Cardline articles from January 2007

Cardline archives from January 2007

REWARDS NETWORK REACHES PRELIMINARY SETTLEMENT IN CALIFORNIA.(Rewards Network Inc.)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Rewards Network Inc. last week agreed in principle to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against it by California restaurants. The network, which provides marketing and loyalty programs for participating restaurants, as well as discounts for...

SMALL BUSINESS CONFIDENCE DIPS IN DECEMBER.(United States economy)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Small business owners had less confidence in the U.S. economy in December than in November, according to a survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports for Discover Financial Services. The survey measures the attitudes of 1,000 small business owners...

CANADIAN RETAILERS MUST BLOCK CARD NUMBERS.(Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Canadian retailers have assured the country's Privacy Commissioner in written statements that they expect the industry will comply with a law requiring merchants to mask complete credit card account numbers on receipts. Under Canada's Personal...

DEBT BUYERS, COLLECTORS SPENDING MORE ON TECH.(technology costs for debt buyers)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Technology costs jumped considerably between 2004 and 2005 for many industry-leading debt buyers and debt collectors surveyed by CardLine sister publication Collections & Credit Risk magazine. NCO Financial Systems, Inc., one of the top three...

WACHOVIA INITIATES MOBILE BANKING.(Mobile wireless banking)(Wachovia Bank N.A.)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Wachovia Bank this month launched Wachovia Mobile wireless banking, which allows online banking customers to monitor account activity, check balances and transfer funds between eligible accounts. Wachovia plans to add bill payment next year,...

BOFA CEO LEWIS EXERCISES HIS OPTIONS FOR CHRISTMAS.(Bank of America Corp.'s chief executive officer Ken Lewis )(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Bank of America Corp. CEO Ken Lewis last week exercised his options for 816,000 shares of common stock. In reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday, Lewis disclosed that he acquired the shares for $37.25 each and...

WESTERN KENTUCKY U. USES KIOSKS TO PEDDLE TICKETS.(Visa, MasterCard and Discover cards accepted)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Bowling Green, Ky.-based technology company Hitcents and Western Kentucky University introduced four off-campus kiosks that sell tickets to football and both men's and women's basketball games. The kiosks, which accept Visa, MasterCard and...

BRIEFS.(J.C. Penney Corporation Inc., LifeTango.com, Analytic Innovations)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... J.C. Penney Co. yesterday abruptly fired its chief operating officer, Catherine West, the former president of Capital One Financial Corp.'s U.S. credit card business, after only five months on the job....A nationwide phone survey by...

U.S. MAY ACCESS EUROPEAN TRAVELERS' CREDIT CARD RECORDS.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Europeans who use a credit card to book a flight to the United States could have their credit card and e-mail accounts inspected by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security following a deal struck in October by European Union and U.S....

VERIFONE PINCHES THREE HYPERCOM EXECS.(appointments)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... VeriFone says three former Hypercom executives-Walter Allen, Marty Widmann and Joe Biondi-have joined San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone, one of Hypercom's major competitors among point-of-sale terminal makers. Allen, who had been general manager...

HSBC USA, MASTERCARD CHANGE CARD AGREEMENT.(HSBC Bank USA N.A.)(MasterCard International Inc.)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... MasterCard International and HSBC Bank USA have amended certain terms of their card processing and issuing agreement, according to a MasterCard filing last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The changes relate to "the HSBC...

UTILITIES ACCEPT ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS, BUT FEW CONSUMERS USE IT.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... A recent survey of more than 60 utilities and energy-service providers has found that more than 85% have the ability to accept electronic payments. However, more than 80% of the utilities say less than 10% of their customers are using the...

CHECKFREE WILL BUY CARREKER FOR $206 MILLION.(Carreker Corp.)(CheckFree Corp.)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... CheckFree Corp announced today it would pay about $206 million in cash and debt to buy Carreker Corp., a Dallas-based provider of payment technology with a focus on check-conversion services. CheckFree will pay $8.05 per share, or a little more...

AMEX TO BUY ELECTRONIC INVOICE FIRM.(American Express Co)(Harbor Payments)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... American Express Co. reports it will buy Atlanta-based Harbor Payments, a provider of electronic invoice and payment technology. Harbor has about 200 clients. AmEx said in a statement it acquired Harbor to expand its offerings of electronic...

COMPUCREDIT SHAREHOLDERS DONATE $15 MILLION.( Charitable Designation Program)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Credit card issuer CompuCredit Corp. donated $15 million to benefit 26 organizations last year through its shareholder-directed philanthropic effort. Under the 2006 CompuCredit Corp. Charitable Designation Program, shareholders who owned at...

BRIEFS.(Co-Op Financial Services, ING DIRECT, MasterCard International Inc.)
January 5, 2007... Co-Op Financial Services set a single-day processing record on Dec. 23 with 5,045,225 transactions.... Discover Financial Servicessays 95 million U.S. television viewers saw its outdoor ad atop One Times Square in New York during the ball drop...

MOODY'S FINDS OCTOBER A GREAT MONTH FOR CREDIT CARDS.
January 5, 2007... Credit card performance measures improved in October with this year's figures looking especially strong compared to those of October 2005 when the federal bankruptcy law was enacted, according to Moody's Investors Services. The delinquency rate...

CITIZENS ISSUES MORE THAN 3 MILLION CONTACTLESS DEBIT CARDS.(Citizens Bank of Americus)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Bank has issued about 3.5 million debit cards with MasterCard WorldWide's PayPass contactless payment technology, and is testing the application for its credit cards, a bank official tells CardLine. The debit...

DISCOVER LAUNCHES RELOADABLE PREPAID CARDS.(Green Dot Corp)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Prepaid card network Green Dot Corp. announced today it has begun offering a reloadable prepaid card carrying the Discover brand. Green Dot will distribute the cards to its merchant clients that operate 50,000 retail stores. Consumers can...

DEBT RESOLVE OPENS DEBT-BUYING UNIT.(Debt Resolve Inc. opens DRV Capital LLC)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... A small collections software firm that specializes in Internet debt collection is opening a debt-buying subsidiary that will seek to collect credit card and other types of debt largely online. Debt Resolve Inc. created subsidiary DRV Capital...

DRIVER'S LICENSE WILL PAY FOR FILL-UPS.(National Payment Card)
January 5, 2007... Murphy Oil USA, which operates gas stations in 21 states, will test National Payment Card's technology that allows payment with a driver's license that carries a magnetic stripe. The system could be rolled out to Murphy locations in 12 states,...

PREPAID PAY CARD FOR IMMIGRANTS BEGINS IN NEW JERSEY.(SiGo Money MasterCard)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... New Labor, a New Brunswick, N.J., organization that works with immigrants, is offering the SiGo Money MasterCard, a reloadable, stored-value card for unbanked immigrants. Cardholders can have money from their paychecks loaded onto the card for...

KWIK TRIP CHOOSES INGENICO PIN PADS.(Groupe INGENICO)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Kwik Trip Inc., a La Crosse, Wis.-based convenience store chain, will deploy more than 1,100 Ingenico PIN pads in its more than 350 stores, according to Pinnacle Corp., the supplier of the point-of-sale equipment. In addition to a secure PIN...

BRIEFS.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Online Resources Corp. launched a mobile banking and payment service for its bank customers.... SunTrust Banks renewed its contract with CheckFree Corp. to offer its electronic billing and payment services to its retail and small business...

CLARIFICATION.
January 5, 2007... NYCE Payments Network does not have a prepaid card reload relationship with Safeway or any other merchant as CardLine reported on Dec. 29, 2006. (c) 2007 CardLine and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cardforum.com...

COULD BOFA SHIFT DEBIT SHARE TO MASTERCARD?(MasterCard Inc., Bank of America)
January 5, 2007... MasterCard Inc. quietly amended a card-issuing agreement with Bank of America last week, but the ramifications could be explosive. MasterCard's Dec. 27 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission covers the mother lode of card...

TRES BONNE 2006 FOR PROCESSOR STOCKS WITH 28% JUMP.(stock price index)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... The 13 publicly traded card-processing firms returned beaucoup bucks to investors in 2006, with their stocks delivering a mean return of 27.69% compared with a 16.28% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a 13.08% increase in the S&P 500...

CARDS WILL ACCOUNT FOR GREATER CORPORATE PAYMENTS: VISA.(report by Visa International)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... More than 49% of corporate treasury executives in North America believe their companies' treasury department will exert greater control over the firm's payment card strategy in the future, according to a survey conducted for Visa International....

SURVEY SAYS RETAILERS ARE EMBRACING CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Contactless payment is gaining ground with retailers, but questions remain about the costs of readers and how merchants can use data gathered from contactless transactions to improve their businesses, according to a survey from Aberdeen. The...

DISCOVER'S TRENDS LOOK GOOD AS SPIN-OFF NEARS.
January 5, 2007... Morgan Stanley may find some good news in a recent research report as it plans to spin off its Discover Financial Services unit. Card consultant Auriemma Consulting Group reports that 12% of cardholders said Discover was the card they used most...

CREDIT CARDS ARE TOP DEBT FOR WOMEN.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... About 60% of American women carry more than $5,000 in household debt and nearly 30% carry more than $20,000, and most of it is owed to credit card issuers, according to Oppenheimer Funds Inc.'s 2006 Women & Investing Survey. The New York-based...

MERCATOR SEES PREPAID SPENDING GROWTH.(open-loop cards)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... The fastest growth in prepaid cards in the next few years will come from so-called "open-loop" cards carrying such major network brands as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, according to a recent study from research firm Mercator...

BRIEFS.(Global Payments Inc., First Data Corp., Sunoco Inc.)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Standard & Poor's added Global Payments Inc. to its Midcap 400 index.... First Data Corp. renewed its credit card processing agreement with First Premier Bank....Gas retailer Sunoco will accept the Fleet One Local fuel card at its 4,600 gas...

GLOBAL'S STOCK TANKS AS MEXICAN MONEY TRANSFERS SLOW.(Global Payments Inc.)
January 12, 2007... The stock of Global Payments Inc. fell 16% in midday trading today after it lowered its guidance for 2007 revenues as part of its fiscal second-quarter report. Investors drove the stock down $7.96 to $41.09 after Global reported that its DolEx...

CONSTANTINE JOINS SPITZER AS SENIOR ADVISOR ...(Lloyd Constantine)(senior advisor to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Lloyd Constantine, the lead attorney in the celebrated merchant class-action lawsuit against Visa USA and MasterCard Worldwide, formerly MasterCard International, says he will become senior advisor to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer....

... AND FEDS GET $7.2 MILLION IN HONOR ALL CARDS DEAL.(MasterCard International Inc)(Visa U.S.A. Inc. )(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Visa USA and MasterCard Worldwide agreed to pay the federal government $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit over debit card fees. Visa will pay the U.S. Treasury $2 million and MasterCard will pay $1.5 million, according to an agreement announced...

TRADE GROUP, FEDS FACE OFF OVER NETWORK-BRANDED PREPAID CARDS.(Network Branded Prepaid Card Association)
January 12, 2007... The new leadership of the U.S. Congress was sworn in yesterday with reports of hearings and possible legislation covering credit cards. Last October, as many of the politicians campaigned for office, a federal agency put stored value cards...

FED REGULATION MAY BE NEEDED FOR GIFT CARDS.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... The payments industry needs to consider supporting federal regulation of gift cards, Brian Riley, senior analyst, bank cards, with TowerGroup tells CardLine. Last year, 36 states had guidelines for setting expiration dates and fees, creating a...

VERIFONE'S BERGERON GETS CONTRACT EXTENSION.(VeriFone Holdings Inc.'s Douglas G. Bergeron )(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... The board of VeriFone Holdings Inc. wants CEO Douglas G. Bergeron to stick around. Bergeron and the San Jose, Calif.-based company signed a contract extension that will keep him as CEO through October 2009. The deal, which replaces one that was...

CO-OP FINANCIAL FORMS ATM SERVICING UNIT.(Co-Op Financial Services)(CU Anytime LLC )(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Co-Op Financial Services, operator of one of the nation's largest surcharge-free ATM networks, announced this week it has teamed with CU Anytime LLC to create Co-Op ATM Services LLC. The alliance will provide ATM services for credit unions,...

BRIEFS.(Comerica Bank's new visa cards)(Springbok Services appointed Sarah Grotts)(Point and Pay Inc. appointed George E. Devitt )
January 12, 2007... Comerica Bank today introduced two Visa check cards that provide WorldPerks miles for their signature-debit purchases.... Processor ChoicePay added 37 new billers to the Vcom payment kiosk network available at more than 1,100 7-Eleven stores....

TSYS PREPAID TO CLOSE NEW YORK HEADQUARTERS.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Transaction processor TSYS is closing the New York headquarters of its TSYS Prepaid unit and moving it to Georgia, CardLine has learned. The prepaid unit will be located in Alpharetta, north of Atlanta, where TSYS houses its Enhancement...

NCR TO SPIN OFF TERADATA DIVISION.
January 12, 2007... NCR Corp., one of the nation's largest ATM manufacturers in terms of installed machines, this morning announced that it is spinning off its fast-growing Teradata Data Warehousing business to NCR shareholders in a tax-free transaction. Bill...

NYC CAB DRIVERS PO'D AT CREDIT CARD ACCEPTANCE RULES.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... A plan that would require New York taxicabs to add high-tech gadgetry that includes credit card readers drew sharp rebukes from cabdrivers at a New York City Council hearing last week. Drivers say that the fees they must pay when accepting...

NFC TAKES CENTER STAGE AT CES.(Near Field Communication)(Consumer Electronics Show)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... A slew of Near Field Communication (NFC)-related announcements and presentations at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week aim to bring the technology mainstream attention. NFC is a contactless payment and...

BRISK 2007 START FOR DEBT SALES.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Public debt portfolio listings bounced back up this week to $370.7 million after a sluggish pre-holiday week when only $51.1 million was listed, according to the weekly debt update from CardLine sister publication CCRNewsline. Nearly all the...

STATES START 2007 WITH DATA SECURITY LAWS.
January 12, 2007... The number of Americans whose personal information has been breached - whether by mail, stolen laptops or inadvertent online postings - recently surpassed 100 million, according to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Four states in January enacted...

HOW A LEOPARD CHANGES ITS SPOTS.(rebate reward debit card)(point-of-sale terminals )(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... When does a debit card become a credit card? At the point of sale. That's not a card industry in-joke but a twisted bit of logic that arises from something called a "rebate reward debit card." The cards are distributed in place of paper checks...

BRIEFS.
January 12, 2007... Spartan Stores' 87 grocery stores in Michigan and Ohio are accepting MasterCard Worldwide's PayPass contactless cards and fobs.... Processor EPayments Corp. acquired Automated Check Recovery, a debt collector for school districts.... ATM...

CONSUMER BORROWING REBOUNDS IN NOVEMBER.(Survey)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Perhaps it was pre-holiday spending that caused such a difference in one month. Consumer credit outstanding rose at an annual rate of 6.2% in November, following a 0.6% drop in October, according to the Federal Reserve Board's monthly Consumer...

VISA REPORTS POWERFUL 2006 AS IT PREPARES FOR NEW LIFE ...(Visa U.S.A. Inc.)(Financial report)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Visa USA generated net income of $455 million in its fiscal 2006 ending Sept. 30, up more than 26% from $360 million in fiscal 2005, according to the San Francisco-based network's 2006 annual report released last night. Operating revenue came...

... AND SEES VOLUME INCREASES ACROSS THE BOARD.(increase in sales volume of Visa International)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Visa broke down its sales and volume totals for its individual card products in its 2006 annual report released late yesterday with increases seen by all its market segments. In individual card products, nearly 283 million Visa consumer credit...

LATE PAYMENTS ROSE IN 3RD QUARTER, SAYS ABA.(American Bankers Association)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... High energy prices, a softening housing market and Federal Reserve interest rate increases last year prompted a rise in credit card late payments during the third quarter of 2006 to 4.57% from 4.41% in the second quarter, reports the American...

ROUND UP A POSSE: BOFA, WELLS OFFER $80,000 TO FIND ARIZONA ATM THIEVES.(Bank of America Corp.)(Wells Fargo & Co.)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... The New West morphed into the Old West recently as Bank of America and Wells Fargo offered a combined $80,000 reward for information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of a crook or crooks who stole the banks' ATMs in the Phoenix...

COLLECTION M&A LIKELY TO DROP THIS YEAR.(mergers and acquisitions)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Mergers and acquisitions in the debt collection and debt buying businesses reached a record level in 2006 with $3.2 billion in deals worldwide but the value of such activity is likely to drop this year, reports consultant Kaulkin & Ginsberg....

MERCHANT GROUP ATTACKS NETWORKS, ISSUERS IN CAPITOL HILL AD CAMPAIGN.(MasterCard International Inc.)(Visa International)
January 12, 2007... The Merchants Payments Coalition this week began an anti-credit card ad campaign in the Washington D.C. area as it attempts to influence Capital Hill legislators and staff. The radio and print ads claim that Visa, MasterCard and their member...

BRIEFS.
January 12, 2007... Fleet payments processor Wright Express Corp. named Larry McTavish to its board.... BankAtlantic, with 80 outlets and 250 ATMs in Florida, is using Dynamic Card Solutions' instant debit card issuance technology.... Moneris Solutions named...

INVESTORS BRUSH OFF CORPORATE CHANGES.(CompuCredit Corp.)(TNS Inc.)(TRM Corp.)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Several payment-industry firms released today intriguing news regarding takeovers, executive agreements and other difficulties, though their stocks were relatively unchanged. Issuer CompuCredit Corp. reported that it amended its employment deal...

VISA INTROS OUTLINE OF MOBILE PAYMENT PLANS.(Visa International)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Visa International introduced a set of software applications and standards designed to allow card issuers and mobile-phone networks to launch mobile-payment services around the world. The card organization formally introduced its platform this...

COLLECTORS, ADVOCATE SPAR OVER IRS COLLECTIONS.(Internal Revenue Service)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Collection firms and an Internal Revenue Service office battled this week in Washington, D.C., over the outsourcing of tax collections to private agencies. The Taxpayer Advocate Service, a watchdog office within the IRS, recommended that...

SURVEY SHOWS PROMISE, CHALLENGES FOR BIOMETRIC PAYMENT.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Americans are willing to put their biometric data onto their payment cards, but they do not want that information on retail loyalty cards, suggests a survey from United Kingdom-based market-research firm TNS and San Francisco-based online...

ONLINE COLLECTION RIVALS TANGLE OVER PATENT.
January 12, 2007... Debt Resolve Inc. of White Plains, N.Y., and Apollo Enterprise Solutions LLC became entangled this week in a patent-infringement case over Web-based consumer debt-collection technology. Each has proprietary technology. Debt Resolve filed a...

MORE MERCHANTS, BANKS, SET UP SHOP IN CYBER WORLD.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Sears, Circuit City and ABN AMRO have joined the growing list of real-world corporations setting up storefronts in an online virtual world called Second Life. More a social hangout than a game, Second Life, which was launched by San...

REVEL CARD HOPES TO ROCK PAYDAY LENDERS.(Fishback Financial Corp.)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Brookings, S.D.-based Fishback Financial Corp. is offering 8% cash advances tied to a prepaid card as it targets young consumers who use payday loans or credit cards with high annual percentage rates. Cardholders can load the MasterCard-branded...

BRIEFS.
January 12, 2007... Loyalty firm Carlson Marketing added the ticket program of Utix Group Inc. to its rewards program.... Denver-based PaySimple is providing credit card and ACH payment software to Web-marketing and service provider Market Hardware.......

NCR WILL RESTRUCTURE ATM MANUFACTURING.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... ATM manufacturer NCR Corp. will restructure its worldwide manufacturing operations and layoff about 4% of its staff, including workers in Scotland, the United States, Canada, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, Bob Tramontano, NCR's vice president of self...

HYPERCOM BUYS TPI SOFTWARE.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Hypercom Corp. says it has bought TPI Software LLC, a company that makes software to process payments in PC-based point-of-sale systems. Phoenix-based Hypercom says TPI's SmartPayments software for processing credit/debit, electronic benefits,...

LINK2GOV OFFERS PIN-DEBIT TAX PAYMENTS.
January 12, 2007... Link2Gov, a Metavante Corp. business unit that allows payment of taxes online, yesterday announced that consumers can pay federal balance-due taxes with their PIN-debit cards, an alternative Link2Gov claims is an industry first. "Never before...

MISGUIDED SHERIFF'S ALERT DAMAGES GIFT CARD IMAGE.(ComData Corp.)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Merchant gift card processor Comdata Corp. is working to put the genie back in the bottle following widespread press accounts of an email fraud alert sent by an Oregon sheriff's department. The alert from the Jackson County Sheriff's Department...

GRAND PRIX TO USE CONTACTLESS CARDS.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Contactless smart cards will take the pole position at two racing events later this year. Richard Ramirez, president and CEO of the Moorpark, Calif.-office of First Data Independent Sales Fresno by Cardservice International says as many as...

MAXED OUT BEGINS BROADER RELEASE.(A film documentary that takes a hard look at creditors will be screened to the press and public)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... A film documentary that takes a hard look at creditors will be screened to the press and public this month and next with a possible showing for Capitol Hill politicians in the works. There will be three New York City screenings of Maxed Out for...

MASTERCARD DISAVOWS COMMENTS ON SETTLEMENTS.(MasterCard Worldwide)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... MasterCard Worldwide today says that comments attributed to its chief financial officer regarding the settlement of several huge law suits were taken out of context and don't present the network's views. According to a story in the financial...

BRIEFS.
January 12, 2007... TSYS Acquiring Solutions named Robert J. Philbin president. Philbin has been interim president since August 2006.... MBNA Canada Bank is issuing a MasterCard credit card with WorldPoints rewards for Canadian mortgage and equipment finance...

METAVANTE ACQUIRES VALUTEC TO EXPAND INTO RETAILER GIFT CARDS.(Valutec Card Solutions Inc.)(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... Metavante Corp. moved today to broaden its product line in the growing prepaid card market, announcing it would buy Valutec Card Solutions, Inc. for an undisclosed price. Metavante offers its bank clients open-loop prepaid cards that carry one...

STUDY: UTILITY, TELECOM PAYMENTS BUILD CREDIT HISTORY.(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... Tens of millions of Americans lack access to credit, in part because they lack the credit history that credit bureaus use to rate consumers' creditworthiness. A study this week from the Brookings Institution's Political and Economic Research...

AMEX CONCLUDES TEST OF "MEMBERS LOUNGE" IN NEW JERSEY MALL.(American Express)(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... Sunday will be the final day for American Express Co. cardholders and card applicants to relax at the American Express "Members Lounge" at The Mall at Short Hills in Short Hills, New Jersey. The 3,400- square-foot, 100-seat lounge is appointed...

FIRST CREDIT CARDS, NOW ITS LOYALTY CARDS FOR PAY BY TOUCH.(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... Biometric provider Pay By Touch is seeking to displace the store loyalty card with a consumer's fingerprint as it promotes its SmartShop service leading into the National Retail Federation's annual show that begins Sunday. SmartShop links the...

DALLAS SCHOOL DISTRICT TO PUNISH CREDIT CARD ABUSE BY EMPLOYEES.(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... Up to 20 Dallas Independent School District employees could be prosecuted for fraudulently using district credit cards for personal spending, according to a series of investigative reports in the Dallas Morning News newspaper. The district also...

DRV CAPITAL BUYS CREDIT CARD, PAYDAY LOAN PORTFOLIOS.(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... The debt-purchasing subsidiary of Debt Resolve Inc. purchased its first two portfolios of distressed debt with a face value of $8 million, 11 days after obtaining $20 million in backing for purchases, the company reported Thursday. DRV Capital...

DEBIT USERS UNCERTAIN ABOUT PIN- AND SIGNATURE-DEBIT SECURITY.(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... Debit card users are almost evenly split when judging the security of signature-based versus PIN-based transactions. Auriemma Consulting Group reports that 53% of debit card users believe PIN-approved purchases are more secure, while 47%...

BRIEFS.(Federal Reserve Board appoints Jason Engel)(Acxiom Corp. named as best large publicly traded companies)(Smart Payment Solutions merges with Automated Financials Group)(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... The Federal Reserve Board named to its Consumer Advisory Council Jason Engel, a vice president and general counsel for Experian, Louise Gissendaner, a senior vice president with Fifth Third Bank, Linda Tinner, a vice president with US Bank, and...

CARD LOANS UP, CHARGEOFFS DOWN AT U.S. BANCORP.
January 19, 2007... U.S. Bancorp today reported its net income rose nearly 6% in 2006 to $4.8 billion, compared with $4.5 billion in 2005. Fourth quarter 2006 net income was nearly $1.2 billion, up about 5% from more than $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter of...

PAYMENT PROCESSING PAYS FOR U.S. BANCORP.(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... Higher transaction volumes, rate changes and business expansion helped drive net income for U.S. Bancorp's payment services division to $967 million in 2006, up nearly 33% from $729 million in 2005. The processing of ATM and merchant...

WELLS FARGO: 2006 CREDIT CARD FEES GROW, CHARGEOFFS FALL.(Brief article)
January 19, 2007... Wells Fargo & Co. reported during its fourth quarter and 2006 annual release that its credit card loans outstanding at year-end totaled $14.7 billion, up more than 22% from $12.0 billion at the end of 2005. Net credit card chargeoffs totaled...