Cardline articles from August 2003

Cardline archives from August 2003

PAYPAL PAYS $10 MILLION TO SETTLE GOVERNMENT ACTION.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... PayPal Inc., the online money-transfer network, has paid $10 million to settle a government action involving illegal offshore gambling, Raymond W. Gruender, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, tells CardLine today. PayPal, a...

EBAY REPORTS THAT ITS SECOND-QUARTER NET INCOME MORE THAN DOUBLED.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... eBay Inc., the San Jose, CA-based online auction house, yesterday reported second-quarter net income of $109.7 million on revenues of $509.3 million. This compares with net income of $54.3 million on revenues of $266.3 million for the same...

SHEETZ SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH NATIONAL PROCESSING.(Sheetz Inc. signs a five-year deal with National Processing Co.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Sheetz Inc., an Altoona, PA-based truck stop and convenience-store chain, has signed a five-year agreement with National Processing Co., Rick Steckroth, Sheetz's new business development manager, tells CardLine today. The agreement calls for...

TNB CARD SERVICES OFFERS MASTERCARD FAMILY ACCOUNT TO MEMBERS.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... TNB Card Services, a Dallas-based processor and agent issuer owned by credit unions, announced today that it is offering a MasterCard Family Account to its card- issuing members. The family account features one shared credit line to a primary...

PURCHASE CARD SPENDING DOUBLES.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Spending on purchasing cards doubled from $40 billion to $80 billion between January 2001 and January 2003, according to RPMG Research Corp.'s, "Purchasing Card Benchmark Survey." During the period, monthly spending per card increased 18% to...

CYBERSOURCE TO PROCESS CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS FOR UCLA.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... CyberSource Corp. announced this week that it will process credit card transactions for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Cybersource will process tuition, housing, parking, and even ticket payments. Mountain View, CA-based...

LIFTING OF SURCHARGE BANS FOR SHARED DEPOSITS HAS NOT YET CAUGHT ON.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Only a few financial institutions have taken advantage of surcharging for shared-deposit transactions at ATMs now that NYCE and Pulse networks have lifted their bans. Houston-based Pulse and the Montvale, NJ-based NYCE earlier this year began...

AMEX'S TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES REPORTS RECORD SECOND-QUARTER PROFIT.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... American Express Co.'s Travel Related Services this afternoon reported record second-quarter net income of $634 million, up 12% compared with $565 million for the same three-month period last year. Second-quarter revenues were $4.7 billion, up...

FAIR ISAAC BUYS NAREX FOR $10 MILLION.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Fair Isaac Corp. announced today that it has acquired Narex Inc., a collections software developer, for $10 million in cash, effective immediately. The acquisition will allow Fair Isaac to offer analysis of a consumer loan account from...

BANKS BELIEVE THEIR FUTURE GROWTH WILL BE 'INDEBITED' TO DEBIT.
August 1, 2003... Banks see debit cards as a major strategic growth area, and they will encourage debt card use through a variety of methods, according to a survey released today by the American Bankers Association. "When asked to rank growth opportunities over...

PAYMENT CARDS GROW IN EUROPE AND TURKEY.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Payment cards in circulation in 16 Western European countries and Turkey reached 642 million at the end of 2002, up 16% from 2000, according to a survey by United Kingdom-based Retail Banking Research. Transaction volume grew even faster, up...

GLOBAL PAYMENTS LOSES COURT APPEAL IN CANADA.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Global Payments Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc., has lost a court case involving financially troubled Air Canada. The Court of Appeal for Ontario Friday upheld a lower-court ruling that Air Canada did not have to...

SCA, AMEX LAUNCH STORED-VALUE INITIATIVE.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... SCA Promotions Inc, a Dallas-based provider of financial coverage for prizes in contests and promotions, today announced an initiative in which it will provide American Express Co.-branded stored-value cards to clients at a discount. Bob...

VISA USA ELECTS BANK OF AMERICA'S PHILLIPS CHAIRMAN, REPLACING HEASLEY.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Visa USA today announced that its board of directors elected G. Patrick Phillips chairman. Phillips, president of Bank of America's Card Services and e-commerce unit, replaces Philip Heasley, former CEO of Bank One Card Services. Heasley...

CONCORD REPORTS RISE IN NET INCOME.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Concord EFS Inc., the Memphis, TN-based transaction processor and owner of the Star electronic funds transfer network, today reported net income of $86.1 million for the second quarter ended June 30, up 36% from $63.2 million during the same...

CHARGEOFFS DROPPED IN JUNE, BUT ECONOMY COULD SPARK AN UPTICK.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Despite a drop in chargeoffs for pools of securitized card receivables in June, credit quality is expected to begin to deteriorate again in late summer, says Richard C. Drason, director at Fitch Asset Backed Securities. Chargeoffs in June fell...

PROVIDIAN REPORTS SECOND-QUARTER NET INCOME OF $39 MILLION.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Providian Financial Corp. late yesterday reported second-quarter net income of $39 million, down 75% compared with $153.9 million for the same three-month period last year. In a statement Providian's Chairman and CEO, Joseph Saunders, said the...

SMARTPAY PROGRAM GENERATED $21 BILLION IN TRANSACTION VOLUME IN 2002.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... The federal government's SmartPay commercial card program in fiscal 2002 generated nearly $21 billion in transaction volume, a 7% increase compared with $19.7 billion in fiscal 2001, Stanley W. Anderson, chairman and CEO of Denver-based E-Smart...

AMERICAN TELESERVICES WANTS COURT TO HANG UP ON 'DO-NOT-CALL' LIST.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... The American Teleservices Association filed a petition yesterday seeking judicial review of the Federal Communications Commission order that this month adopted the "do-not-call" rules of the Federal Trade Commission. The ATA also asked the FCC...

AMEX BANK OF CANADA EXPECTS TO ISSUE COBRANDED CARD THIS FALL.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... AmEx Bank of Canada expects to begin issuing a cobranded American Express and Air Canada charge card this fall, an AmEx Bank spokesperson tells CardLine today. The subsidiary of American Express Co. signed a letter of intent in June with Air...

MASTERCARD TEAMS WITH LPGA.(Ladies Professional Golf Association)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... The Daytona Beach, FL-based Ladies Professional Golf Association has named MasterCard International an official sponsor and official payment system of the LPGA, a MasterCard spokesperson tells CardLine. The partnership between MasterCard and...

METRIS SELLS TWO ENHANCEMENT LINES TO CPP.
August 1, 2003... Struggling subprime credit card issuer Metris Companies Inc. late Tuesday disclosed that it has sold its lucrative membership-program and warranty businesses to British enhancement vendor, CPP Group, for an undisclosed price. Minnetonka,...

TARGET ROLLS OUT SMART COUPONS.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Target Corp. began last week the rollout of its so-called Smart Coupons, the much-anticipated rewards program tied to the Visa smart card that has already proven itself an extraordinary success for the Minneapolis-based retailer. Cardholders...

IRS COLLECTS $75 MILLION FROM OFFSHORE CARD ACCOUNTS.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... The Internal Revenue Service this afternoon reported that it has collected $75 million so far from U.S. citizens who used credit and debit cards issued by offshore banks to hide their taxable income. The IRS collected the money from 1,299 U.S....

EQUIFAX AGREES TO PAY $250,000 SETTLEMENT.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Equifax Credit Information Services Inc. today agreed to pay $250,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that Equifax violated a 2000 consent decree, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of...

TSYS WILL BUILD EUROPEAN DATA CENTER.(Total System Services Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) announced today that it will build a 53,000-square-foot European data center in Knaresborough, United Kingdom. The building is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2004. It will replace a data center that...

E*TRADE ACCESS ADDS NYCE TRADEMARK TO ITS ATMS.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... E*Trade Access, the nation's second-largest independent ATM operator, will add NYCE Corp.'s trademark to the 15,000 ATMs E*Trade operates. The deal boosts the number of ATMs connected to the NYCE network to 120,000 YCE's trademark on E*Trade...

EARNINGS ROUNDUP - EFUNDS, OBERTHUR, SCHLUMBERGER, NCR.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... EFunds Corp. the Scottsdale, AZ-based EFT transaction processor and ATM operator, today reported net income of $5.1 million, up 13% compared with $4.5 million for the same three-month period last year. Revenue was $133 million, down 0.4%...

VISA GIVES ISSUERS FREEDOM TO TAILOR CARD PRODUCTS.
August 1, 2003... Visa USA announced today that it will give member banks greater control over the Classic, Gold and Platinum designations on consumer credit cards. The changes will allow Visa issuers to bundle benefits to better target various cardholder...

DC CITY COUNCIL OVERRIDES MAYOR'S VETO OF CARD PROGRAM.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... During an emergency session yesterday, Washington, DC's City Council unanimously voted to override Mayor Anthony Williams' veto of legislation prohibiting city employees from using credit cards for city business. The council voted 11-0, with...

MASTERCARD HOLDS NATIONAL FORUM ABOUT CULTIVATING THE HISPANIC MARKET.
August 1, 2003... MasterCard International, which began targeting Hispanics four years ago, Wednesday held its first-ever national forum with issuers and key partners about cultivating the growing Hispanic market. Hispanics now are the nation's largest ethnic...

CARDS SHAKE UP STEAK SHAKE'S FINANCES.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Credit card transactions now account for 20% of sales at The Steak Shake Co. since the restaurant chain began accepting cards in December, Vic Yeandal, vice president of marketing, tells CardLine today. On Tuesday, the Indianapolis-based...

BORDERS CROSSES THE LINE AND MERGES CARD PROGRAM WITH WALDENBOOKS.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Borders Group Inc., of Ann Arbor, MI, today announced it is combining the cobranded card programs of its Borders and Waldenbooks bookstores. The Platinum Visa cards are issued by Chicago-based Bank One Corp. Under the new Borders and...

EARNINGS REPORTS - PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES, APAC.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Bad-debt buyer and collection agency Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc. late Wednesday reported second-quarter net income of $5.24 million, up 93% from $2.72 million a year earlier. The 2002 earnings are on a pro-forma basis that factors in the...

BB&T SELECTS ACI WORLDWIDE.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... BB&T Co., of Winston-Salem, NC, has chosen ACI Worldwide's Base24-es ATM software to process transactions on BB&T's 1,900 ATMs. BB&T will use Base24-es to process transactions on the bank's existing IBM zSeries platform, according to an...

NEW INTERCHANGE RATES TAKE EFFECT TODAY.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Today the new Visa USA and MasterCard International interchange rates take effect for offline, signature-based debit card transactions as result of the card associations' separate out-of-court settlements with retailers. The settlements paved...

MIDWEST ACQUIRERS CONFERENCE A HIT.(MidWest Acquirers Association)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Planners at the new MidWest Acquirers Association expected about 200 people from independent sales organizations, third-party processors and vendors to attend the group's first conference this week at a downtown Chicago hotel, but more than 400...

NORTHWEST CREDIT UNIONS FORM OWN SURCHARGE-FREE ALLIANCE.(Northwest Credit Union Alliance)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Sometimes just belonging to a no-surcharge ATM alliance is not enough. Being assured access to surcharge-free ATMs, at least locally, when changing processors also can be important for some financial institutions, particularly for small credit...

DC SUSPENDS COMMERCIAL CARD PROGRAM.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Washington, DC, has suspended its U.S. Bancorp-administered purchasing card program, a spokesperson for City Council Chairman, Linda W. Cropp, tells CardLine today. The suspension began Wednesday, the same day that the council unanimously voted...

U.S. BANCORP WILL HELP DC WITH CARD PROGRAM.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... U.S. Bancorp, which administers Washington, DC's purchase card program, is supporting District of Columbia officials in their efforts to save the card program, Chris Pieroth, senior vice president of product and marketing for U.S. Bancorp's...

PROVIDENT SELLS MERCHANT BUSINESS TO NOVA.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Atlanta-based Nova Information Systems will provide processing services to The Provident Bank's 3,000 card-accepting merchants under a long-term marketing agreement announced Thursday afternoon. The merchants have annual Visa-MasterCard charge...

ATM DRIVERS SHOW LITTLE GROWTH.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... The results of a new survey of the top-10 third-party ATM drivers by CardLine's sister publication, ATM&Debit News, show little net growth in ATM-driving activity other than from acquisitions. The number of ATMs driven by the top-10 third-party...

PROVIDIAN SELLS PORTFOLIO AND WILL MERGE CARD-ISSUING BANKS.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Providian Financial Corp. today sold 435,000 high-risk subprime credit card accounts to a joint venture of CompuCredit Corp. and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., a Providian spokesperson tells CardLine. San Francisco-based Providian disclosed that the...

MASTERCARD REPORTS SECOND-QUARTER, SIX MONTHS FINANCIALS.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... MasterCard International reported a second-quarter gross dollar volume worldwide of $308.1 billion, a 4.8% increase from the first quarter, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document filed on Friday. Worldwide, MasterCard's...

TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS RECORDS THIRD-QUARTER LOSS.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Transaction Systems Architects Inc., an Omaha, NE-based provider of e-payments and e-commerce software, Friday reported a third-quarter net loss of $1.9 million compared with a net income of $5 million for the same three-month period last year....

ELECTRONIC CLEARING HOUSE REPORTS POSITIVE NET INCOME.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Electronic Clearing House Inc., the Agoura Hills, CA-based provider of electronic payment services, today reported a third-quarter net income of $308,000 compared with a net loss of $168,000 for the same three-month period last year. Revenues...

BANK ONE DROPS FEE FOR CUSTOMERS WHO PAY BILLS ONLINE.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Bank One Corp. Sunday dropped its $4.95 monthly service fee for most customers who pay their bills online. "Our research shows that online bill pay users are more loyal customers, which means they value this service. We want to make it more...

ARTISANS' BANK SELLS CARD PORTFOLIO TO ELAN FINANCIAL.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Artisans' Bank has sold its nearly $1 million Visa card portfolio to Elan Financial Services through a deal arranged by Brookwood Capital, of Peterborough, NH lan signed a licensing agreement with Artisans, which is based in Wilmington, DE, Tim...

CO-OP OFFERS VERIFIED BY VISA TO MEMBERS.(CO-OP Network )(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... CO-OP Network today announced that it is offering Verified by Visa to CO-OP's member credit unions to prevent online fraud. Verified by Visa uses a series of identification measures to authenticate legitimate online purchases. CO-OP Network's...

IF YOU LEAVE, VISA SAYS YOU'LL PAY.
August 8, 2003... William Cooper, president and chairman of TCF Financial Inc., contends it was credit card issuers, not Visa check card issuers, that set Visa USA's "honor-all-cards" policy. But it is debit issuers alone who are paying the penalty, he says....

VISA'S 'EXIT-FEES' RULE RAISES ANTITRUST FLAG.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... David Balto, a former Federal Trade Commission antitrust policy director, says Visa USA's new bylaw that financially penalizes Visa check card issuers that want to defect to a different brand raises antitrust and contract-legality questions....

CHANGING OF THE GUARD AT VITAL.(Beverly Wells appointed president and CEO at Vital Processing Services L.L.C. )(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Vital Processing Services LLC announced today that Beverly Wells has been named president and CEO effective yesterday, replacing Jonathan Palmer. Wells retired from Wachovia Corp. in 2002, serving most recently as executive vice president of...

WENDY'S EXPANDS CARD PROGRAM.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Wendy's International, the Dublin, OH-based fast-food chain, will roll out credit and debit card acceptance to 3,000 company-owned and franchised restaurants nationwide by November, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange...

PSCU SIGNS CARD-PROCESSING AGREEMENT.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Educational Employees Credit Union today announced a five-year contract with PSCU Financial Services, the nation's largest credit-union service organization. The credit union, which is based in Fresno, CA, will convert its 62,000 debit and...

7-ELEVEN INSTALLS 1,000 VCOMS.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... 7-Eleven Inc. recently disclosed that it has completed the installation of 1,000 Vcom kiosks in convenience stores in 14 states and Washington, DC. Vcom is 7-Eleven's proprietary device that offers ATM capabilities and touch-screen convenience...

NATIONWIDE CREDIT HIRES EVP.(Patrick E. Carroll appointed executive vice president)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Nationwide Credit Inc., a Kennesaw, GA, accounts-receivable management company, today announced that it hired Patrick E. Carroll as executive vice president. Carroll will oversee the company's strategic marketing direction and serve as a key...

TOWERGROUP - SETTLEMENTS WILL MEAN LITTLE FOR SMALL MERCHANTS.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... A new report from the TowerGroup Inc. consultancy, Needham, MA, predicts that the spring settlements of the class-action lawsuit by millions of merchants against Visa USA and MasterCard International will mean little if any savings to small...

EBT DRIVING DOWN FOOD STAMP TRAFFICKING.(use of electronic fund transfers)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Eric M. Bost, undersecretary for food nutrition and consumer services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees food stamp benefits, told a Congressional subcommittee recently that trafficking in food stamps has declined...

NACHA WILL TEST ELECTRONIC BILL DELIVERY.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association announced today it will test an electronic billing program where billers use the Automated Clearing House network to deliver their bills to a consumer's financial institution. The consumer would log on...

LOSSES NOT AS STEEP FOR CHECKFREE.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... CheckFree Corp. Tuesday reported a net loss of $17 million for its fourth fiscal quarter ended June 30. That compares to a net loss of $59.4 million from the year-earlier period. It reported fourth-quarter revenue of $144.6 million, compared to...

MORRIS WILL EXERCISE HIS CAP ONE STOCK OPTIONS.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Capital One Corp. Vice Chairman Nigel Morris today announced plans to sell three million shares of Capital One common stock within the next year to diversify his financial assets when he steps down as president and COO in April 2004. He will...

BANK ONE CARDHOLDERS LIFT OFF IN UAL MILEAGE CONTEST.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... United Mileage Plus Visa cardholders will be automatically entered into a one-million-mile giveaway contest for every purchase they make between Aug. 16 and Sep. 30, United Airlines and Bank One Corp. announced this week. Bank One issues...

FIFTH THIRD SNAGS NCF DEBIT PROCESSING.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Memphis, TN-based National Commerce Financial Corp. selected Fifth Third Bank as the processor of its 800,000 check cards, Fifth Third announced this week. National Commerce is a bank holding company with $22 billion in assets and 500 branches...

REVOLVING CREDIT COOLS OFF.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Annualized growth in consumer revolving credit fell to a negative 2.2% in June on a seasonally adjusted basis in sharp contrast to May's relatively robust 6.7% growth rate, the Federal Reserve reported today. The Fed reports $725.5 billion in...

RISING STOCK MARKET IS HAVING LESS OF AN INFLUENCE ON CARD SPENDING.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Recent improvements in the stock market have not prompted many more consumers to pull out their credit cards and yell, "charge it," according to a survey released today by Cambridge Consumer Credit Index of Islandia, NY. Cambridge's August...

AMEX PLANS LINK WITH MAJOR EUROPEAN AIRLINE.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... American Express Co. is in the process of forming an alliance with a major European air carrier, and the card issuer expects to announce the pact shortly, AmEx President and CEO Kenneth I. Chenault told investors earlier this week. AmEx today...

AMEX BANK OF CANADA PROMISES NEW COBRANDED CARD WILL MAKE A FASHION STATEMENT.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Amex Bank of Canada promises that its new credit card for Holt Renfrew, a Toronto-based high-end clothing store chain, will be fashionable enough to strut down the runway with the most graceful of models. Italian designer, Roberto Cavalli,...

U.K. CARDHOLDERS LIKE CHIP AND PIN.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... British banks and merchants have wrapped up a three-month trial of paying with smart cards and personal identification numbers at checkout counters, concluding that consumers were quite willing to switch from signatures to PINs. "We sometimes...

IPAYMENT COMPLETES PURCHASE OF CARD PAYMENT SOLUTIONS.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Processor iPayment Inc. reported today second-quarter results, and that it closed yesterday on its acquisition of Card Payment Solutions Inc., an independent sales organization. IPayment paid about $16 million for CPS, including $12 million in...

DISCOVER, WILDCARD FORM PREPAID CARD PARTNERSHIP.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Discover Financial Services today announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with WildCard Systems, a Sunrise, FL, technology company. As part of their partnership, WildCard Systems will process bank-issued, stored-value cards that...

FORMER MBNA EMPLOYEE ALLEGEDLY KILLS FORMER SUPERVISOR AND WOUNDS CO-WORKER.(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... A former MBNA America Bank employee allegedly shot and killed his former supervisor and wounded a co-worker over the weekend in Delaware and Pennsylvania. The alleged shooter then took his own life, according to the Wilmington News Journal....

TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS ANNOUNCES FORMAL SEC INVESTIGATION.(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... Transaction Systems Architects Inc., an Omaha, NE-based provider of ATM and e-commerce software, announced Friday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a formal investigation into the company's finances. The disclosure...

SELLER'S BANKRUPTCY CUTS INTERCEPT PROFIT.(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... Transaction processor InterCept Inc. today reported that second-quarter net income fell 87% to $648,000 from $4.85 million in the 2002 period even though revenues increased 16% to $64.1 million from $55.1 million a year earlier. Norcross,...

TNB CARD SERVICES BUYS MICHIGAN CREDIT UNION'S CARD PORTFOLIO.(Lapeer County Community Credit Union )(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... TNB Card Services, a credit-union owned bank, has purchased the credit card assets of Lapeer County Community Credit Union in Lapeer, MI, a TNB spokesperson tells CardLine today. The credit union's card program has more than $3 million in...

DEBIT SETTLEMENT WILL COST WELLS $30 MILLION A QUARTER.(Wells Fargo and Co. )(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... Visa check card issuer Wells Fargo & Co. reported Friday that Visa USA Inc.'s settlement with retailers over forced debit card acceptance will reduce Wells' fee income by about $30 million a quarter. That figure assumes no increase in volume...

WESTERN UNION BUYS STAKE IN U.K. CELL-PHONE SERVICES PROVIDER.
August 15, 2003... First Data Corp. announced today that its Western Union Financial Services Inc. subsidiary has bought a majority stake in Eposs Ltd., a Cambridge, England-based provider of payment technology for prepaid cellular telephones. Terms weren't...

NATIONAL PROCESSING DETAILS CONCERNS ABOUT POSSIBLE AIRLINE CHARGEBACKS.(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... Merchant-acquirer National Processing Inc. today filed its second-quarter report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and in it expresses concern about processing tickets for bankrupt United Airlines and an unnamed air carrier....

PROCESSORS PROFIT DURING FIRST HALF.(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... Credit and debit card transaction processors generally enjoyed a highly profitable first half, according to an analysis of company financial reports by CardLine sister publication Credit Card Management magazine. Ten processors collectively...

VISA CREATES SELECTIVE-SURCHARGE ALLIANCE.(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... Visa USA's Plus ATM network, which first lifted a ban on ATM surcharges eight years ago, now is joining the ranks of other networks to offer a selective-surcharge alliance. Visa announced yesterday that it is creating what it has branded the...

JUDGE REDUCES AWARD IN EBAY PATENT-INFRINGEMENT CASE.(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... U.S. District Court Judge Jerome Friedman has reduced a patent-infringement lawsuit award against eBay Inc. A jury in May had ordered eBay to pay Great Falls, VA-based MercExchange $35 million (CardLine 5/28). But Judge Friedman cut the award...

PAYMENTECH SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH USA PETROLEUM.(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... Merchant acquirer Paymentech L.P. has signed an agreement with USA Petroleum to process card transactions over high- speed Internet connections, a Paymentech spokesperson tells CardLine. Paymentech, which is based in Dallas, will process both...

JAPANESE ISSUER SELECTS CYOTA.(UC Card contracts Cyota and Intelligent Wave Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... UC Card, one of Japan's largest issuers, has selected Cyota and its Japanese partner, Intelligent Wave Inc., to provide the Verified by Visa authentication service. The service will be available to UC cardholders and merchants. UC Card, which...

CITIGROUP NAMES NEW HEAD OF ITS GLOBAL CONSUMER GROUP.(Brief Article)
August 15, 2003... Citigroup Inc. has named Marjorie Magner chairman and CEO of its Global Consumer Group, which includes the financial- services company's giant card business. The Global Consumer business generated a $4.5 billion profit and was responsible for...

GLOBAL PAYMENTS BUYS LATIN AMERICAN MONEY-TRANSFER BUSINESS.
August 15, 2003... Global Payments Inc. crossed the border into a new line of work today with the purchase of a Latin American consumer-to- consumer money-transfer company, Paul R. Garcia, Global's chairman, president and CEO, told analysts during a conference...