ATM & Debit News articles from March 2006

ATM & Debit News archives from March 2006

M&T To Go Surcharge-Free.
March 2, 2006... The Sheetz Inc. convenience store chain, Altoona, PA, is going surcharge-free on its ATMs. In a joint announcement, Sheetz and its ATM provider, M&T Bank, said they would begin offering free access to 320 ATMs Sheetz operates in six states on...

Diebold Buys Genpass Unit.
March 2, 2006... North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc. is purchasing Genpass Service Solutions and all of its ATM maintenance contracts. Diebold is taking over maintenance on 6,000 ATMs in 34 states that Genpass Service Solutions, a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp's...

Canadians Adopt New Debit Code, Avoid Formal Law.
March 2, 2006... Canadians are prolific debit card users. The average Canadian uses his or her debit card at least 76 times a year, the most of any nation, according to the Bank for International Settlements based in Switzerland. But as popular as debit...

Reg E Changes Would Cover Payroll Cards, Too.
March 2, 2006... New rules governing one sector of prepaid debit cards - payroll cards - will change the very definition of a bank account. The rule, proposed by the Federal Reserve Board, amends Regulation E under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, which...

ATM Operators Of All Stripes Seem Resigned To Triple DES Deadline.
March 2, 2006... Confusion in the U.S. ATM industry over deadlines for upgrading ATMs to the Triple Data Encryption Standard, or Triple DES, may be lifting. But some industry observers remain skeptical that a conversion to Triple DES is even necessary. ...

Code: Protect Your PINs ... Or Else?
March 2, 2006... Canadian debit card users may find themselves hunkering over ATMs and point-of-sale terminals to keep all eyes off their PINs. To do otherwise may cost them. A new, voluntary Canadian code of conduct for dispute resolutions involving debit...

Cashbox To Go Public.
March 2, 2006... Cashbox plc, a UK-based ATM independent sales organization, announced it will trade its shares on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market starting in March. Carl Thomas, Cashbox's chief executive, said going public is part of...

NCR Makes Big Tidel ATM Sale.
March 2, 2006... Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp. will sell 400 of its EasyPoint cash dispensers to the UK-based PayPoint ATM independent sales organization. It is the first significant sale of Tidel Technologies cash dispensers since NCR purchased Tidel in...

Visa Debit Purchases Up 17.6%.
March 9, 2006... Consumers initiated 10.7 billion Visa check card purchases using their signatures last year, up 17.6% from 9.1 billion in 2004, Visa reports. Visa credit card purchases also increased, but only by 7.6%, to 7.1 billion from 6.6 billion. The...

Payroll Cards Attract Banked.
March 9, 2006... The Ecount Inc. prepaid debit card distributor says that about 54% of employees using Ecount payroll debit cards have bank accounts. The use of payroll debit cards by employees with bank accounts shows that payroll debit cards are as much a...

EBT Rules Group Searches For New Functions.
March 9, 2006... Issuing electronic benefits transfer cards, or EBT cards, is now a routine service in all 50 states and several U.S. territories. States still periodically seek bids for new EBT contracts and negotiate service fees with EBT contractors. ...

Tranax Plans To Manufacture Its Own Machines In Strategy.
March 9, 2006... Competition among ATM manufacturers is stiffer today than it was when Korean-made ATMs first appeared in the U.S. in 1997. At that time surcharging was just beginning to spread and there was strong demand for basic cash dispensers from...

Compromise Of Encryption Keys May Drive Spate Of Fraud Cases.
March 9, 2006... Debit cards carrying both the Visa International and the MasterCard International marks apparently have been compromised in a debit card fraud case that, according to some sources, is the result of criminals stealing keys used to encrypt PINs....

Nearly All Cards Come With No Fee Attached.
March 9, 2006... Any debit card issuer considering fees for card use or issuance may want to reconsider that option. It appears that most debit cardholders have long settled into the notion that debit cards are a free bank service. A survey of 12,904...

Innobeta Chooses Ventus.
March 9, 2006... Innobeta Systems Inc., the South Hackensack, NY-based ATM transaction processor, will use Ventus Networks wireless telecommunications as its wireless ATM communications system. Innobeta CEO Eric Park said in an announcement that Ventus will be...

VeriFone Creates New Unit.
March 9, 2006... VeriFone Holdings Inc. has formed the Hospitality Systems Group to promote its payment terminal products and services to restaurants. The division is pushing VeriFone's handheld Vx 670, which allows wireless network connections for table or...

Canadian Networks Agree.
March 16, 2006... Canada's three major card associations said this week they are working together to speed the migration of the country's credit and debit cards to smart cards. By 2010, Visa expects 85% of its Canadian transactions will be made with smart cards,...

WaMu Launches New Rewards.
March 16, 2006... Seattle-based Washington Mutual Bank launched a campaign promoting new debit card rewards and the lifting of some ATM fees. WaMu announced it would no longer charge its debit cardholders the so-called foreign fee for using an ATM that WaMu...

Metavante Puts Health Card Parts Together Together.
March 16, 2006... For all the interest in tax-deferred health accounts, including the prospect of billions of new dollars flowing into financial institutions, debit cards attached to these accounts are viewed as the bridge to the economic sweet spot for...

Black Eye Seen For PIN-Debit Reputation.
March 16, 2006... While banks in many countries convert their debit and credit cards to smart cards to prevent fraud, the U.S. payments system remains firmly based on magnetic stripe cards. A central part of security in the U.S. for PIN-debit transactions...

Sheetz Convenience Stores 'Forgives' ATM Fees For More Traffic.
March 16, 2006... Surcharge-free ATM networks are banking on attracting higher transaction volume for off-premise ATM transaction acquirers. The financial logic of this ATM economic model holds that, as ATM volume declines in off-premise locations, fee-free...

Arrests Lead To More Questions.
March 16, 2006... Law enforcement may have caught up with some of the people involved with what some industry observers say is the largest case of PIN-debit fraud ever. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how a global criminal gang...

TRM Replaces Tepper.
March 16, 2006... TRM Corp. has replaced its CEO, Kenneth L. Tepper, with interim CEO Jeffrey F. Brotman, an attorney for the ATM firm. Tepper's departure follows the resignation of TRM Chief Operating Officer Thomas W. Mann in February. TRM in 2004 purchased...

Visa Nixes Mag-Stripe Images.
March 16, 2006... Visa International has told its member banks to cease issuing cards that use holograms on magnetic stripes. Visa introduced the holographic magnetic stripes last year, but now finds the new cards produce an electrostatic discharge inside some...

Fujitsu: Software Not To Blame.
March 23, 2006... An apparent warning by Visa USA concerning the use of merchant-acquiring transaction software made by Fujitsu Transaction Solutions is unjustified, according to Fujitsu. "There was absolutely no glitch in our software," says Ed Soladay, chief...

MasterCard Launches Promo.
March 23, 2006... MasterCard International today announced a debit card promotion called "MasterCard Monthly Bonus Sweepstakes." The sweepstakes targets women via advertisements and offers debit MasterCard cardholders a chance to win $1,000 a month over 10...

ABA Wants All Payroll Cards Under Reg E.
March 23, 2006... Companies that distribute prepaid debit cards issued by banks are increasingly marketing them as payroll cards. Some of the largest prepaid card distributors, including Green Dot Corp., now promote reloadable, prepaid cards as a way for those...

Free ATM Access Grows Faster Than Issuer Users.
March 23, 2006... Participation among ATM operators in surcharge-free ATM networks, a relatively new option for debit card issuers, appear to be taking hold as competition for ATM transactions heats up. But interest among issuers in these networks remains...

VisaNet Improvements Would Allow Nationwide Prepaid Card Reloading.
March 23, 2006... About a year ago, Visa USA announced a revamp of its VisaNet processing system so that it could be used to instantly qualify health payments when prepaid debit cards are used to make purchases from tax-deferred health accounts. Now, Visa...

Star Network Examines Merchant Compliance Of Network Rules.
March 23, 2006... EFT networks, such as Star, Pulse, NYCE, MasterCard International and Visa USA, all have rules that govern the encryption of PIN data that flows through their ATM and PIN-debit point-of-sale networks. A central issue in the current case of...

NYCE Gains 35 In Wisconsin.
March 23, 2006... The NYCE electronic funds transfer network announced that 35 Wisconsin community banks and credit unions recently joined the network in a non-exclusive network use deal. The financial institutions have a total of 140 ATMs and 165,000 debit...

Wachovia In Cardtronics Deal.
March 23, 2006... Wachovia Bank is branding six ATMs in Dallas' Love Field airport as part of a deal with the Houston-based Cardtronics Inc., says Keith Myers, executive vice president of financial services for Cardtronics. While the number of ATMs is small,...

Canadian Networks Agree.
March 30, 2006... Canada's three major card associations said this week they are working together to speed the migration of the country's credit and debit cards to smart cards. By 2010, Visa expects 85% of its Canadian transactions will be made with smart cards,...

WaMu Launches New Rewards.
March 30, 2006... Seattle-based Washington Mutual Bank launched a campaign promoting new debit card rewards and the lifting of some ATM fees. WaMu announced it would no longer charge its debit cardholders the so-called foreign fee for using an ATM that WaMu...

Metavante Puts Health Card Parts Together Together.
March 30, 2006... For all the interest in tax-deferred health accounts, including the prospect of billions of new dollars flowing into financial institutions, debit cards attached to these accounts are viewed as the bridge to the economic sweet spot for...

Black Eye Seen For PIN-Debit Reputation.
March 30, 2006... While banks in many countries convert their debit and credit cards to smart cards to prevent fraud, the U.S. payments system remains firmly based on magnetic stripe cards. A central part of security in the U.S. for PIN-debit transactions...

Sheetz Convenience Stores 'Forgives' ATM Fees For More Traffic.
March 30, 2006... Surcharge-free ATM networks are banking on attracting higher transaction volume for off-premise ATM transaction acquirers. The financial logic of this ATM economic model holds that, as ATM volume declines in off-premise locations, fee-free...

Arrests Lead To More Questions.
March 30, 2006... Law enforcement may have caught up with some of the people involved with what some industry observers say is the largest case of PIN-debit fraud ever. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how a global criminal gang...

TRM Replaces Tepper.
March 30, 2006... TRM Corp. has replaced its CEO, Kenneth L. Tepper, with interim CEO Jeffrey F. Brotman, an attorney for the ATM firm. Tepper's departure follows the resignation of TRM Chief Operating Officer Thomas W. Mann in February. TRM in 2004 purchased...

Visa Nixes Mag-Stripe Images.
March 30, 2006... Visa International has told its member banks to cease issuing cards that use holograms on magnetic stripes. Visa introduced the holographic magnetic stripes last year, but now finds the new cards produce an electrostatic discharge inside some...