ATM & Debit News articles from March 2007

ATM & Debit News archives from March 2007

News Briefs.
March 1, 2007... DEBIT VOLUME UP 18% IN 2006 Debit card transaction volume grew 18% in 2006, and it is expected to continue to grow strongly this year, according to a new study commissioned by the Pulse EFT Association. Debit card issuers reported average...

Consumers Fear Using Payment Cards Online.
March 1, 2007... American consumers generally are concerned about using their debit and credit cards for online purchases despite evidence that the Internet is relatively safe for making purchases, according to Mintel Comperemedia, a global supplier of...

Blue Healthcare Bank May Help Boost HSAs.
March 1, 2007... The Office of Thrift Supervision has approved Blue Cross Blue Shield Association's application for a bank charter. The Sandy, Utah-based Blue Healthcare Bank will allow the insurer's member consumers to use pretax payroll funds to pay for their...

Banks Ready ATMs For Opening Day.
March 1, 2007... With bats now flailing and balls flying at Major League Baseball spring training camps across Florida and Arizona, banks and other financial-service firms are dusting off their ATMs in baseball parks across North America. Few, if any,...

Utility, Visa End Four-Year Separation.
March 1, 2007... Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Visa have reconnected after a disagreement ended their relationship four years ago. The San Francisco-based gas and electricity utility announced earlier this month that its 5.2 million residential customers...

Vendor News.
March 1, 2007... MINIMECH RETURNS ATM manufacturer Triton this month is bringing back the De La Rue MiniMech. MiniMech is a smaller, lower-cost cassette mechanism that allows ATMs' cash cassettes to be re-stocked without a special loading tray or keys....

News Briefs.
March 8, 2007... BANK OFFERS FREE ATM ACCESS National City Corp. is offering new customers free access to other banks' ATMs if the individuals open an Elite checking account, says Jeffrey Kastelic, senior vice president of National City's Deposit Products...

Conference Site Ideal for Fraud Discussions.
March 8, 2007... The Third New England Debit Card Fraud Conference, scheduled for March 19 in Westborough, Mass., is sparking dark humor. Westborough is 10 miles from Framingham, where TJX Cos., a retail holding company at the center of a massive data...

Debit Card Use Is Growing, But So Is Fraud.
March 8, 2007... The debit card industry is experiencing two types of growth, one good, the other bad. More consumers are using debit cards to pay for purchases, but debit card fraud is rising, according to the Pulse EFT Association. Pulse's "2007 Debit...

Banks Enter Age Of ATM Personalization.
March 8, 2007... LaSalle Bank of Chicago is using the marketing potential of its ATMs to advertise the Shamrock Shuffle, an eight-kilometer race the bank sponsors in Chicago along the city's lakefront and in the downtown Loop. All 450 of LaSalle's Illinois ATMs...

Industry's Split Over Debit Growth Trends.
March 8, 2007... As debit card numbers climb, industry observers disagree over whether signature or PIN debit will grow faster in the future. According to Pulse EFT Association's "2007 Debit Card Study," 39% of banks and credit unions surveyed expect...

Vendor News.
March 8, 2007... WAMU JOINS NACHA Washington Mutual, the Seattle-based bank, has become a direct financial-institution member of NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association. Membership will enable WaMu to help shape the future of the ACH network, says...

News Briefs.
March 15, 2007... BREACH HIT MANUFACTURERS HARD The TJX Cos. Inc. breach that forced hundreds of banks to reissue debit cards overwhelmed card manufacturers because of the size of the intrusion and when it occurred, says Jeff Lewis, senior vice president of...

Most Issuers Drop Debit Card POS Fees.
March 15, 2007... The overwhelming majority of the largest debit card issuers have dropped PIN- and signature-debit transaction fees at the point of sale, according to Bankrate.com's first-ever survey on the subject. Bankrate surveyed the 100 largest banks...

Bank Will Make Own Cards Following Breach.
March 15, 2007... After Visa USA notified Flagstar Bancorp that some of its check cards had been compromised in the recently disclosed TJX Cos. Inc. data breach, bank executives decided to reissue nearly 6,000 of the 10,000 affected cards. They called the bank's...

First Data To Tout PIN-Debit Option For Restaurants.
March 15, 2007... First Data Corp., owner of the Star EFT network, within the next three months plans to begin offering the nation's restaurants a debit card program that emphasizes lower-cost PIN-debit acceptance and is supported by wireless payment terminals....

Controversial Debit Card Overdrafts Grow.
March 15, 2007... More financial institutions are allowing customers to overdraw their checking accounts using debit cards and are providing automatic loans to cover the shortage, a lucrative but controversial initiative that has sparked both litigation and...

Vendor News.
March 15, 2007... CARDTRONICS REPORTS LOSS Cardtronics Inc., a leading nonbank owner of ATMs, reported 2006 fourth-quarter net income of $2.4 million. That compares with a net loss of $1.6 million for the same three-month period in 2005. Fourth quarter...

News Briefs.
March 22, 2007... BANK OFFERS FREE ATM ACCESS National City Corp. is offering new customers free access to other banks' ATMs if the individuals open an Elite checking account, says Jeffrey Kastelic, senior vice president of National City's Deposit Products...

Conference Site Ideal for Fraud Discussions.
March 22, 2007... The Third New England Debit Card Fraud Conference, scheduled for March 19 in Westborough, Mass., is sparking dark humor. Westborough is 10 miles from Framingham, where TJX Cos., a retail holding company at the center of a massive data...

Debit Card Use Is Growing, But So Is Fraud.
March 22, 2007... The debit card industry is experiencing two types of growth, one good, the other bad. More consumers are using debit cards to pay for purchases, but debit card fraud is rising, according to the Pulse EFT Association. Pulse's "2007 Debit...

Banks Enter Age Of ATM Personalization.
March 22, 2007... LaSalle Bank of Chicago is using the marketing potential of its ATMs to advertise the Shamrock Shuffle, an eight-kilometer race the bank sponsors in Chicago along the city's lakefront and in the downtown Loop. All 450 of LaSalle's Illinois ATMs...

Industry's Split Over Debit Growth Trends.
March 22, 2007... As debit card numbers climb, industry observers disagree over whether signature or PIN debit will grow faster in the future. According to Pulse EFT Association's "2007 Debit Card Study," 39% of banks and credit unions surveyed expect...

Vendor News.
March 22, 2007... WAMU JOINS NACHA Washington Mutual, the Seattle-based bank, has become a direct financial-institution member of NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association. Membership will enable WaMu to help shape the future of the ACH network, says...

News Briefs.
March 29, 2007... BREACH HIT 45.6 MILLION CARDS The TJX Cos. breach, which forced thousands of banks to reissue debit cards and overwhelmed card manufacturers, affected at least 45.6 million debit and credit cards, making it the biggest ever compromise of...

Instant Cash Services Will Add To Star's Glow.
March 29, 2007... First Data Corp.'s recent announcement that it has agreed to buy Instant Cash Services, owner of the nation's 16th-largest EFT network, fills a major geographic gap in coverage for First Data's Star network, the nation's second-largest EFT...

3DES Update: Most Banks Are Done, But...
March 29, 2007... Independent owners of ATMs still lag far behind their bank counterparts in upgrading their fleets to meet Triple Data Encryption Standard, or Triple DES, security requirements set by MasterCard Inc. and Visa USA four years ago. And the card...

Banks Drop ATM Fees, Hope To Woo The Wealthy.
March 29, 2007... Consumers often select a bank, and decide whether to stay with one, based on the availability of ATMs. Eliminating foreign fees and reimbursing ATM surcharges have become increasingly popular marketing tools for banks seeking to keep wealthy...

Chase Increases Foreign Fees In Most Markets.
March 29, 2007... JPMorgan Chase & Co., which owns one of the nation's largest bank-owned ATM networks, will raise ATM foreign fees to $2 per transaction from $1.50 in most U.S. markets beginning May 1, ATM&Debit News has learned. In Oklahoma and Wisconsin,...

Vendor News.
March 29, 2007... BANK OPTS FOR INSTANT ISSUE ANB Financial, a Rogers, Ark.-based bank, has selected Dynamic Card Solutions to instantly issue debit and credit cards at the ANB's 14 branches in northwest Arkansas. ANB also has offices in Utah and Wyoming....