Cardline articles from July 2009

Cardline archives from July 2009

CONSUMERS CUTTING BACK ON MOST SPENDING, DATA SHOW.(News)
July 3, 2009... Consumers who track their finances online cut spending by 17.4% during the first quarter ended March 31 compared with the same period a year ago, with the sharpest decline in general shopping, according to data released this week by Mint.com....

SPRINGBOK INTRODUCES 'VIRTUAL' PREPAID CARD.(News)
July 3, 2009... Springbok Services Inc. is introducing a "virtual" prepaid card corporations can use as a reward or incentive when consumers complete Internet-based surveys, promotions or product trials. Companies also can use the virtual cards as incentives...

MUCH AUTHENTICATION RELIES ON EASILY STOLEN DATA: REPORT.(News)
July 3, 2009... Thieves often acquire Social Security numbers, street addresses, mothers' maiden names and other basic personal information through e-mail phishing excursions, breaches of nonfinancial institutions such as hospitals and universities, and even...

TRAVEL REWARDS NOT AS POPULAR DURING ROUGH ECONOMY.(News)
July 3, 2009... Consumers are shying away from redeeming travel-reward points because economic conditions are forcing many to save points for everyday items and cash rewards, observers say. "Travel is out of vogue," says Mark Johnson, president and CEO of...

BILLING AND PAYMENT GAPS COSTLY TO HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS.(News)
July 3, 2009... A big chunk of patient payments goes uncollected because many U.S. health care providers lack the information and means necessary to accept payments owed to them, new survey data suggest. Cambridge, Mass.-based NaviNet Inc. surveyed 1,279...

HACKER PLEADS GUILTY IN $86 MILLION CARD-THEFT CASE.(News)
July 3, 2009... A hacker who once worked for the Department of Defense and other government agencies pleaded guilty yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to two counts of wire fraud related to the theft of data from 1.8...

FED REPORTS HISTORIC LOWS FOR CREDIT CARD RETURN ON ASSETS.(News)
July 3, 2009... The return on assets for credit card banks last year declined 132 basis points, to 1.43% of outstanding balances, adjusted for credit card-backed securitization, from 2.75% in 2007, the U.S. Federal Reserve said in a report published last week....

COMMERCIAL CARD REBATES UNYIELDING.(News)(Brief article)
July 3, 2009... Corporations are not retreating from required rebates as part of their corporate card programs with issuers, suggests analyst Frank Martien, a partner at First Annapolis Consulting, a Linthicum, Md.-based payments advisory firm. Corporations...

VISA, MONITISE INK STRATEGIC ALLIANCE.(News)
July 3, 2009... Visa Inc. today announced the formation of a strategic alliance with mobile-banking technology company Monitise PLC, and Visa hopes the deal will enhance its global development of mobile payments, funds-transfers, transaction alerts and mobile...

PAYMENTS COMPANY ISSUES CARD TO PAY FOR VIDEO GAMES.(News)
July 3, 2009... Rixty Inc., a Berkeley, Calif.-based payments company, is issuing a prepaid card that enables cardholders to pay to play video games online. Rixty is targeting the card to users ages 13 through 24 because many individuals in that age range...

IF BANKS STOP ISSUING CARDS, MIGHT MONOLINES REEMERGE?(News)
July 3, 2009... If some banks decide to drop their credit card programs because of card-industry reforms scheduled to take effect next year (CardLine, 5/29), could such moves lead to the creation of monoline issuers eager to take over their portfolios? Not...

AUSTRALIANS PAY DOWN CREDIT CARDS, SHIFT TO DEBIT.(News)(Survey)(Brief article)
July 3, 2009... Consumers in Australia spent AU$17.4 billion (US$14 billion or 10.1 million euros) with credit cards in April, down 1.7% from AU$17.7 billion for the same month last year, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank....

FIRST DATA MAY PARTNER WITH INDIA BANK.(News)
July 3, 2009... India's ICICI Bank Ltd. could create a point-of-sale business joint venture with Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data Corp., according to a report in the India-based Economic Times newspaper. The banking company announced plans in May to...

TSYS FACES 'DISAPPOINTMENT' IN POTENTIAL LOSS OF BOFA BUSINESS.(News)
July 3, 2009... Total System Services Inc., known as TSYS, is going to have greater difficulty portraying itself as a top merchant acquirer as the Columbus, Ga.-based processor faces the loss of more business to rival First Data Corp., analysts say. First Data...

REGULATORS TAKE ACTIONS AGAINST AMEX.(News)
July 3, 2009... Federal regulators Tuesday announced multiple enforcement actions against American Express Co.'s thrift and bank subsidiaries in Utah, requiring them to pay a combined civil money penalty of $250,000, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister...

HEARTLAND COMPLETES FIRST MERCHANT TEST OF ENCRYPTION SYSTEM.(News)
July 3, 2009... Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has completed the first test of a complete encryption system designed to protect the cardholder data it handles from hackers. The processor, which disclosed a major breach in January, said Tuesday it had run...

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDEX DECREASES IN JUNE.(News)
July 3, 2009... The Consumer Confidence Index, which improved significantly in May, drew back in June, The Conference Board Inc., a New York-based research organization, announced yesterday. The June index stands at 49.3, down from 54.8 in May. The baseline...

CREDIT MANAGER'S INDEX INCREASES FOR FIFTH CONSECUTIVE MONTH.(News)
July 3, 2009... The seasonally adjusted Credit Manager's Index for June increased to 46.6 from 45.4 in May, marking the fifth consecutive increase for the index, according to a report by the National Association of Credit Management. The index, a gauge of...

FIFTH THIRD, ADVENT CLOSE JOINT VENTURE DEAL.(News)
July 3, 2009... Advent International Corp., an investment firm, Tuesday completed its purchase of roughly 51% of Fifth Third Bancorp's processing business through the establishment of a joint venture, according to the companies. Boston-based Advent announced...

MASTERCARD MAY PAY OFF HONOR-ALL-CARDS SETTLEMENT EARLY.(News)
July 3, 2009... MasterCard Inc. hopes to prepay $335 million for the remaining funds it owes merchant plaintiffs from its 2003 settlement of the "honor-all-cards" antitrust lawsuit. Under the agreement that MasterCard and plaintiffs representatives signed...

COMPETITOR SEES LITTLE CHANGE IN NEW JOINT VENTURE.(News)
July 3, 2009... James G. Kelly, president and chief operating officer of Global Payments Inc., an Atlanta-based processor, downplayed the impact of the Banc of America Merchant Services joint venture between First Data Corp. and Bank of America N.A. announced...

WESTERN UNION TO OFFER A VISA-BRANDED PREPAID CARD.(News)
July 3, 2009... The Western Union Company is planning to offer a Visa-branded reloadable prepaid card in a move by the Englewood, Colo.-based company to increase its presence in the prepaid market as more consumers move to cash transactions, Stewart Stockdale,...

VISA SAYS ISO DIRECTORY WILL HELP MANAGE RISK.(News)(Directory)
July 3, 2009... Visa Inc. is publishing a list of ATM independent sales organizations, merchant-service ISOs, prepaid ISOs and point-of-sale ISOs to manage risk in the payment system, Eduardo Perez, head of Payment System Risk, wrote in an e-mail message to...

VISA WILL DO THE FANDANGO IN SIGNATURE CARD DEAL.(News)
July 3, 2009... Visa Inc. has entered an agreement with online movie ticket service Fandango to provide special offers to Visa Signature cardholders, the companies announced yesterday. Under the agreement, Visa will host advance movie screenings for its...

CITI JOINT VENTURE LOOKS TO EXPAND MOBILE BANKING, PAYMENTS.(News)
July 3, 2009... Mobile Money Ventures LLC, a mobile banking and payments joint venture between United States-based Citibank and South Korea-based SK Telecom, expects to launch its services in six more Asia-Pacific countries by the end of the year, company CEO...

BRIEFS.(News)
July 3, 2009... * Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has added advance-transaction analysis and reporting tools from MicroStrategy Inc. to its merchant reporting services, Heartland says. * Merchant Data Systems Inc., a merchant-service provider, is offering...

PAYPAL WAIVES FEE FOR SOME TRANSFERS.(News)
July 3, 2009... PayPal Inc., the payments unit of eBay Inc., no longer is charging a fee for consumers to send funds to each other if both parties are in the United States and if a bank account or PayPal account funds the transaction, reports American Banker,...

DISTRIBUTOR TO BUY UP TO $6 MILLION IN HYPERCOM PRODUCTS.(News)
July 3, 2009... The Phoenix Group, a distributor of point-of-sale products and services, intends to purchase up to $6 million of Hypercom Corp.'s Optimum T4200 series of payment products for resale to its bank and independent sales organization clients in the...

TRITON BOOSTS WARRANTIES AFTER FAILED KOREAN ATM DEAL.(News)
July 3, 2009... Hoping to lure back customers, Triton Systems of Delaware Inc. has launched a special promotion during which it is extending the warranty on the cash-dispensing mechanism installed in two of its low-cost ATMs. The ATM maker is extending the...

BofA, FIRST DATA FORM MERCHANT-PROCESSING JOINT VENTURE.(News)
July 3, 2009... Bank of America Corp. and First Data Corp. announced today the creation of a merchant processing joint venture, Banc of America Merchant Services LLC. The new venture would offer a variety of advanced-payments capabilities to merchant clients,...

SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS' CONFIDENCE RISES SLIGHTLY.(News)
July 3, 2009... Small-business owners' confidence rose slightly this month as cash-flow concerns abated, according to a monthly survey Discover Financial Services sponsors. The Discover Small Business Watch index in June rose to 80.9, up from 78.1 in May. The...