. ATMs. The acquisition is...

Self-Checkout Use Climbs; Systems Support Cash-Back.
June 19, 2003... Merchants often place ATMs in their stores to collect user surcharges and interchange fees from debit card issuers whose customers use them. But many also offer cash-back at the point-of-sale at no charge when debit card holders use their PINs....

Patriot Act Effect On Prepaid Cards Lacks Clarity.
June 19, 2003... When it looks and acts like a bank account, U.S. regulators likely will view it as one. And some experts say new federal rules requiring financial institutions to confirm the identity of individuals who open accounts could impede growth in the...

MasterCard, Pulse Use Different Means To Promote Debit During The Summer.
June 19, 2003... Summers tend to be a time when most U.S. consumers take vacations. As such, it is not unusual to see the nation's leading payment card sponsors holding summer promotions to encourage consumers to initiate payments with cards carrying their...

Supermarket Self-Checkout Use.
June 19, 2003... Year Using/Planning To Use 2002 53% 2001 16% 2000 6% 1999 0% Source: Food Marketing Institute. Copyright 2003 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved....

Best Buy Files Own Lawsuit Against Visa, MasterCard.
June 19, 2003... Though Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International have settled a class-action lawsuit involving millions of merchants, not all retailers accepted the settlement. One, Minneapolis-based Best Buy Co., filed its own antitrust complaint challenging...

New Patriot Act Rules.
June 19, 2003... Financial institutions must: * Establish a customer-identification program by Oct. 1 * Verify identity of new account holders * Maintain identification data for five years Source: U.S. Treasury Department. Copyright 2003...

E*Trade Decision Creates Stir.
June 19, 2003... The National Federation of the Blind and Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly are happy that E*Trade Group Inc. agreed to retrofit with voice-activation technology the 2,000 ATMs it owns. But they want more. The federation and...

ATM Fraud Guidelines Approved.
June 19, 2003... The ATM Integrity Task Force of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association has given final approval of its first recommendations on how ATM owners and operators can prevent fraud (ADN, 4/17). Among the suggestions is that EFT networks should...

Boerstler Joins DebitMan Board.
June 26, 2003... Earlier this year, Midwest Payment Systems, now called Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions, began to offer its merchant-processing clients access to the fledgling DebitMan network. Now, Barry Boerstler, former MPS president and CEO, has...

9/11 ATM Theft Arrests Made.
June 26, 2003... Some 74 credit-union debit cardholders were arrested, and another 44 are being sought, in New York City for allegedly stealing from New York Municipal Credit Union in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Centers,...

Prepaid Card Market To Grow.
June 26, 2003... Raritan, N.J.-based Pelorus Group estimates that the number of prepaid debit cards in the U.S. will surge from 6.2 million issued in 2002 to almost 40 million by 2007. The growth will come from an estimated 50 million U.S. adults who do not...

BofA Alters Product For Funds Transfers To Lure Hispanics.
June 26, 2003... International money transfers largely have been single events, with cash being transferred to recipients in single lump sums for one-time fees. But Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, which is redoubling its efforts to attract Hispanic...

Visa, MasterCard Make Changes In Rewards Programs.
June 26, 2003... U.S. District Judge John Gleeson is not expected to issue a final ruling until September on the settlements approved by Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International in the merchant class-action lawsuit challenging their "honor-all-cards" policies....

Massachusetts Puts Pressure On ISO To Make All Of Its ATMs ADA-Compliant.
June 26, 2003... Pressure to make ATMs more accessible to blind individuals has been exerted primarily on large, high-profile owners of the machines. And these organizations, sensitive to their public image, largely have responded with agreements to gradually...

Boerstler Joins DebitMan Board As A Director.
June 26, 2003... DebitMan, the fledgling PIN-based debit card network that uses the automated clearing house system to route transactions, is getting some help from a payments-industry veteran. Barry Boerstler, former president and CEO of Fifth Third Bank...

BofA's SafeSend Changes.
June 26, 2003... * Buyers of money transfers can now send ATM cards to Mexico themselves. * The $12 fee to send cards to Mexico was eliminated. * Access to 1,770 Mexican ATMs is now surcharge free. * Monthly transfer limit was increased to $3,000....

What E*Trade Agreed To Do.
June 26, 2003... * Voice-enable the 2,000 ATMs it owns * Conduct a voice-recognition pilot for three months * Complete the rollout in two years Source: Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. Copyright 2003 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights...

Ingenico, Moneris Near Deal.
June 26, 2003... Ingenico SA, a leading payment-terminal maker with offices in Toronto and Roswell, Ga., has signed a letter of intent to form a multiyear strategic agreement with Moneris Solutions Corp. for the supply of payment terminals, software and related...

ATM Cash Supplier Is Sold.
June 26, 2003... Securities Cash Handling Services of America, a subsidiary of Securitas AB of Sweden, is purchasing Armored Motor Services of America. Boston-based Armored Motor operates in eight Northeastern states, and about 21% of its business comes from...