Cardline articles from February 2009

Cardline archives from February 2009

HEARTLAND EXEC DENIES INSIDER TRADING WHILE KNOWING OF BREACH.
February 6, 2009... Heartland Payment Systems Inc. says its chairman and CEO, Robert O. Carr, had no knowledge of the processor's security breach when he sold shares of the company last fall. Web site SeekingAlpha.com questioned the timing of some of Carr's share...

CARD PRINTER SAYS ORDERS NOT UP SIGNIFICANTLY AFTER BREACH.(Heartland Payment Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
February 6, 2009... Despite the January announcement that hackers had breached the network of Princeton, N.J.-based merchant processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc., orders from issuers for news cards have not increased significantly, a representative for a...

OKLAHOMA CITY TO ACCEPT CARD PAYMENTS ONLINE.
February 6, 2009... The city of Harrah, Okla., announced Friday that residents and businesses can now pay bills, fees and fines using the municipal Web site, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. "We are very optimistic that adding online credit...

MORE COMPANIES MAY PUSHING CHECKS FOR B2B PAYMENTS.
February 6, 2009... The economic slump seems to be driving more companies to demand checks from their customers for payment instead of cards, iStream Financial Services Inc. notes in American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The Brookfield, Wis.-based...

COMPANY TIES CHECK ACTIVITY TO MERCHANT CASH ADVANCES.
February 6, 2009... Professional Merchant Advance Capital LLC, provider of merchant cash advances, is working with EZCheck to provide merchants with cash advances based also on check volume and not solely on credit card transactions, the companies announced Jan....

NEXTEL DEPLOYS NCR SELFSERV ATM IN MEXICO.
February 6, 2009... Nextel Mexico, a leading mobile-phone company in Mexico, hopes to expand the deployment of self-service ATMs from NCR Corp. throughout the country, both companies announced Wednesday. The machines enable customers to pay their mobile-phone...

UK GROUP SOUNDS WARNING ABOUT CARD SCAMS VIA PHONE.
February 6, 2009... Financial officials in the United Kingdom Friday warned consumers about an "old-style" phone scam designed to steal payment card details that apparently is making a comeback. Fraudsters pretending to be bank or card-company officials have...

BRIEF.
February 6, 2009... The Electronic Transactions Association has released its second online course for payment-services professionals called "Introduction to Electronic Processing." The payments trade group plans two other online courses this year, "Introduction to...

CITI PROMISES $5.8 BILLION TO LOOSEN AND SUPPORT CARD LOANS.
February 6, 2009... Citigroup Inc. will spend $5.8 billion of the $45 billion it has received from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program to support and expand its credit card-lending activities, Citi says in a report released today. During the fourth quarter...

FEDERAL COURT STRIKES DOWN AMEX'S ARBITRATION CLAUSES.
February 6, 2009... A panel of federal judges last week ruled that American Express Co. cannot bar merchants from bringing antitrust class-action claims against the company. The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York on Jan. 30 struck down a clause in AmEx's...

LOAN OFFICERS SAY Q4 CREDIT STANDARDS TIGHTENED SLIGHTLY.
February 6, 2009... Credit standards for approving card applications tightened slightly or not at all for more than 90% of banks in the last three months of 2008, according to a senior loan officer opinion survey on bank lending practices released yesterday by the...

CONTACTLESS CARDS MAY PAVE WAY FOR EMV IN THE U.S.
February 6, 2009... The growing adoption of contactless payment cards in the United States could open the door to a more fraud-resistant and, until now, expensive, security format that has taken off almost everywhere but in the U.S., reports American Banker, a...

MONEYPASS, INTERCEPT DEAL EXPANDS BOTH ATM NETWORKS.
February 6, 2009... Surcharge-free ATM operators MoneyPass Network and InterCept Switch have increased the number of ATMs in their networks and expanded their geographic reach through a recently completed reciprocal deal. The agreement expands the number of...

STARBUCKS CONTINUES TO STAND BEHIND CARD PRODUCTS.
February 6, 2009... Giving Starbucks customers opportunities for discounts with its prepaid card continues to be a strategy for the coffee giant despite a flailing economy, CEO Howard Schultz told analysts during the company's fiscal first-quarter conference call...

OPTIMAL PAYMENTS FINDS PORTFOLIO BUYER.
February 6, 2009... United Bank Card Inc., an independent sales organization and payment processor, is taking an option to buy 5,000 merchant accounts from Optimal Group Inc., a Montreal-based company, Optimal announced today. United Bank Card will pay $11 million...

AMEX JOINS GLOBAL GROUP THAT MANAGES EMV STANDARD.
February 6, 2009... American Express Co. has become the fourth owner-member of EMVCo LLC, the international organization that maintains the global EMV antifraud standard found on chip payment cards around the world. AmEx joins MasterCard Worldwide, Visa Inc. and...

BRIEFS.
February 6, 2009... Hypercom Corp. has appointed Jacques-Herve Maupin as managing director for the Asia Pacific region. The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has appointed Lib de Veyra chairperson of the council. De Veyra is vice president of...

FEDS TO CAP EXEC PAY AT COMPANIES RECEIVING FEDERAL ASSISTANCE.
February 6, 2009... President Barack Obama today announced a $500,000 cap on annual salaries and limits on other compensation of executives working for companies that accept future federal bailout funds, a move that will affect large credit card issuers if they...

NATIONAL BANKS PROVIDE DIEBOLD WITH A BRIGHT SPOT.
February 6, 2009... The nation's three largest banks provided ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc. with one of its few bright spots by continuing to deploy "intelligent" envelope-free deposit ATMs, Tom Swidarski, Diebold president and CEO, told analysts today during a...

SURVEYED CONSUMERS SHOW SLIGHTLY LESS PESSIMISM.
February 6, 2009... Consumers felt slightly less pessimistic about the economy in January, though they continue to clamp down on spending, suggests a new report Discover Financial Services released today. The Riverwoods, Ill.-based company's monthly U.S. Spending...

ALLIANCE DATA Q4 PRIVATE-LABEL REVENUE JUMPS 10%.(Financial report)
February 6, 2009... Alliance Data Systems Corp. yesterday reported a 9.9% fourth-quarter revenue increase in its Private Label Services segment, to $97.6 million from $88.8 million during the same time period in 2007. The segment includes network processing and...

DROP IN DEBIT PURCHASES COULD HURT VISA, MASTERCARD RESULTS.
February 6, 2009... The slowdown in consumer spending is depressing the growth of debit purchase volume, once an earnings stronghold for Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The two companies, which are scheduled...

PROCESSOR TIES CONSISTENCY TO MERCHANT-ATTRITION FIGHT.(Survey)(Brief article)
February 6, 2009... Providing consistent customer service and periodically surveying merchants regarding satisfaction can help lower independent sales organization and acquirer merchant-attrition rates, according to Michelle Wagner, vice president of global...

M2 STARTS PAYMENT GATEWAY.
February 6, 2009... Hoping to capitalize on a push by smaller banks to generate more revenue, M2 Global Ltd. has launched an online payment gateway to make it easier for banks to manage their e-commerce merchant portfolios. Maitland, Fla.-based M2 calls the...

TSYS OFFERS 'PLASTIC COUPONS' WITH PRIVATE-LABEL CARDS.
February 6, 2009... Total System Services Inc., known as TSYS, says its new private-label loyalty card acts as a "plastic coupon" that consumers can use to redeem specific merchandise at the point-of-sale. The company's processing system tracks SKU-level data when...

BRIEF.
February 6, 2009... BankCard Source LLP, an independent sales organization, will resell RDM Corp.'s electronic check conversion software and hardware products for remote deposit capture services, according to RDM.

Q4 SPENDING DOWN ON MASTERCARD'S U.S. CREDIT, UP ON U.S. DEBIT.
February 6, 2009... MasterCard Worldwide today reported fourth-quarter U.S. credit and charge card sales volume of $133 billion, down 9.5% from $147 billion during the same period in 2007. Credit and charge cardholders in the U.S. initiated 1.6 billion...

VISA Q1 U.S. CREDIT VOLUME UP 3.4%, DEBIT VOLUME UP 14.3%.
February 6, 2009... U.S. sales volume on Visa-branded credit cards totaled $213 billion during the network's fiscal first quarter, up 3.4% from $206 billion for the same period of 2007, Visa Inc. reported yesterday. Visa's first-quarter transaction data is for the...

NCR Q4 NET INCOME DECLINES 37%.
February 6, 2009... NCR Corp., the world's largest ATM manufacturer based on 2007 shipments, today reported net income of $56 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, down 37% from $89 million for the same three-month period in 2007. Net income for the...

METAVANTE POSTS Q4 NET INCOME, REVENUE INCREASES.(Metavante Technologies Inc.)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 6, 2009... Metavante Technologies Inc. today reported net income of $40.4 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31. The company reported a loss of $92.8 million for the same period a year earlier. The Milwaukee-based transaction processor and parent...

JANUARY CREDIT MANAGER'S INDEX HITS NEW LOW.
February 6, 2009... The seasonally adjusted Credit Manager's Index for January fell slightly to 39.7 from 40.1 in December, marking the sixth consecutive decline for the index, according to a report by the National Association of Credit Management. The index, a...

ISO CREATES RATE-ANALYZING SOFTWARE.
February 6, 2009... Merchant Warehouse Inc., a Boston-based independent sales organization, says its new BINSmart software can steer merchants to the lowest possible transaction rate for card payments. The software makes the analysis in less than a second, Henry...

BARCLAYCARD FREEZES CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATES.
February 6, 2009... Barclaycard, the credit card issuing arm of United Kingdom-based Barclays PLC, Wednesday announced it would freeze interest rates for all UK customers for four months and reduce rates on certain cards taken by new customers. The issuer, which...

ADVANTA DETAILS STRATEGY TO BOOST MASTER TRUST.
February 6, 2009... Advanta Corp., whose survival is threatened by a continuing surge in charge-offs and delinquencies, reassured investors Thursday that it is taking steps to avoid an early amortization of its credit card master trust, reports American Banker, a...

BRIEFS.
February 6, 2009... Signal Hill, Calif.-based payment-service provider Electracash has named Richard S. Cornejo as director of marketing. Precidia Technologies Inc. says its TransNet payment system that connects electronic cash registers to payment processors...

CREDIT UNION TESTS NEW CARD-FRAUD REPORTING SYSTEM.
February 6, 2009... BrightStar Credit Union in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., says it has installed a new system developed by CUNA Mutual Group and Fidelity National Information Systems Inc. that automates the reporting of credit card fraud claims, reports Credit Union...

CYBERSOURCE EARNINGS BENEFIT FROM RISE IN ONLINE MERCHANTS.
February 6, 2009... Online payments paid off for CyberSource Corp. in 2008 as the payment-gateway and risk-management company posted net income of $10.7 million for the year, a 345.8% increase from $2.4 million in 2007. Revenue increased 95.7%, to $229 million...

UK COMPETITION AUTHORITIES CRACK DOWN ON CARD INSURANCE.(Law overview)
February 6, 2009... Antitrust authorities in the United Kingdom Thursday said they will impose a seven-day waiting period on the sale of "payment-protection insurance" sold to credit card, mortgage and other customers worried about their ability to pay back loans....

BRIEF.
February 6, 2009... Card Activation Technologies, a Chicago-based company that holds a patent on point-of-sale technology used for activating and processing prepaid transactions, has appointed Michael DeLaGarza president, director and CEO.

DROP IN DIRECT-MAIL VOLUME TIED TO ECONOMY.
February 6, 2009... As the economy worsened in 2008, credit card issuers sent less direct mail to consumers, according to Synovate's Mail Monitor direct-mail tracking service. Issuers sent U.S. households 3.8 billion new card offers last year, down 27% from 5.2...

PCI COMPLIANCE MAY BENEFIT BREACH-SUIT DEFENDANTS.
February 13, 2009... Reported compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard could help Heartland Payment Systems Inc. defend itself against class-action lawsuits filed in the aftermath of its reported card-data breach, according to Ronald Mann, a...

FORMER BEST BUY EMPLOYEE ARRESTED IN CARD-DATA THEFT.
February 13, 2009... An employee of a West Palm Beach, Fla., Best Buy store may have stolen payment card information from approximately 4,000 customers, Best Buy Co. Inc. says in announcement on its Web site. Minneapolis-based Best Buy says the employee, who has...

REPORT NOTES JUMP IN PAYMENT CARD FRAUD LAST YEAR.
February 13, 2009... Some 4.8 million Americans experienced fraud on their existing credit card accounts last year, up 33.3% from 3.6 million in 2007, according to a new report by Javelin Strategy & Research. Last year, 2.1% of American adults experienced fraud on...

NOCA USES INTERNET TO DRIVE ACH PAYMENT SYSTEM.
February 13, 2009... Noca Inc. says its automated clearinghouse payment system can appeal to merchants and consumers alike by using the Internet to overcome the limitations of the payment format, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The system...

REVOLVING CREDIT DOWN IN DECEMBER.
February 13, 2009... U.S. revolving credit, 98% of which is credit card debt, fell in December, to $963.5 billion from $969.9 billion the previous month, according to a Federal Reserve G.19 report on consumer credit released Friday. Total seasonally adjusted...

ISSUERS' 2008 TOTAL CARD OFFERS THE LOWEST IN YEARS.
February 13, 2009... Card issuers sent 5.4 billion credit card direct-mail offers in 2008, down 27% from an estimated 7.4 billion the previous year and the lowest number tallied since 2000, according to data from Chicago-based Mintel Comperemedia, which tracks...

H&R BLOCK EXTENDS DEBIT DEAL.
February 13, 2009... MasterCard Worldwide and H&R Block Inc. last week agreed to a five-year extension of their debit card-processing agreement. H&R Block Bank issues the Emerald Prepaid MasterCard to its tax-preparation clients, and MasterCard processes the...

BRIEFS.(Salem VA Credit Union)(TNB Card Services Inc.)(Asta Funding Inc. appoints Robert J. Michel and retires Mitchell Cohen)(Brief article)
February 13, 2009... Salem VA Credit Union has selected TNB Card Services Inc. to process its more than 2,000 credit card accounts. Robert J. Michel will replace Mitchell Cohen as chief financial officer at Asta Funding Inc., an asset-management company that...

COST PER BREACHED RECORD UP 11% FROM 2006, RESEARCH FINDS.(Report)(Brief article)
February 13, 2009... The average cost of a data breach for a U.S.-based company or organization was approximately $202 per record compromised last year, according to a new report by the Ponemon Institute LLC, a privacy and information-management research firm. That...

SMART TRANSACTION TEAMS WITH HYPERCOM MOBILE NETWORK.
February 13, 2009... Smart Transaction Systems, Inc. today announced plans to use Hypercom Corp.'s Mobile Network service to enable mobile merchants to accept gift and loyalty cards at stadiums, festivals and other outdoor events. Smart Transaction Systems will use...

BANKS SAID TO BE MISSING THE MARK ON UNBANKED MARKET.
February 13, 2009... Common misperceptions about underbanked consumers have hindered banks' efforts to attract business from them, according to Boston market-research company Aite Group LLC. American Banker, a CardLine sister publication, reports that Aite...

FITCH REPORTS DECEMBER SPIKE IN CHARGE-OFFS.(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 13, 2009... The December charge-off rate for prime credit card portfolios rose to its highest level since late 2005, according to Fitch Ratings' latest credit card industry report released this week. Charge-offs on prime credit card portfolios reached 7.5%...

ETA EXPECTS IRS TO RELEASE MERCHANT-REPORTING DRAFT JUNE 30.
February 13, 2009... The Electronic Transactions Association is advising processors and merchant acquirers to begin preparing now for Jan. 1, 2011. That is the date payment-industry companies will have to begin tracking the number and dollar amount of merchant...

PRICE, NOT PRODUCTS, ARE NEGOTIABLE, SERVICE PROVIDERS SAY.(Brief article)
February 13, 2009... Merchants considering switching service providers are more likely to switch because of a lack of product selection than price, industry insiders say. "If it's based on price, we can drop the rate and make them happy and they will stay," says...

EBAY ADDS MULTICURRENCY PAYMENT OPTION.
February 13, 2009... EBay Inc. has added Moneybookers USA Inc. as a payment option for its auction Web site, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. Moneybookers USA, a New York-based unit of Moneybookers Ltd. of London, enables merchants to accept...

CANADIAN CARD ISSUERS NOT IMMUNE TO CREDIT CRUNCH.
February 13, 2009... Though countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have been battling a weak economy for a while, Canadian credit card issuers only recently have begun to feel the affects of increasing delinquencies and charge-offs, according to...

BRIEFS.
February 13, 2009... Dynamic Card Solutions Inc., which provides software to instantly issue credit and debit cards, announced a partnership today with self-service banking and payment-software provider Postilion to combine its their products to offer financial...

TO PUMP UP ATM SALES, TRITON IS OFFERING A REBATE.(Conference notes)
February 13, 2009... Unveiling a strategy to increase sales during the country's economic recession, Triton Systems of Delaware Inc., one of the nation's largest ATM manufacturers, is for the first time in company history offering a $500 rebate to its target market...

RED FLAG RULES SAID TO DECREASE ACCOUNT TAKEOVERS.
February 13, 2009... Fraudulently changing physical mailing-address records remained the most-common method thieves used last year to take over existing deposit and credit accounts in the United States, but fewer victims of account takeovers reported address...

GIFT CARD SERVICES TIED TO DECREASED MERCHANT ATTRITION.
February 13, 2009... Selling gift card services to merchants decreases the likelihood they will leave to contract with other processors or independent sales organizations, according to industry insiders. "In the stored-value world, attrition is almost nonexistent,"...

AITE: BANKS COULD LOSE BILLIONS BY USING CHECKING ACCOUNTS TO ATTRACT THE UNBANKED.
February 13, 2009... A new report predicts banks could lose up to $20.3 billion in fees-and customer good will-by relying too heavily on checking relationships as a tool to acquire underbanked consumers. At least 14% of U.S. checking-account customers would pay...

DEBT BUYER ENCORE CAPITAL REPORTS GAINS IN 2008.(Encore Capital Group Inc.)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 13, 2009... Encore Capital Group Inc., a buyer of delinquent credit card debt, reported gross collections for 2008 of $398.6 million, a 12.2% increase from $355.2 million in 2007. The San Diego-based company reported total revenue of $255.9 million for the...

WINCOR NIXDORF REVEALS WORLDWIDE SHIPMENT NUMBERS.
February 13, 2009... Wincor Nixdorf AG shipped 76,041 ATMs worldwide in 2008, up 24.3% compared with 61,170 machines in 2007, Patrick Wright, president of Wincor Nixdorf USA, said during his opening remarks yesterday in Chicago at "Automate&Accelerate: Setting the...

ACQUIRER WINS OHIO TOLLWAY CONTRACT.
February 13, 2009... Electronic Merchant Systems, a Cleveland-based acquirer and independent sales organization, has won a two-year contract to provide payment card processing for the Ohio Turnpike Commission's electronic toll-collection service, Kathy Weiss,...

WRIGHT EXPRESS POSTS DROP IN Q4 REVENUE.(Financial report)
February 13, 2009... Wright Express Corp., a payment-processing company for commercial and government vehicle fleets, today announced fourth quarter net income of $65.2 million, up dramatically from $4.6 million for the same quarter a year earlier. The results...

BRIEF.
February 13, 2009... Preferred Health Technology Inc., a Carrollton, Texas-based provider of payment processing for the health care industry, has joined the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council as a participating organization.

ACH PAYMENTS NOTCH FOURTH-QUARTER GAINS.
February 13, 2009... Automated clearinghouse transaction volume during the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 reached 3.8 billion, up 4.4% compared with 3.64 billion for the same period a year earlier, according to NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based electronic payments...

DODD, LEVIN INTRODUCE CARD REFORM BILL.
February 13, 2009... U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., yesterday introduced a credit card-reform bill that would rein in a slew of common practices in advance of a hearing the Senate Banking Committee is holding on consumer protection,...

ISOS URGED TO MOVE BEYOND CASH-DISPENSING ATMS.
February 13, 2009... The growth of surcharge-free ATM networks could force a strategic change among ATM independent sales organizations, a nonbank industry that began in the mid-1990s and flourished for the next decade by the lure of surcharge revenue. ATM ISOs...

PLASTIC, ELECTRONIC ACCESS PLAY ROLES FOR THRIFTIER CONSUMERS.
February 13, 2009... Consumers may be spending less, but credit and debit cards, and electronic access to account information play important roles in helping them manage their finances, suggest survey findings published today by Forrester Research Inc. Sixty...

SOME 1.4 MILLION ATMS ACCEPT CARDS BACKED BY MASTERCARD.(Conference notes)
February 13, 2009... Cards supported by MasterCard Worldwide are accepted at 1.4 million of the world's 1.7 million ATMs, Leland Englebardt, MasterCard vice president, told CardLine sister publication ATM&Debit News Wednesday at the ATM Industry Association's 10th...

ISO EXPANDS PAY-AT-THE-TABLE LINEUP.(Alpine Payment Systems)(Squirrel Systems )(Brief article)
February 13, 2009... Alpine Payment Systems, a Vancouver, Wash.-based independent sales organization, has become a reseller of Squirrel Systems point-of-sale systems. The ISO recently sent five of its staff to Squirrel Systems' headquarters in Burnaby, British...

QUALCOMM TO SUPPORT NFC TECHNOLOGY.
February 13, 2009... Telecommunication-technology company Qualcomm Inc. says it will develop chipset designs for mobile phones incorporating Near Field Communication technology. The move could boost prospects for NFC phones hitting the market over the next couple...

EXADIGM WORKING ON TAXI PAYMENT TERMINAL.
February 13, 2009... Point-of-sale terminal maker ExaDigm Inc. is working on a payment-terminal system for taxis, CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent Weekly has learned. Details are few, but an ExaDigm spokesperson says the system, called the TS100, will use a...

BRIEFS.
February 13, 2009... Fifth Third Bankcorp Processing Solutions has signed merchant-processing contracts with O'Charley's Inc., parent of three restaurant brands, and Old Time Pottery Inc., a home-dAcor retailer. Fifth Third will provide credit card processing for...

SMART-PHONE ACCESS ATTRACTS CUSTOMERS, MOBILE-BANKING PLAYERS SAY.
February 13, 2009... Banks and aggregators say mobile financial services, and especially tools that run on smart phones, are not just a way to improve customers' access to their accounts, but they also lure new customers, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister...

CUBIS WANTS UNDERSERVED TRAVELERS TO GO SOMEWHERE.
February 13, 2009... Cubis Financial Ltd., a Las Vegas-based closed-loop credit card company, launched its Credit Travel Network service this week that enables online marketing and travel companies to offer their own branded travel programs. Cubis says the network...

CITI OPENS INDIA REMITTANCE SERVICE TO NONCUSTOMERS.
February 13, 2009... Citigroup Inc. is hoping to attract more deposit customers by upgrading its remittance service to India and making it available to almost anyone, CardLine Global sister publication American Banker reports. Though global-remittance volume is...

BRIEFS.
February 13, 2009... Apriva, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based wireless-payment services company, has joined the PCI Security Standards Council as a participating organization. The Electronic Transactions Association this week released the first "U.S. Economic...

PRESSURE MOUNTS TO RESTRICT ISSUER PRACTICES THIS YEAR.(Credit Card Reform Act of 2009)(Law overview)
February 13, 2009... Pressure is building for lawmakers to pass a credit card-reform bill that would take effect this year, several months before new Federal Reserve rules restricting issuer increases in cardholder interest rates and fees kick in. Sen. Robert...

SENATE HEARING ON CARD REFORM RAISES TIMETABLE QUESTIONS.(Brief article)
February 20, 2009... A timetable for passing credit card-reform legislation this year remains undefined following a Senate Banking Committee hearing yesterday during which experts on both sides of the issue testified. U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the...

THREE ARRESTED USING CARD DATA TIED TO HEARTLAND BREACH.
February 20, 2009... Three Florida men have been arrested for allegedly using counterfeit cards to make more than $100,000 in fraudulent purchases at Wal-Mart discount stores near Tallahassee, Fla., according to the Leon County Sheriff's Office, which expects that...

VIDEO-GAME COMPANY LAUNCHES VISA PREPAID CARD.
February 20, 2009... Capcom Entertainment Inc., a Japan-based video-game developer, today announced it is offering the Capcom Unity Visa prepaid card, which it claims to be the first prepaid rewards card designed specifically for gamers. PrePaid Solutions USA, a...

REPORT TIES POTENTIAL CUSTOMER LOSS TO ATM BREACHES.
February 20, 2009... Sixty-seven percent of checking-account customers are likely to switch financial institutions if criminals breach their banks' ATMs, suggest the results of a survey commissioned by Level Four Americas LLC, which manufactures the Bridge suite of...