Cardline articles from February 2007

Cardline archives from February 2007

ANALYST: "WE'RE FAR FROM SEEING LEGISLATION ENACTED.".
February 2, 2007... There was the predictable sound and fury, but the upshot of yesterday's hearing before the Senate Banking Committee appears more likely to be pressure on the credit card industry to voluntarily alter some practices rather than new legislation...

HSBC LAUNCHES NFC TRIAL.(HSBC Credit Card Services)(Near Field Communication)(contactless mobile payment)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... HSBC Credit Card Services, the U.S. credit card unit of UK-based HSBC Group, announced today it has launched a trial of contactless mobile payment among employees, using NFC-enabled phones and MasterCard WorldWide's PayPass application. NFC, or...

FIRST DATA TO CONSOLIDATE DATA CENTERS AND PROCESSING PLATFORMS.(First Data Corp.)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... First Data Corp. will pare down its data centers from 12 to three beginning sometime this year and whittle down its processing platforms from 13 in the United States to four, said Henry C. Duques, chairman and CEO, of the Greenwood Village,...

TJX'S STOLEN CARD NUMBERS ARE BEING USED ACROSS THE GLOBE.(TJX Companies Inc.)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... The Massachusetts Bankers Association reported that card numbers stolen from TJX Companies stores had been used to make fraudulent purchases in several U.S. states, as well as in Sweden and Hong Kong. However, Bruce Spitzer, director of the...

REWARDS CARDS REWARD ISSUERS.
February 2, 2007... A recent Aite Group report estimated that U.S. financial institutions spent $10.3 billion on reward programs last year (Cardline 1/19), and comments from executives during the recent round of earnings reports suggest issuers feel they are...

SMALL-BIZ CARD CEO TALKS ABOUT STACKING UP TO BIG GUYS.
February 2, 2007... On tying up a "banner year," Advanta Corp.'s chairman and CEO boasted about gaining on large competitors and how he's bullish on the company's prospects over the next few years. During the company's quarterly earnings call Thursday, Dennis...

CARD PAYMENTS COME TO BROADWAY CONCESSIONS.(Broadway theaters)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Eight Broadway theaters' concession stands have started accepting card payments, including contactless cards, in an effort to speed people through concession lines. "They've gone to a very advanced payment infrastructure in these theaters," a...

BRIEFS.(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... New York-based payment processor Pure Vanilla exchange appointed Tucker Taylor chief operating officer and Andrew Rosengard senior financial and strategic advisor.... Gift card processor Catuity Inc. teamed with ISO Ameribanc National Ltd. to...

CITIGROUP ACQUIRES UK'S EGG.
February 2, 2007... Citigroup Inc. has agreed to purchase Egg Banking plc, the Internet-banking division of UK-based insurance company Prudential plc, in a deal worth $1.126 billion ([pounds sterling]575 million). Carlos Menendez, Citigroup's head of cards for...

MASS. LAWMAKER WANTS TO MAKE MERCHANTS LIABLE FOR BREACHES; RETAILERS FIRE BACK.(Retailers Association of Massachusetts)(Michael A. Costello)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... A proposal introduced this month in the Massachusetts General Court would require breached commercial entities to reimburse banks for card-reissuance and other related costs that result. But a group representing Massachusetts' retailers is...

DEBIT CARD LOANS MAY RECEIVE CONGRESSIONAL SCRUNITY.
February 2, 2007... Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) will re-introduce a bill in Congress this year, that if passed, will affect how banks treat customers who overdraft their checking accounts with their debit cards and are extended unsolicited loans by banks to...

TJX ATTEMPTS DAMAGE CONTROL.(TJX Companies Inc.)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... The month-long delay between TJX Cos. learning of a computer security breach and making the breach public was an effort to contain the problem, said TJX Chairman and acting CEO Ben Cammarata in a full-page ad in Sunday's Boston Globe and...

REPORT PREDICTS 63% GROWTH IN ELECTRONIC BILL PAYMENT.(Brief article)(Statistical data)
February 2, 2007... By 2011, 63% of households with Internet connections will pay their bills online compared to 38% of online households in 2005, suggests a new report from Forrester Research Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based firm. Generationally, however, online...

INTERNET COMPLEMENTS DIRECT-MAIL CARD CAMPAIGNS.(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Businesses' and consumers' mailboxes are "inundated with direct mail and promotional rates," yet an executive for small-business credit card issuer Advanta Corp. said last week that the company has "not seen evidence of a drop in this market."...

CELL PHONE MARKETING SCHEME TARGETS ISSUERS.(Rocketbux's mobile marketing scheme)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Hoping to replicate the success of Google's pay-per-click online advertising model, start-up Rocketbux has signed up its first merchant for a service that delivers offers to consumers' cell phones. Paradise Tan, a tanning salon in Rocketbux's...

BRIEFS.
February 2, 2007... Prepaid card provider nFinanSe Inc., announced it will offer cardholders free customer service by phone....American Express Inc. announced it added Yale University President Richard C. Levin and Aetna Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Ronald...

TJX DATA BREACH SPAWNS LAWSUIT.
February 2, 2007... Two law firms have filed a class-action lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against TJX Cos. Inc., accusing the company of negligent handling of customer financial data that led to the company's recent high-profile data breach....

BB&T TO CONDUCT CONTACTLESS DEBIT TRIAL.(Branch Banking and Trust)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Corp. will issue an undisclosed number of contactless debit cards to consumers along the East Coast for a payment trial expected to last three to six months, an official from the bank tells CardLine. The cards...

FORMER BOFA VP INDICTED ON FRAUD CHARGES.
February 2, 2007... U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway yesterday indicted Robert Conner, a former vice president of Bank of America Corp., and 16 others on credit card fraud and bank-fraud charges. According to the court filings, between June 2005 and November 2006,...

TERMINAL INDUSTRY VETERAN JOHN MARSHALL DIES.(Obituary)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Payment-terminal industry veteran and former Hypercom Corp. senior executive John Marshall, 60, died Sunday of a massive heart attack. Marshall worked at Hypercom from 1987 to 2001, eventually serving as Hypercom's senior vice president to the...

NET INCOME RISES, BUT DIEBOLD'S ATM SALES FLAT.(Financial report)
February 2, 2007... ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc. today reported significantly higher fourth-quarter net income than a year ago but flat ATM sales dragged down by sluggish orders in the Americas and Asia. The North Canton, Ohio-based company reported net income of...

PAYDAY LOAN CORP. BUYS PREPAID CARD PROVIDER.(Cash Now Corp. acquires Global Visions Inc.)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Cash Now Corp., a marketer of payday-loan software, announced yesterday an agreement to acquire prepaid card provider Global Visions Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Cash Now's investor relations representative Michael Ellis tells CardLine that...

DATA SECURITY FIRMS FORM PCI SECURITY VENDOR ALLIANCE.(Payment Card Industry)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Eight data-security companies announced today the formation of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Alliance. The partnership is designed to help merchants, banks and point-of-sale terminal vendors educate the business community on the...

BRIEFS.
February 2, 2007... Dynamic Card Solutions announced a 45% increase in 2006 revenue from 2005....Biometric provider Pay by Touch named Catherine Muriel chief marketing director....Experian Group Ltd. has released BizGo, a mobile application that allows...

CANADIAN CLUB MONACO STORES PROBE POSSIBLE DATA LEAK.(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Fashion retailer Club Monaco has launched an investigation into a possible data breach involving credit card data at its 28 Canadian stores. The potentially compromised data includes credit card numbers and encrypted information on the credit...

EUROPEAN COMMISSION LEAVES INTERCHANGE ALONE.(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... The European Commission today released a report on competition in the retail-banking industry, in which it called for further investigation into several card industry practices but stopped short of placing curbs on interchange set by MasterCard...

AMERICANS REDUCED THEIR HOLIDAY CREDIT CARD SPENDING, STUDY FINDS.(Survey)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... American consumers seem to have taken a conservative approach to using credit cards during the holiday shopping season and may be responding less to low-rate financing offers from credit card issuers, according to two surveys by TrueCredit.com,...

STUDY FINDS CUSTOMER SERVICE IS KEY TO DIFFERENTIATION.(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... With nearly 52% of consumers feeling "only somewhat satisfied" or "unsatisfied" with credit card customer service, issuers can distinguish themselves with superior customer service, according to a new report by Auriemma Consulting Group. The...

ISSUERS PRESS EFFORTS TO TUTOR STUDENTS ON HANDLING DEBT.(Target Financial Services, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo & Co.)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Three card issuers say they will step up efforts to educate college students about being more responsible with credit, even though a recent trial suggests they might encounter blank stares from much of this audience. Individual pilot programs...

CHECKFREE PROFIT RISES 4.4%.(Financial report)
February 2, 2007... CheckFree Corp. reported fiscal second-quarter net income of nearly $35.3 million, up nearly 4.4% from $33.8 million in the same period a year ago. Revenues for the quarter were nearly $237.2 million, an 11% rise from $213.8 million in the same...

FRENCH UNION CHALLENGES DIEBOLD OVER PLANT CLOSING.(Diebold Inc.)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... A French union is challenging North Canton, Ohio-based ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc.'s decision to close a manufacturing plant in Cassis, France, Thomas Swidarski, Diebold's president and CEO, said yesterday during a conference call with...

BRIEFS.
February 2, 2007... ATM maker Triton promoted Mikelle Williamson to XP supervisor in the firm's testing department....GE Money's Sales Finance unit and Bath and Kitchen Buying Group, a member-owned buying group, announced today a new relationship to issue a...

FIFTH THIRD TO MARKET CREDIT CARDS MORE AGGRESSIVELY.(Fifth Third Bancorp.)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... A Fifth Third Bancorp executive stated Tuesday that the bank aims to bolster its credit card revenues by accepting credit card applicants with lower FICO score requirements than it has in the past . "We've been ultra-conservative when we should...

EQUIFAX REVENUES, EARNINGS RISE IN 2006.(Financial report)
February 2, 2007... Atlanta-based credit bureau Equifax Inc. earned $63.1 million in the fourth quarter on revenues of $390.0 million, up 0.5% and 8%, from the same quarter of 2005. Full-year 2006 revenues and earnings grew 7.1% and 11.3%, to $1.55 billion and...

ALLIANCE DATA 4TH QUARTER REVENUE GROWS 25%, LIGHTBRIDGE 4th QUARTER REVENUE FALLS 23%.(Financial report)
February 2, 2007... Alliance Data Systems Corp. saw significant gains in its fourth-quarter revenue, while Lightbridge Inc.'s decision to leave the credit analysis business led to a fourth quarter revenue drop (CardLine 11/10). Alliance Data reported yesterday...

FISERV REPORTS 11% RISE IN FOURTH-QUARTER REVENUE, INCOME DROPS.(Financial report)
February 2, 2007... Citing strong performances in the firm's core transaction-processing activities, Fiserv Inc. yesterday reported revenues of $1.2 billion for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up 11% from $1.08 billion during the same period in 2005. For all of...

WELLS FARGO ATMS CAN BE USED FOR CHARITABLE DONATIONS.(Wells Fargo & Co.)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Wells Fargo & Co., a San Francisco-based bank, this month is piloting a program that allows consumers to make donations to six Bay Area charities through the bank's ATMs, Jonathan Velline, Wells' senior vice president for ATM Banking, tells...

WEST BUYS NOTIFICATION FIRMS, REPORTS 4TH QUARTER LOSS.(West Corp. acquires TeleVox Software Inc. and CenterPost Communications)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... Omaha, Neb.-based West Corp. today acquired TeleVox Software Inc. and CenterPost Communications. TeleVox provides automated messaging services to the healthcare industry. CenterPost permits clients, including financial services firms, to send...

ATM PROGRAM PROVIDER LAUNCHES GIFT CARD.(Columbus Data Services)(Brief article)
February 2, 2007... ATM program provider Columbus Data Services launched last week the "Everything Gift Card," a prepaid general spending and payroll gift card that businesses can offer clients and employees. Ron Schuldt, president and chief executive officer of...

BRIEFS.
February 2, 2007... The U.S. Department of Justice AntiTrust division closed its investigation of VantageScore without action. The DoJ had issued an informal request for information nine months ago following the March 2006 introduction of VantageScore....Global...

FRANK PROPOSES DISCLOSURE EXEMPTION IF DATA IS ENCRYPTED.(Barney Frank)
February 9, 2007... U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) plans to write a bill that would exempt companies from disclosing breaches of consumer data that has been encrypted to make it useless to hackers. A spokesperson for Frank tells CardLine there is no timeline for...

CREDIT CARDS, RESELLERS DOMINATE WEEKLY DEBT MARKET.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Nearly $1 billion worth of debt portfolios-most of it credit card debt offered by resellers, not the issuers themselves-went on the market this week, according to CardLine sister publication CCRNewsline. Many of the portfolios contain expired...

ING JOINS ALLPOINT ATM NETWORK.(Allpoint ATM network)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Online bank ING Direct has announced an agreement with Allpoint that will give ING Electric Orange checking account customers surcharge-free access to Allpoint's 32,000 off-premise ATMs, Ben Psillas, Allpoint's president, tells CardLine sister...

GOOGLE CHECKOUT CLAIMS TOP ONLINE RETAILERS.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Google says nearly 20% of the Internet's top 500 retailers-including Buy.com, Petco and Linens 'n Things-use Google Checkout. Google Checkout, which launched last June, is a password-protected service that enables consumers to make purchases...

GIFT CARDS ADD TO THE BUZZ AT STARBUCKS.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Consumers activated nearly 20 million Starbucks gift cards-representing nearly $300 million in value stored on the cards-during the fiscal first quarter of 2007, a 30% increase in activation and value from the same period last year, said James...

BANK OF AMERICA BOWS OUT OF FEDERAL CARD PROGRAM.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Bank of America announced last week that it will not bid for a 10-year contract with the U.S. General Services Administration to issue charge cards to federal employees. BofA said in a statement last week that it is bowing out of the GSA's...

FIRST DATA DEAL MOVES TASQ INTO CANADA.
February 9, 2007... First Data Corp. announced yesterday the acquisition of Solika Solutions Inc., a Mississauga, Ontario-based provider of inventory-management services to the Canadian point-of-sale terminal industry. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Though...

BRIEFS.(Dophin Stadium introduces contactless payment system for super bowl)(Citibank rated most valuable brand)(Kabira Technologies Inc. to launch Financial Payment Hub software in third quarter)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Football fans will be able to use contactless payment cards at several hundred terminals during the Super Bowl at Miami's Dophin Stadium on Sunday....Brand consultant Brand Finance's annual review of the most valuable brands found that...

SMALL BUSINESSES EMBRACE DEBIT CARDS.(Synergistics Research)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Nearly 35% of small businesses use a check or debit card for their business checking account, up from 20% in 2004, according to a new study from Synergistics Research. Moreover, nearly 25% of non-debit cardholders express "some interest" in...

STUDY FINDS BANK CUSTOMERS IGNORE SECURITY TOOLS.
February 9, 2007... A new study suggests online bank customers often ignore a popular security tool that uses images to verify the authenticity of a Web site, rendering the tool ineffective as a way to distinguish a bank's Web site from an imposter site. Banks...

ID FRAUD FALLS 11%, CREDIT CARD THEFT STILL COMMON.(Javelin Strategy & Research reports)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Identity fraud declined more than 11%, from $55.7 billion in 2005 to $49.3 billion last year, saving businesses and consumers $6.4 billion, according to the 2007 Identity Fraud Survey Report, issued Thursday by Javelin Strategy & Research. In...

DATA BREACH AT TJX SPURS MORE BANKS TO REISSURE CARDS.(TJX Companies Inc.)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... More banks are quietly reissuing credit and debit cards in response to the compromise of cardholder data held by stores owned by TJX Cos. That data breach was reported last month, although the retailer says it became aware of the hack a month...

DISCOVER TOUTS NEW ACQUIRING MODEL TO ISOS.(Discover Financial Services Inc.)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... With a new acquiring model in place, Discover Networks is pitching its sales programs to a broader range of agents as the company attempts to grow. Speaking at the Northeast Acquirers Association meeting last week in Vermont, Dan Collins,...

BOFA PROGRAM OFFERS SMALL FRANCHISES CARD PROCESSING, OTHER SERVICES:.
February 9, 2007... Bank of America last week launched "Franchise Banking," a free banking services program aimed at franchise companies in a variety of industries, like food service, with revenues between $2.5 million and $20 million. In the program, BofA's...

CITIGROUP'S CREDIT CARD DIVISION PLANS LAYOFFS.
February 9, 2007... Citicorp Credit Services, the credit card division of Citigroup Inc., is laying off 53 credit card collections department workers at its Irving, Texas, location, the company announced Friday. Citigroup spokesman Janis Tarter tells CardLine that...

BRIEFS.(First Data Corp. hires Michael Geppert)(Ditech.com releases credit card)(Solidus Networks Inc. appoints Jeff Amann )(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Purpose Money, an Atlanta-based subsidiary of branded credit card provider CompuCredit Corp., released "The Purpose Money Financial Guide" in Spanish to teach unbanked Spanish-speaking consumers about basic credit card concepts, including the...

PROPOSED FEDERAL BUDGET INCLUDES CARD REPORTING LANGUAGE.
February 9, 2007... President Bush's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2008 includes language that would require merchant acquiring banks to report payment card reimbursements to the IRS. "[Credit and debit] cards are an increasingly common form of payment for many...

IS 'ZIP' DISCOVER'S CONTACTLESS BRAND?(Discover Financial Services Inc.)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... A Discover Zip logo printed on a booth at the Northeast Acquirers Association winter conference last week may point to a new contactless card brand for the Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover Financial Services, which issues the Discover Card. The...

ISSUERS EXPECT CREDIT CARD DELINQUENCIES, CHARGEOFFS TO REMAIN STABLE.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Nearly 58.8% of bank senior loan officers expect credit card delinquencies and chargeoffs to remain stable this year, while 38.2% of those questioned note that they see credit card loan quality deteriorating somewhat in 2007, according to a...

STUDY FINDS CONSUMERS FEAR ONLINE CREDIT FRAUD.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Nearly 68% of consumers are either "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" that their credit or debit card information will be stolen when they make online purchases, according to new report by Mintel Comperemedia. Moreover, nearly 20% of...

BBVA PLANS U.S. EXPANSION.(Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA S.A.) Spain's second-largest bank, told the Financial Times newspaper yesterday that the bank plans further expansion in the United States to broaden its geographical reach beyond its home market and South...

NCR REPORT BOASTS ABOUT SELF-SERVICE BENEFITS.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... ATM and self-service product manufacturer NCR Corp. released a survey yesterday suggesting that businesses and government agencies should install self-service kiosks to speed up their service because people are tired of waiting in line for...

BANK, CREDIT UNION WILL REIMBURSE CUSTOMERS' ATM FEES.(West Coast Bank and Pacific Service Credit Union)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... West Coast Bank and Pacific Service Credit Union both recently announced that they will reimburse customers' ATM fees in order to offer free ATM access nationwide. West Coast Bank, which is based in Oswego, Ore., will compensate customers if...

BRIEFS.
February 9, 2007... Citicorp Credit Services, the credit card division of Citigroup Inc. is laying off 84 credit card collections employees from three different credit card collections units at its Kansas City, Mo. location....JP Morgan Chase & Co.'s credit card...

MASSACHUSETTS AG LEADING TJX INVESTIGATION.(TJX Companies Inc.)(Attorney General Martha Coakley )(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is leading an investigation by attorneys general in several states into the TJX Companies breach, her office announced today. So far, attorneys general in 30 states across the U.S. have indicated...

VERMONT SENATORS INTRODUCE PRIVACY, SECURITY LEGISLATION.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... The issue of data security re-emerged in Washington yesterday as two senators introduced data privacy and security legislation. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced the Personal Data Privacy and...

VISA MAKES IT EASIER TO PUMP GAS WITH PREPAID CARDS.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Visa USA has added a feature that lets gas pumps know how much value remains on a Visa-branded prepaid card, so that those cards are not declined by pumps that automatically authorize $50 or $100 whenever a card is inserted, CardLine sister...

SURVEY FINDS CONSUMERS WANT MORE INTERCHANGE DISCLOSURE; VISA, MASTERCARD SAY FEES ARE TRANSPARENT.
February 9, 2007... Nearly 91% of U.S. consumers believe that Congress should require credit card companies to be "more open" about their policies and practices regarding interchange fees, according to a new Merchants Payments Coalition survey. "We need to put...

INCREASE IN CREDIT UNION CARD FRAUD COSTS SMALLER IN 2006, BUT LOSSES STILL SIGNIFICANT.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... CUNA Mutual Group reports that the credit unions it insures lost $98.7 million due to credit card fraud last year, up 11% from 2005. The increase is significantly less than the 56% jump, to $89 million, that CUNA Mutual reported in 2005. Last...

NCR GETS BIGGEST EVER ATM ORDER.(State Bank of India purchases automated teller machines from NCR Corp.)
February 9, 2007... State Bank of India, which claims it is India's largest commercial bank, this week purchased 3,000 ATMs from Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp. A portion of the machines will be equipped to distribute airline and railway tickets and will be installed...

CONSUMERS DELAY PAIN WITH PLASTIC WHEN FUEL PRICES RISE.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... A National Association of Convenience Stores-sponsored survey found that 47% of drivers say they are much more likely to pay for fuel with debit or credit cards when prices rise. Ten percent said they are somewhat more likely to use plastic....

BRIEFS.(Precidia Technologies Inc., Online Resources )(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Payment terminal maker Precidia Technologies Inc. named Ed Davis and Ted Sarosdy vice presidents of sales in the Eastern U.S. sales and Western U.S., respectively....Online Resources named James R. Cahill vice president of banking payment...

CORRECTION.(Correction notice)
February 9, 2007... CardLine reported today that the Nilson Report stated the Chase is now the largest U.S. credit card issuer. In fact, the Nilson rankings are of issuers of Visa and MasterCard cards, not all credit cards. (c) 2007 CardLine and SourceMedia,...

EARLY THANKSGIVING SKEWS CARD DEBT NUMBERS, SAYS ECONOMIST.(David Wyss)
February 9, 2007... Credit card debt in December crept up at an annual rate only 0.8%, or $600 million, the slowest pace in nine months and a steep drop from the previous month's 13.8% increase. Total revolving consumer debt, which includes credit cards, came to...

FTC FINDS IDENTITY THEFT REMAINS CONSUMERS' TOP COMPLAINT.
February 9, 2007... Identity theft, for the seventh year in a row, remained the top complaint among consumers who filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission in 2006. Last year, 36% of 674,354 complaints to the FTC were for ID theft, the agency said in the...

CONVENIENCE STORE CHAIN AIMS TO CIRCUMVENT PROCESSING FEES.(Flash Foods Inc.)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Waycross, Ga.-based convenience store operator Flash Foods Inc. plans to circumvent credit and debit card-processing fees by introducing an ACH-based payment system that uses the company's existing loyalty card as a payment card. To do so,...

CHASE CEO WANTS MORE EFFICIENCY IN SECURING NEW CARD ACCOUNTS:.(Jamie Dimon)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... JPMorgan Chase & Co. last year cut the percentage of new accounts generated from direct-mail solicitations to 32% from 52% in 2005 as the issuer moved to using more effective means to obtain new cardholders. "[Direct mail] is the highest cost...

JACK HENRY PROFITS RISE 28% IN 2Q.(Jack Henry & Associates)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Processor Jack Henry & Associates today reported fiscal second-quarter 2007 net income of $27.79 million, up 28% from $21.64 million in the same period a year ago. Revenues in the quarter ended Dec. 31 were $167.24 million, up 13% from $147.42...

PREPAID CARD PROVIDERS LAUNCH COLLEGE-BRANDED GIFT CARDS.(Blackhawk Network, Comdata Stored Value Solutions, Inc. and Accent Intermedia LLC sign deal with Collegiate Licensing Co.)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Prepaid card providers Blackhawk Network, Comdata Stored Value Solutions, Inc. and Accent Intermedia LLC announced an agreement Wednesday with the Collegiate Licensing Company, which claims to be the largest college, athletic conference and...

VIVOTECH TAKING PART IN TAIWAN NFC TRIAL.(Near Field Communication)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Santa Clara, Calif.-based contactless technology vendor Vivotech says its software will be used in a Taiwan trial that lets consumers use their mobile phones to make contactless payments and download coupons. The test of Near Field...

BRIEFS.(Hypercom Corp. acquires ACG Group Pty LTD.)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... First Data Corp. named Max Narro senior vice president of product, marketing and industry, First Data Resources, a subsidiary.... Seattle-based coffee chain Tully's Coffee Corp. announced it will accept Visa USA, MasterCard Worldwide PayPass...

MASTERCARD REPORTS $40.9 MILLION FOURTH-QUARTER PROFIT.(Financial report)
February 16, 2007... MasterCard Inc. today reported fourth-quarter net income of $40.9 million, up substantially from a loss of $52.9 million in the same period a year ago when the company absorbed significant litigation costs. Annual net income for 2006 was $50.19...

MASTERCARD EXECS PROJECT MORE MARGIN PRESSURE; STOCK DROPS.(MasterCard International Inc.)(Brief article)
February 16, 2007... An increase in the fees MasterCard charges its bank customers, such as the April restructuring of prices for cross-border transactions, helped MasterCard achieve a profit of $40.9 million in the fourth quarter. But a comment by MasterCard Chief...

COINSTAR'S Q4 PROFIT DROPS, BUT REDBOX CONTINUES TO THRIVE.(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 16, 2007... Coinstar Inc. reported yesterday that its fourth-quarter net income fell 10% to $5 million, down from $5.5 million in the same period a year ago. Revenues rose nearly 10% to $138.1 million in the fourth quarter, up from $125.6 million in the...