ATM & Debit News articles from October 2004

ATM & Debit News archives from October 2004

Focus On Products, Not Rates.
October 7, 2004... Leading network and banking executives urged participants at Thomson Media's ATM & Debit Forum in Baltimore this week to get beyond past issues of interchange differences between PIN-based and signature-based debit and focus more on competitive...

Citibank Joins MoneyPass.
October 7, 2004... Citibank is joining the MoneyPass surcharge-free ATM network. Participation in Fort Washington, Pa.-based Genpass Inc.'s MoneyPass gives Citibank customers access to about 8,000 ATMs surcharge-free. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All...

Despite ATM Sale, E*Trade Still A Party In Lawsuit.
October 7, 2004... E*Trade Financial Corp. may have recently sold its ATM portfolio, but it is still facing litigation stemming from the machines. And so is the buyer of its ATM contracts, the Cardtronics Inc. independent sales organization. The state of...

Networkless TSYS Works To Fill Other Pieces Of Debit Pie.
October 7, 2004... Most large transaction processors now own their own electronic funds transfer network to support the switching of PIN-based debit card transactions for client financial institutions and merchants. First Data Corp., for example, owns the largest...

AmEx, Discover To Use Ruling To Target U.S. Credit Card Market; Is Debit Next?
October 7, 2004... With the U.S. Supreme Court Monday rejecting appeals by Visa USA and MasterCard International to review lower-court decisions ordering them to allow their members to issue American Express and Discover cards, AmEx and Discover Financial...

VeriFone Makes A Push For Speed.
October 7, 2004... VeriFone Inc., a leading payment-terminal supplier, has had some success of late securing merchant deals for high-speed devices in the quick-service restaurant industry. Now the company is trying to encourage other retail markets to pick up the...

E*Trade's ADA Troubles.
October 7, 2004... 6/03 Massachusetts and the National Federation of the Blind sue E*Trade over visually impaired access to 13,000 ATMs the firm operates but does not own. 6/04 E*Trade sells its ATM portfolio to Cardtronics Inc. 9/04 Federation...

Interest In Mid-Priced ATMs Up.
October 7, 2004... Long Beach, Miss.-based Triton is now selling more mid-priced machines to financial institutions outside the U.S. than it is to nonfinancial institutions, Triton President Brian Kett told attendees of Thomson Media's ATM & Debit Forum in...

Fiserv's Muma To Retire In 2006.
October 7, 2004... Leslie M. Muma, president and CEO of Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv Inc., Oct. 5 announced plans to retire in June 2006 after more than 33 years with the data processor and electronic funds transfer company. Muma says he wanted to give his board...

MasterCard To Support Deposits.
October 14, 2004... MasterCard International next year will begin to support optional shared-deposit services for U.S. member financial institutions that participate in MasterCard's Cirrus ATM network, according to Richard G. Lyons Jr., MasterCard senior vice...

Thomson Media Sold.
October 14, 2004... Thomson Media, publisher of ATM & Debit News, Credit Card Management, CardLine, Card Technology, ISO&Agent and an assortment of other publications, announced Oct. 8 an agreement to be purchased by Investcorp S.A., a global investment house with...

EFunds Looks To Global Market With New Cash.
October 14, 2004... EFunds Corp. soon will have some extra cash on hand when it completes the impending $150 million sale of its entire off-premise ATM-management program to TRM Corp. With the sale, eFunds will have about $319 million in net cash available to use...

Citibank, Genpass Enter Into A Cozy ATM Relationship.
October 14, 2004... The largest financial institutions historically have kept most of their ATM operations centralized as an in-house activity, even for their machines deployed at non-branch locations. Some organizations, though, are opening the door for third...

While Encouraging Use Of Debit PINs, Merchant Says Fingers Do The Talking.
October 14, 2004... Merchants in recent years have been exploring ways to encourage debit cardholders to use their PINs instead of signatures to reduce the cost of the payment. A Seattle-based supermarket has found a means to achieve that goal at the tips of its...

Genpass-Citibank Ties.
October 14, 2004... * Genpass operates and owns 250 Citibank-branded off-premise ATMs. * Citibank pays Genpass various fees to operate the ATMs. * Citibank plans to use Genpass' MoneyPass surcharge-free ATM network. Source: Genpass, Citibank,...

NYCE Switching Canadian Purchases.
October 14, 2004... Canadians, who prefer to use their PIN-debit cards to shop more so than cash, checks or credit cards, can now use their debit cards to initiate purchases south of the border. NYCE Corp. on Oct. 8 announced the official launch of an initiative...

Bank Outsourcing In The U.K.
October 14, 2004... Do Not Outsource 57% Outsource Both ATM and POS 20% Outsource ATM Only 17% Outsource POS Only 7% Source: eFunds Corp. Results, based on a survey conducted by Metrica Research, show...

Diebold Cuts Earnings Forecast.
October 14, 2004... North Canton Ohio-based Diebold Inc. says costs associated with litigation over alleged problems with its ATM-like voting machines have caused the ATM maker to cut its third-quarter earnings forecast, to about 67 cents a share from a projected...

Accel/Exchange Adds ExxonMobil.
October 14, 2004... Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv Inc. announced Oct. 12 that its Accel/Exchange electronic funds transfer network has added 14,000 ExxonMobil Corp. service stations and stores to the ATM and point-of-sale debit network's list of participating...

ATM Servicers Sue Diebold.
October 21, 2004... The Financial & Security Products Association, an Albuquerque, N.M.-based group composed of ATM servicers, announced Oct. 18 the filing of an antitrust lawsuit against North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc. in U.S. District Court in San...

BofA Closes Processor Deal.
October 21, 2004... Bank of America Corp. announced Oct. 18 that it has closed on its $1.4 billion acquisition of National Processing Inc., the No. 2 merchant acquirer. BofA's merchant unit will be combined with National Processing's and will be known as BA...

Surcharge-Free Service Opens Door For Debit Marketing.
October 21, 2004... Charges for debit card use never have been particularly popular among cardholders. And for issuers, the potential for bad publicity could negate an institution's goals, including generating greater interchange revenue through fees applied just...

MasterCard Adds Charity Giving As A Rewards Option.
October 21, 2004... Summit State Bank in Santa Rosa, Calif., launched a program last November that enables its debit and credit cardholders to convert rewards points to cash they can donate to up to three different charities and local schools. Now, MasterCard...

Not All Independent ATM Programs Suffer From Low Margins, Volume.
October 21, 2004... Recent decisions by eFunds Corp. and American Express Co. to sell their large ATM portfolios have been spurred primarily by declining transaction volumes and profit margins in many off-premise ATM locations, say industry observers and financial...

Leveraging Free ATM Networks.
October 21, 2004... OBA Bank: Ended its surcharge-reimbursement program when it joined the Allpoint network. Pentagon Federal Credit Union: Leverages its Allpoint affiliation to convert PIN-only debit cards to dual-function cards. Source: Financial...

Nietech's Loyalty Programs.
October 21, 2004... Communitycash: Developed to convert card issuers' rewards points to cash contributions for up to three schools and charities chosen by cardholders. Communitysmart: Designed to increase cash, check, debit and credit card purchase volume for...

Benny Card Firm Uses Sweepstakes To Buoy FSAs.
October 21, 2004... Companies throughout the country are just beginning their annual open-enrollment periods during which workers choose their health-insurance coverage for next year. In many cases, employees also can choose to have pre-tax payroll deductions...

Global Axcess At A Glance.
October 21, 2004... Headquarters Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. ISO Subsidiary Nationwide Money Services ATM Contracts 3,300* Revenues $3.1 million** Source: Global Axcess, ATM&Debit News. *Includes two recent ISO purchases....

Metavante Gives M&I A Boost.
October 21, 2004... Milwaukee-based Metavante Corp., which owns the NYCE electronic funds transfer network, played a sizable role in third-quarter revenue growth for its parent, Marshall & Ilsley Corp. Fee revenue from Metavante increased 43.7%, to $239 million...

Efmark To Manage Bank's ATMs.
October 21, 2004... Westmont, Ill.-based Efmark Inc. has reached a deal to service and supply cash to most of Detroit-based Comerica Inc.'s 500 ATMs. Robert Malik, Efmark senior vice president, says Efmark will maintain all of Comerica's ATMs and replenish cash...

Diebold Denies Charges.
October 28, 2004... North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc. denies the key allegations contained in a lawsuit brought last week by the Financial & Security Products Association, an Albuquerque, N.M.-based organization that represents third-party ATM servicers. In a...

Co-op Renews With Star.
October 28, 2004... Co-op Network, the Ontario, Calif.-based electronic funds transfer network for credit unions, has renewed its relationship with First Data Corp.'s Star EFT network. Under the multiyear deal Co-op will continue to process most of its PIN-based...

A California Bill Governing ISOs Is 'Terminated'.
October 28, 2004... Many states have tried unsuccessfully to regulate, or even ban, fees financial institutions charge noncustomers who use their ATMs. Most financial institutions have opposed such attempts, and federal courts have ruled that only federal...

Visa, MasterCard Rules For Prepaid Cards Are Murky.
October 28, 2004... Proprietary merchant gift cards are the most common type of non-personalized prepaid debit product sold today. And while banks may want to similarly issue open-system nonpersonalized prepaid cards carrying the MasterCard International or Visa...

NetBank Begins To Cross-Sell Services As It Explores New Revenue Options.
October 28, 2004... When NetBank Inc. nearly a year ago acquired Financial Technologies Inc., a Jackson, Miss.-based ATM independent sales organization, industry observers said the ATM base would help the branchless financial institution to consumer customers'...

Key NetBank Facts.
October 28, 2004... Founded February 1996 Headquarters Alpharetta, Ga. ATM Contracts About 8,000 POS Processing Customers About 2,300 Source: NetBank Inc. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media...

Merchant Gift Card Popularity Is Up.
October 28, 2004... At Thomson Media's ATM & Debit Forum earlier this month in Baltimore, a number of presenters commented on how slow the banking industry has been to embrace the burgeoning prepaid gift card market with open-system gift cards that carry the Visa...

How Instant-Issue Rules Vary.
October 28, 2004... MasterCard: The buyer's name must be embossed. Cardholders must be able to use the card wherever MasterCard is accepted. Visa: An "identifier" such as the issuer's name, but not the buyer's name, must be embossed. Cardholders must be able...

BofA To Use Aptra ATM Software.
October 28, 2004... Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, which owns 16,000 ATMs, will use Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp.'s Aptra software for ATM functions that require an open-architecture environment, according to NCR and BofA. BofA intends to use Aptra, which...

Card Covers Roadside-Aid Costs.
October 28, 2004... The Universal Cash Express unit of Universal Express Inc., a New York-based value-added services provider, is entering into a partnership with 1-800-Tow-Truck to provide prepaid roadside assistance cards. The Visa-branded card is designed to...