Cardline articles from January 2008

Cardline archives from January 2008

WAL-MART MAY SEEK DAMAGES FROM FIRST DATA OVER GIFT CARD GLITCH.
January 4, 2008... Wal-Mart customers soon may forget a glitch that made it difficult to use gift cards the day after Christmas, but the giant Bentonville, Ark.-based chain may not have such a short memory, a retail analyst says. "This is something that is going...

CONSUMERS OUTSTRIP GOVERNMENT IN PREPAID CARD SPENDING.
January 4, 2008... Consumers loading money onto prepaid cards purchased directly from issuers represents 45%, or roughly $89.1 billion, of the prepaid market's 2006 dollar volume, according to a Mercator Advisory Group report released Dec. 20. Consumers and...

PHILADELPHIA TRANSIT CONSIDERS SMART CARDS.
January 4, 2008... The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority announced at a recent press conference that it plans to change its fare collection system from cash and tokens to fare cards. The authority intends to issue a request for proposals in the...

AIRLINE PASSENGERS SPEND MORE WHEN CARRIERS ACCEPT CARDS.
January 4, 2008... Transaction value increases up to 57% when airlines accept card payments onboard, Tom Douramakos, president and CEO of Toronto-based GuestLogix Inc., tells CardLine. "The airlines should be able to increase their sales 5 or 10 fold," says...

DYNAMIC CARD SOLUTIONS SEEKS SECOND PATENT FOR INSTANT-ISSUE TECHNOLOGY.(TD Banknorth uses the Card Wizard technology )(Brief article)
January 4, 2008... Englewood, Co.-based Dynamic Card Solutions, which developed the Card Wizard technology that allows banks to issue unembossed credit and debit cards on-the-spot at branches, has filed for a second technology patent to protect the process used...

CHINESE CITIES READY FOR CARD-CARRYING OLYMPIC VISITORS, TSYS SAYS.(Total System Services Inc. receives contract from chinese banks for credit card processing for olympics 2008)(Brief article)
January 4, 2008... Payment systems in big Chinese cities will be ready for the 2008 Summer Olympics, M. Troy Woods, president and chief operating officer of Total Systems Service Inc., a Columbus, Ga.-based transaction-processor known as TSYS, tells CardLine...

AS PREPAID CARD MARKET EXPANDS, SO DOES FRAUD.
January 4, 2008... Prepaid card fraud is increasing as the market expands, and gift cards will remain the top objective for fraudsters during the holiday season, according to Carl Clump, CEO of Brookwood, UK-based Retail Decisions plc. "I see gift card fraud...

BRIEFS.
January 4, 2008... Discover Financial Services has signed a marketing deal with Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith Corp.'s Parents magazine. Discover is sponsoring articles, tips and videos about time management and family activities in the magazine and on its Web...

MOBILE PAYMENTS AN OPPORTUNITY, NOT A THREAT, TSYS EXEC SAYS.
January 4, 2008... Mobile-phone payments offer an opportunity for processors, not a threat of phone-company encroachment on transaction-processing turf, says an executive of Total System Services Inc., known as TSYS. "We get asked from time to time if we're...

ONLINE HOLIDAY SALES SOAR 19% HIGHER THAN LAST YEAR.
January 4, 2008... Online spending for the holiday season, measured Nov. 1 through Dec. 27, reached $27.96 billion, a 19% increase over $23.56 billion spent during the corresponding period a year ago, ComScore Inc., a Reston, Va.-based digital measurement...

SECONDARY MARKET FOR CARD DEBT LOOKING A BIT WAN.
January 4, 2008... The enthusiasm of the resale market for credit card debt portfolios has ebbed in the past several months, and the lethargy may linger well into 2008, industry observers tell CardLine sister publication CCRNewsline. "There is less buyer interest...

FITCH RATES SMALL-BIZ CARD ISSUER ADVANTA AS STABLE.
January 4, 2008... Fitch Ratings on Friday affirmed the long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of Advanta Corp. and Advanta Bank Corp. at 'BB-'. The Rating Outlook was revised to stable from positive, reflecting the issuer's "solid position in the small-business...

CALIF. BANS COMPANIES FROM GIVING GIFT CARDS FOR CIGARETTES.
January 4, 2008... Beginning Jan. 1, companies no longer may give gift cards or gift certificates or make other offers for free smokeless tobacco or cigarettes in California. The law signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger makes the "nonsale distribution of any...

54% OF ISO VOLUME FROM STORES WITH LESS THAN $50K IN ANNUAL TRANSACTIONS.(merchants gains higher revenue from credit card processing)(Brief article)
January 4, 2008... Independent sales organizations and acquirers see 54% of the volume they process coming from merchants with less than $50,000 in annual transactions, a recent survey from Boston-based Aite Group indicates. On average, merchants with $50,000 to...

FED STUDY DEBUNKS 'DEBT TRAP' THEORY OF PAYDAY LENDING.
January 4, 2008... After Georgia and North Carolina banned payday lending, users of those services did not escape a "debt trap" as was expected. Instead, they bounced more checks and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection at a higher rate, according to a staff...

BRIEFS.
January 4, 2008... Boston-based Merchant Warehouse, a provider of merchant accounts and credit card equipment plans to donate five wireless card-payment terminals to First Night Boston, a New Year's celebration with more than 40 venues throughout Boston, enabling...

2007 A RECORD YEAR FOR DATA COMPROMISES, REPORT SAYS.
January 4, 2008... 2007 will go down as a record-breaking year for data breaches in the United States, according to a report released Monday by the Identity Theft Resource Center. Some 446 publicized data compromises occurred last year, 43% more than the 312 U.S....

DECEMBER CREDIT INDEX FALLS TO RECORD LOW.(trends in revenue generation by credit card industry)(Brief article)
January 4, 2008... The Credit Manager's Index, a gauge of economic factors affecting credit and collection professionals, fell for the fourth consecutive month in December to a record-low score of 52.4 from 53.1 in November, the National Association of Credit...

VERIFONE'S ADJUSTED FINANCIAL RESULTS DELAYED AGAIN.(Financial report)(Brief article)
January 4, 2008... Point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Holdings Inc. says it likely will not publish its restated 2007 results before March, about three months later than expected. In December, San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone said it was restating results for...

EURONET MERGER STILL FACES OPPOSITION FROM MONEYGRAM.(Euronet Worldwide Inc.)(MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
January 4, 2008... Euronet Worldwide Inc. acknowledged in a letter last week to MoneyGram International that it still is upset by MoneyGram's refusal to meet since Euronet proposed acquiring the Leawood, Kansas-based electronic-payments processor for $1.65...

BANKERS' GROUP WARNS CONSUMERS ABOUT DEBIT FRAUD, SKIMMING.
January 4, 2008... The American Bankers Association issued a statement in December to advise consumers on protecting themselves from debit card fraud at ATMs and point-of-sale terminals. The association issued the alert because of rising fraud rates and to raise...

NEW ILLINOIS LAW REQUIRES GIFT CARDS TO REMAIN VALID FIVE YEARS.
January 4, 2008... An Illinois law that took effect Jan. 1 prohibits gift cards from expiring for five years from the date issued and does not allow companies to apply fees to the cards. The law does not apply to prepaid phone cards or to cards or gift...

ALTERNATIVE PAYMENTS NOT A THREAT BANKS, CONSULTANT SAYS.
January 4, 2008... Financial institutions should prepare for a future of mobile banking but need not worry about alternative payments encroaching on banks' customary services, Andrew Dresner, a director of Oliver Wyman Financial Services, a New York-based...

BRIEFS.
January 4, 2008... Money Centers of America, a provider of cash access and transaction management systems, says it now complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. (c) 2008 CardLine and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved....

POLL: 12% OF AMERICANS LATE ON CARD PAYMENTS IN '07.
January 4, 2008... One-fourth of American adults missed making one or more on-time bill payments last year, with the bulk of those delinquencies occurring on credit cards (12%), utilities (12%) and medical services (11%), new survey data suggest. TransUnion's...

CARD DELINQUENCIES DECLINE FOR THIRD CONSECUTIVE QUARTER.
January 4, 2008... Though more consumers are defaulting on mortgages, the credit card delinquency rate decreased in the third quarter of 2007, the third consecutive quarter the rate has fallen, the American Bankers Association reports today in its Consumer Credit...

NEW MEXICO SWITCHING FROM CHECKS TO CARDS FOR WIC BENEFITS.
January 4, 2008... New Mexico hopes to reduce its costs and increase convenience for Women, Infants and Children food-benefit recipients by switching from paper checks to smart cards. The cards from Hitachi America Ltd. have embedded chips that store information...

STUDENTS WHO TAKE CREDIT RISKS MORE LIKELY TO RISK HEALTH, TOO.
January 4, 2008... College students who engage in high-risk credit behavior are more likely to put their health at risk, according to an Arizona State University study published in the Journal of American College Health. The researchers conclude that students who...

ALLIANCES FORMED IN 2007 TO HELP CONSUMERS AVOID ATM FEES.
January 4, 2008... Companies in the ATM industry formed a number of alliances in 2007 to bring surcharge-free services to consumers. In December, for example, Northern Trust, a Chicago-based private bank that courts relatively wealthy consumers, joined Allpoint,...

RETAILERS' TRADE GROUP CREATES IT BEST-PRACTICES LIBRARY ONLINE.
January 4, 2008... The National Retail Federation is developing an online reference library of retail information-technology best practices. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is first on the library's to-do list. A subcommittee of the federation's...

REPORT: GIFT CARDS MAY HELP RETAILERS SALVAGE HOLIDAY SEASON.
January 4, 2008... Despite estimates to the contrary, retailers will have sales increases of 3% to 3.5% over last year because of gift card redemptions, according to Standard & Poor's Equity Research Services. A November 2007 survey of 1,100 consumers...

BRIEFS.
January 4, 2008... Synovus announced Wednesday it has completed its spin-off of payment processor Total System Services Inc....Kevin Gallagher has been appointed general manager of the e-commerce division at Merchant e-Solutions Inc....Don Krasnosky has been...

U.S. TREASURY PICKS COMERICA TO ISSUE FEDERAL PREPAID DEBIT CARD.
January 11, 2008... The U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Management Service announced today that Comerica Bank will provide nationwide prepaid debit card services to unbanked recipients of Social Security and other federal benefits, such as veteran or railroad...

GLOBAL PAYMENTS SEES SECOND-QUARTER PROFITS GROW 13%.(Financial report)(Brief article)
January 11, 2008... Global Payments Inc., an Atlanta payments processor, on Thursday reported net income of $38.3 million for its second quarter ended Nov. 30, up 12.7% from $34 million during the same period a year ago. Revenue during the quarter reached $308.8...

INTERNET-PROTOCOL PAYMENT AUTHORIZATION CHEAPER THAN DIAL-UP.(Internet-protocol payment terminals are declining in price and now cost less than dial-up transactions.)(Survey)(Brief article)
January 11, 2008... Transactions authorized via Internet-protocol payment terminals are declining in price and now cost less than dial-up transactions, according to a survey from The Strawhecker Group, an Omaha, Neb.-based merchant-acquiring consultancy. The 2007...

INDUSTRY TELLS CONSUMERS HOW TO USE GIFT CARDS.
January 11, 2008... The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association and American Express Co. both have advice for consumers on how to manage gift cards: Use them as soon as possible. The association reminds consumers to get the most out of their cards by using them...

USE SOFT BENEFITS TO DIFFERENTIATE PAYMENTS, MARKETER ADVISES.(Brief article)
January 11, 2008... Soft benefits are becoming more important than hard benefits for differentiating payment-loyalty programs, loyalty consultant Andrew Morris, president of Morris Advisors Inc., said recently at the SourceMedia Alternate Payments Forum in New...

ILLINOIS COLLEGE SAVINGS PROGRAM ROLLS OUT MASTERCARD.
January 11, 2008... The Bright Start College Savings Program, which is designed to help families put away funds for higher-education expenses, is adding a Bright Start Futuretrust MasterCard. Cardholders automatically receive a $25 contribution to their Bright...

INCOMM OFFERS MOBILE-PHONE COUPONS THROUGH LOYALTY CARDS.
January 11, 2008... Atlanta-based InComm Inc. and Single Touch Interactive Inc. announced Thursday an agreement to offer mobile-phone coupons through retail-loyalty programs. Consumers may use their mobile phones or go online to sign up with a participating...

BRIEFS.
January 11, 2008... The World Travel Awards has named Visa the "World's Leading Credit Card" for the 10th consecutive year. The prize was awarded based on a worldwide online poll of travel agencies and agents. (c) 2008 CardLine and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights...

VENDOR ABANDONS SUPERMARKET'S PHONE-BASED LOYALTY INITIATIVE.
January 11, 2008... Potash Bros. Supermarket, which in February 2006 began offering discounts via cell-phone text messages (CardLine, 2/27/06), ended the loyalty scheme Dec. 31. Storeowner Art Potash tells CardLine the vendor that supported the program, Modiv...

OPPORTUNITIES EXIST FOR GEN Y CREDIT CARD ISSUANCE.
January 11, 2008... Most, 57%, of Generation Y members-those born between 1978 and 1989-have one or fewer credit cards compared with 39% of all consumers who do, the results of a Javelin Strategy & Research study suggest. This represents an opportunity for issuers...

TD BANKNORTH LAUNCHES INDEPENDENT CREDIT CARD PROGRAM.
January 11, 2008... Portland, Maine-based TD Banknorth on Monday began offering new credit cards, called Simply Flexible, that offer lower interest rates as a reward for financial responsibility. The Portland, Maine-based bank ended its card-program relationship...

CELL PHONES TO REPLACE CARDS SOON, SAYS CONSULTANT.
January 11, 2008... Within the next few years, many consumers may be paying for goods and services with cell phones instead of credit or debit cards at the point of sale, regardless of whether the point-of-sale terminal is attended or unattended, Mark Dunn,...

SONY OFFERS PREPAID DIGITAL-DOWNLOAD CARDS.
January 11, 2008... Sony BMG Music Entertainment says it plans to sell prepaid cards that enable consumers to download albums and, in some cases, bonus content, from Sony's Musicpass.com site. The cards, called Platinum Music Pass, will feature artwork from CD...

ONLINE SPENDING UP 19% THIS HOLIDAY, STUDY SAYS.
January 11, 2008... American consumers spent more than $29.2 billion online during the 2007 holiday shopping season, from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, according to a recent study. Reston, Va.-based Internet research firm comScore Inc. reported today that the total is...

DIEBOLD SELLS MORE THAN 6,000 ATMS TO CHINESE BANKS.
January 11, 2008... ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc. has completed agreements to sell more than 6,000 Opteva ATMs to several Chinese banks, including Bank of China and Postal Savings Bank of China. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank...

BRIEFS.
January 11, 2008... Network-security services provider The PowerTech Group has joined the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council as a participating organization....NCR Corp. and Vivotech have introduced a line of point-of-sale terminals that incorporate...

FCC RULING: CELL PHONES FAIR GAME IN COLLECTING CARD DEBT.
January 11, 2008... The Federal Communications Commission ruled Friday that creditors and collectors can use autodialer equipment to call wireless telephone numbers and leave prerecorded messages on cell phones. The ruling removes a barrier for card issuers that...

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATING DIEBOLD.(Brief article)
January 11, 2008... The U.S. Justice Department is investigating issues related to Diebold Inc.'s accounting practice of "bill and hold," which previously landed the ATM maker in hot water with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The North Canton,...

GLOBAL INTRODUCES FRONT END FOR ITS PROCESSING PLATFORMS.
January 11, 2008... Global Transport is the new front end, or point-of-sale, of Global Payments Inc.'s processing platform, which connects credit and debit card payments from the merchant to the processor. The new processing component can help merchants connect...

PAYCHEX LAUNCHES FSA DEBIT CARD.
January 11, 2008... The Paychex Inc. flexible-spending account debit card, launched Monday, allows employees to pay for eligible purchases at the point of sale and have the funds deducted automatically from a flexible-spending account, according to Rochester,...

GEN Y'S CARD USE SITUATIONAL, BUT DEBIT STILL PREFERRED.
January 11, 2008... Generation Y prefers debit cards to other payment types for in-store and small-value purchases but chooses credit cards for online and large purchases, according to a new Javelin Strategy & Research study. Despite the split, Generation Y's...

GUIDE GIVES ADVICE ON LATIN-AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS' REMITTANCES.
January 11, 2008... Seventy percent of Latin American immigrants in the United States send cash-to-cash remittances to their home countries through money transfer centers such as Western Union and MoneyGram, while only 5% to 19% send remittances through American...

AIRPORT STORE MANAGEMENT CO. ADOPTS MASTERCARD PAYPASS.
January 11, 2008... MasterCard announced today that The Paradies Shops, which manages more than 500 stores in 63 airports and hotels in the United States and Canada, will begin accepting PayPass contactless payments by the end of 2008. Atlanta-based Paradies...

BRIEFS.(Vesdia Corp., FundsTech Corp.)(Brief article)
January 11, 2008... Atlanta-based Vesdia Corp., a loyalty marketing-services provider, has named James Douglass, a member of its board of directors, as CEO. Peter Davis, the former CEO and president, will remain president and report to Douglass.... FundsTech...

PAY BY TOUCH ANNOUNCES NEW BOARD, VOLUNTARY BANKRUPTCY.
January 11, 2008... Solidus Networks Inc., the San Francisco-based biometric-payments company that does business as Pay By Touch, today announced a new board of directors. The announcement comes in the wake of management trouble allegedly caused by its founder and...

BILL TO END UNIVERSAL DEFAULT NEARS INTRODUCTION IN THE HOUSE.
January 11, 2008... Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions, is putting finishing touches on a proposed legislation that would bring broad credit card reforms. Members of the House will introduce the...

CARDS CONTRIBUTE TO 7.5% GROWTH IN NOVEMBER CONSUMER CREDIT.
January 11, 2008... Consumer credit outstanding rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.5% in November 2007, boosted by an 11.3% increase in borrowing on revolving accounts consisting primarily of credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve Board's...

TO FIGHT FRAUD, CITIBANK LIMITS SOME ATM WITHDRAWALS.
January 11, 2008... Citibank, citing a need to combat fraud, has cut the amount of money an undisclosed number of its debit cardholders may withdraw from ATMs in New York City, Robert Julavits, a bank spokesperson, tells CardLine. Citibank imposed the withdrawal...

ISO SUED FOR FAILING TO PAY FULL PRICE FOR MERCHANT PORTFOLIO.
January 11, 2008... Pipeline Data Inc., a Quincy, Mass.-based independent sales organization, faces a lawsuit over breach-of-contract allegations following its 2006 buyout of Valadata Inc., a North Dakota-based ISO that had a merchant portfolio valued at about...

CREDIT UNION ORGANIZATION TO OFFER MOBILE-BANKING SERVICES.
January 11, 2008... PSCU Financial Services, the nation's largest credit-union service organization, later this year will offer its 500 credit-union members a mobile-banking platform. The platform will enable credit unions' members to check balances, access...

CHASE AD CAMPAIGN FEATURES SECRET-AGENT FANTASY.
January 11, 2008... JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced today it is preparing to launch a marketing campaign for its Chase Consumer Bank unit. Chase will kick off its "Chase What Matters" campaign with print ads on Sunday and television and online ads Monday. One of...

BRIEFS.(NationalCard Processing Systems Inc. and HealthCard Systems moved into new office)(Harry Clark has joined CrossCheck Inc.)(Brief article)
January 11, 2008... Credit and debit card processor NationalCard Processing Systems LLC, along with its sister processing company HealthCard Systems, has moved into larger corporate offices in its current Sherbrooke Office Center complex in Rochelle Park, N.J....

PAY BY TOUCH PARENT SEEKING INVESTORS AND LOOKING TO DIVEST.
January 11, 2008... Restructuring firm FTI Consulting Inc. is looking for new investors in Pay By Touch, a biometric payments company that has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to a court document filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Central...

ADVANTA CARDHOLDERS' BALANCES RISE, CREATING MORE RISK.
January 11, 2008... Advanta Corp.'s average balance per active account continued to increase during 2007, incresing risk for the Spring House, Pa.-based small-business credit card issuer, according to Fitch Ratings. Fitch made the observation Tuesday when issuing...

NCR RAISES 2007 GUIDANCE TO REFLECT STRONGER PROFITS.(Financial report)
January 11, 2008... NCR Corp.'s stock price rose this morning after the ATM manufacturer reported that 2007 earnings from continuing operations will exceed previous expectations. The Dayton, Ohio-based company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission...

VESDIA TIES CREDIT CARDS TO SAVING FOR COLLEGE OR RETIREMENT.
January 11, 2008... Vesdia Corp. today announced the introduction of four Visa credit cards to support several of its established points-based consumer-rewards programs. The Platinum Visa cards enable cardholders to earn rewards for shopping at specific retailers...

APEX MERCHANT SOLUTIONS OFFERS ECHECKS TO ONLINE MERCHANTS.(Brief article)
January 11, 2008... Apex Merchant Solutions, a Westchester County, N.Y.-based merchant-services provider, announced yesterday the availability of a service that enables merchants to accept online purchases made with electronic checks from business or...

BARCLAYS CHAIRMAN FALLS VICTIM TO IDENTITY FRAUD.
January 11, 2008... A con man posing as Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius reportedly secured a credit card from the bank's call center and withdrew [pounds sterling]10,000 (US$19,563 or 13,272 euros) from Agius' personal bank account. Agius has been reimbursed, the...

METAVANTE BUYS UK-BASED PREPAID CARD PROCESSOR.
January 11, 2008... Metavante Corp. has moved into the growing European prepaid card market with the announcement today that it purchased Nomad Payments Ltd., a London-based prepaid-card processor. "We feel we are in the right place at the right time," says Frank...

BRIEFS.
January 11, 2008... Visa Inc. announced Wednesday that it has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to its proposed initial public offering of Class A common stock.... Point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone...

AMEX TO TAKE $440 MILLION CHARGE IN Q4, CITING HIGHER WRITE-OFFS.
January 18, 2008... American Express Co. will incur a pretax credit-related charge of $440 million in the fourth quarter 2007, the company says. The charge "reflects the impact of a weakening economy, which we started to see affect our cardmember spending and...

FTC SEEKS TO QUANTIFY CARD ISSUERS' CARBON-OFFSET CLAIMS.
January 18, 2008... The Federal Trade Commission, which regulates advertising claims, is seeking to clarify marketing statements by a growing number of companies, including credit card issuers, that they are helping to fight hastened climate change. The FTC...

CARDS' CREDIT QUALITY EXPECTED TO DETERIORATE FURTHER.
January 18, 2008... The majority of 15 major credit card master trusts surveyed by RiskMetrics Group, a New York-based financial research and analysis firm, reported "significant deterioration in adjusted credit-quality measures on both a year-over-year basis and...

LEGAL FEES INCREASE CAP ONE OPERATING EXPENSES BY $140 MILLION.
January 18, 2008... Capital One has initiated a legal reserve of $60 million for possible damages in connection with the Visa antitrust settlement with American Express Co. from November (CardLine, 11/7/07), the company reported this week. The company also...

CHOCKSTONE REPORTS RISE IN LOYALTY-TRANSACTION SALES.(Financial report)
January 18, 2008... Chockstone Inc., a provider of prepaid gift and loyalty card services, says it processed $1.1 billion in loyalty-marketing transactions in 2007, a 178.5% increase from $395 million in 2006. The volume includes gift and loyalty card transactions...

DEBT BUYER CEO VIEWS CARD PORTFOLIO PIPELINE AS 'STRONG'.
January 18, 2008... Gary Stern, president and CEO of Asta Funding Inc., which purchases credit card receivables, said Tuesday portfolio pricing has "stabilized but remains competitive. The pipeline of available paper remains strong." Stern spoke about the market...

GERMAN FIRM SUPPLIES ANOTHER U.S. BANK WITH CONTACTLESS DEBIT CARDS.
January 18, 2008... Giesecke & Devrient, a smart card provider, supplied First Hawaiian Bank with more than 100,000 MasterCard PayPass contactless debit cards last year, a company spokesperson says. The U.S.-based bank has begun issuing the cards, but the...

BRIEFS.
January 18, 2008... JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to offer the Office Depot Worklife Rewards Visa card, a no-annual-free card enabling cardholders to earn 5% in rebates on Office Depot purchases and 1% at other stores.... Point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone...

FEW CONSUMERS REPORT BUYING A WAL-MART MONEYCARD.
January 18, 2008... The Wal-Mart MoneyCard, a prepaid Visa debit card the giant retailer introduced last June to support a variety of payment and check-cashing services, has been slow to gain market traction, suggest the results of a survey by Atlanta-based...

NCR SETS BIGGER SIGHTS ON SELF-SERVICE KIOSKS.
January 18, 2008... NCR Corp. today introduced two new self-service products, signaling that the company continues to pursue the fast growing, retail kiosk market. The new products are Xpress Entertainment and ReadyStation. Xpress Entertainment is a self-service...

AITE GROUP SAYS ISSUERS MISSING PREPAID OPPORTUNITIES.
January 18, 2008... U.S. banks could improve their prepaid businesses by looking for new ways to sell network-branded prepaid cards, suggests a report released today by Aite Group LLC, a Boston-based consultancy. Aite says a survey of nine banks that issue...

CHECKFREEPAY TO OFFER BILL-PAY AT KIOSKS.
January 18, 2008... CheckFreePay, a division of Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv Inc., announced today at the National Retail Federation Annual Convention that it has signed an agreement with Ready Credit Corp. to support bill payment at its kiosks. CheckFreePay has...