Cardline articles from June 2007

Cardline archives from June 2007

DESPITE CONTACTLESS BUZZ, SOME BANKS REMAIN SKEPTICAL.
June 1, 2007... While hype continues to surround contactless payments in the United States, some payments industry insiders, like John Suchanec, Bank of America's senior vice president of payment technology, are not convinced the concept will take off anytime...

CREDIT CARD DEBT SALES REMAIN LIGHT.
June 1, 2007... The face value of charged-off credit card portfolios listed for sale on various Web sites hit $6.8 million this week compared to $3.8 million last week, the second consecutive week of relatively light volume. But the spring market lull of...

INVESTIGATORS SAY INSIDERS CULPABLE IN MANY DATA THEFTS.
June 1, 2007... A significant percentage of data thefts involve company employees or hired contractors, investigators and security consultants tell CardLine. About 15% of cases that security firm Cybertrust investigates "clearly involve an insider" employee...

DEBT ELIMINATION SCAMMERS SETTLE FTC CHARGES.
June 1, 2007... A telemarketing firm settled Federal Trade Commission charges that its "debt elimination program"-particularly for credit card bills-violated federal and state laws by falsely promising consumers substantially reduced interest rates and...

CANADIAN TIRE PARTICIPATES IN CHIP TRIAL.
June 1, 2007... Canadian Tire Corp., an issuer of Options MasterCard credit cards, as well as an operator of more than 1,100 general merchandise and apparel retail stores, gas stations and car washes throughout Canada, announced that beginning next March it...

BARCLAYCARD U.S. REMAINS ON TRACK FOR PROFIT.
June 1, 2007... UK-based banking group Barclays PLC, which is vying to buy ABN AMRO Holding N.V., said yesterday that Barclaycard U.S. is on track to make a profit this year. Since acquiring U.S.-based Juniper Financial Corp. in 2004, Barclays has invested...

NEW DIEBOLD SOFTWARE AIMS TO SPEED BANKING SERVICES.
June 1, 2007... Diebold Inc. this week introduced an ATM software platform aimed at boosting the speed of information-exchanges between various bank platforms, such as online banking or branch banking. The open-architecture software and services platform,...

BRIEFS.(Blackhawk Network)(Gardner-White)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The Oregon Senate passed a bill that would take money from gift cards that remains unclaimed after three years and hold it in a state fund. The fund's interest would be used to help fund the state's school districts. The bill needs to be...

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND-LED GROUP MAKES $95.9 BILLION ABN AMRO OFFER...
June 1, 2007... A consortium of three giant European banks led by the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC today launched a 71.1 billion euro (US$95.9 billion) bid for Dutch bank ABN AMRO that tops UK-based Barclays' previous bid. The consortium, which also includes the...

...BUT OFFER IS CONTINGENT ON LASALLE BANK'S INCLUSION IN DEAL.
June 1, 2007... A key linchpin in the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC's 71.1 billion euro (US$95.9 billion) offer for ABN AMRO is the deal's inclusion of ABN AMRO's Chicago-based subsidiary LaSalle Bank. ABN AMRO agreed to sell LaSalle to Bank of America for $21...

APPEALS COURT SENDS FIFA-MASTERCARD DISPUTE BACK TO LOWER COURT.
June 1, 2007... Whether MasterCard Inc. will maintain its sponsorship of the World Cup soccer tournament remains in question, as the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has sent the case back to a lower-court judge for review. MasterCard and the...

MORE BANKS OFFERING DEBIT REWARDS PROGRAMS, STUDY SAYS.
June 1, 2007... Two-thirds of the top 50 financial institutions in terms of annual debit cardholder spending now offer debit rewards programs, up 40% from 14 months ago, according to a new study by Mercator Advisory Group LLC. Mercator reports that, as of this...

COBRANDED CARDS GAIN TRACTION.
June 1, 2007... U.S. consumers carried more than 320 million cobranded and affinity credit cards as of the end of 2006, up from 212 million cobranded cards in 2003, according to a new report. The report, "Co-Branded and Affinity Credit Cards in the U.S.", from...

WOMEN'S DEBIT CARDS USAGE INCREASES.
June 1, 2007... Debit card usage among women has more than doubled since 2003, growing to 43% from 20%, according to the Yankelovich Monitor 2006/07 study commissioned by MasterCard Worldwide. The study, which Yankelovich conducted last year, included...

CARDTRONICS TO SPEND $24 MILLION ON ATMS THIS YEAR.
June 1, 2007... Cardtronics Inc. will spend $24 million this year purchasing new ATMs, Joel Antonini, a company spokesperson, tells CardLine sister publication ATM&Debit News. Houston-based Cardtronics is the nation's largest nonbank ATM owner in terms of the...

BRIEFS.
June 1, 2007... Charleston, S.C.-based CPM Federal Credit Union moved its credit card processing to TNB Card Services....U.S. Bank and sportswear retailer Cache launched the Cache Visa card that offers cardholders five points for every dollar spent at Cache....

VERIFONE REPORTS 53% RISE IN Q2 REVENUE.(VeriFone Holdings Inc.)(Financial report)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Spurred by a resurgence in North American payment-terminal sales and strong growth in the company's international business, VeriFone Holdings Inc. late yesterday reported revenues of $217.2 million for the second quarter ended April 30, up 53%...

ONTARIO BANS GIFT CARD EXPIRATION DATES.
June 1, 2007... As of Oct. 1, Ontario will become the first Canadian province to ban expiration dates on cash-equivalent gift cards and certificates. The bill, which requires prepaid issuers to clearly and prominently disclose card terms and conditions, also...

Q COMM AND EMIDA MERGE TO CREATE PREPAID NETWORK.(Q Comm International Inc.)(Emida Technologies Inc.)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Emida Technologies Inc. and Q Comm International Inc., providers of prepaid wireless, financial and money-transfer products, today announced they have agreed to merge and create what they are calling one of the largest providers of prepaid...

FIRST DATA EXECUTIVE TO LEAVE THIS YEAR.
June 1, 2007... Henry C. "Ric" Duques will leave First Data Corp. following the processor's acquisition this fall, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing related to the $29 billion buyout of the Greenwood Village, Colo.-based company by...

NEW YORK COMMISSION OKS VERIFONE SYSTEMS FOR CAB UPGRADES.
June 1, 2007... VeriFone Holdings Inc. says systems built by its Transportation Systems division have been approved for the full-scale rollout of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission's efforts to upgrade the city's 13,000 medallion yellow taxicabs...

HYPERCOM ADDS SIX TERMINALS TO OPTIMUM LINE.
June 1, 2007... Hypercom Corp. says it has added six point-of-sale terminals to its Optimum product line. The new countertop terminals will be available in the third quarter. The terminals, which comply with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard for...

ESPRIT TO MINE DENIED CREDIT CARD DATA TO FIND PREPAID CUSTOMERS.
June 1, 2007... Las Vegas-based Esprit Financial Group Inc., provider of the Cash Now prepaid card and payday loans, has reached an agreement with several credit card issuers to access their databases containing millions of applicants denied credit cards. The...

BRIEFS.
June 1, 2007... Arroweye Solutions Inc., a Chicago-based provider of online customizable gift cards, has raised $14 million in working capital led by Baird Venture Partners, the venture-capital fund of Baird Private Equity, with co-investor Adams Street...

REPORT: ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND-LED GROUP AIMS TO REACH LASALLE BANK DEAL.
June 1, 2007... The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC-led consortium of three giant European banks vying for Dutch Bank ABN AMRO held "amicable discussions" with Bank of America Corp. over ABN AMRO's sale of its Chicago-based subsidiary LaSalle Bank before talks died...

TWO OTHER BIDDERS SOUGHT FIRST DATA.
June 1, 2007... Three equity investors sought First Data Corp., but Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. won out as competition drove up the price per share to $34, according to a proxy statement First Data filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange...

COMDATA PARENT COMPANY GOES PRIVATE.
June 1, 2007... A $5.3 billion deal will take Ceridian Corp., parent of transaction processor Comdata, private later this year, the company announced today. In the deal, private equity companies Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Fidelity National Financial Inc....

MASTERCARD SHELVES SEPA INTERCHANGE PLANS FOR NOW.
June 1, 2007... MasterCard Worldwide has postponed its planned introduction of new interchange rates for Maestro debit transactions that comply with the European Commission's Single Euro Payments Area mandate. Interchange is a fee paid on each card transaction...

MBNA CANADA ACQUIRES CREDIT UNION CARD ISSUER.
June 1, 2007... MBNA Canada, a Canadian credit card issuing subsidiary of Bank of America Corp., has acquired CU Electronic Transaction Services, or CUETS, the ninth-largest Canadian issuer of credit cards, according to the most recent Card Industry Directory,...

UNISYS TO DESIGN FED'S ELECTRONIC CHECK PROCESSING SYSTEM.
June 1, 2007... The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland has hired Unisys Corp. to design and install a new electronic check and image-processing system for all 12 Federal Reserve banks. Together, the banks are one of the largest processors for financial...

OKLAHOMA ATTORNEY GENERAL TARGETS CREDIT CARD SCAMMERS.
June 1, 2007... Scammers are after Oklahoma consumers' credit cards, warns the state attorney general in a statement released yesterday. Consumers saying they were called by automated messages alleging to be from groups called Card Holder Services, Card...

BRIEFS.
June 1, 2007... Debt buyer Portfolio Recovery Associates' common shares hit a 52-week high of $60.72 Wednesday after JMP Securities Analyst David Scharf raised his rating for its stock to a strong buy from market outperform and also raised his target price for...

CREDIT CARD CHARGE-OFFS ROSE 29% IN Q1.
June 8, 2007... Net charge-offs for credit card loans increased $850 million, or 29.7%, to $3.76 billion in the first quarter of this year from $2.9 billion in the same period of 2006, reports the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in its Quarterly Banking...

COURT UPHOLDS SIMON GIFT CARD CASE'S PREEMPTION DECISION.
June 8, 2007... National banks and thrifts are free to charge fees and set expiration dates on prepaid gift cards regardless of whether state laws ban the practice, a federal appeals court ruled this week. "The decision is certainly significant for the...

REPORT: LATE CARD PAYMENTS NEAR 7% OF RECEIVABLES IN FEBRUARY.
June 8, 2007... About 6.7% of current credit card receivables became past due for up to 29 days during February, according to Card Analytics Consulting Inc., which publishes a monthly Credit Card Metrics report. The report also found that 1.6% of current...

CHOICEPOINT, STATE PROSECUTORS SETTLE DATA-BREACH DISPUTE.(Brief article)
June 8, 2007... ChoicePoint, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based information broker, has settled with the attorneys general of 44 states and the District of Columbia for its loss of consumers' personal information in February 2005, an event that sparked a surge of...

BANK OF MONTREAL LAUNCHES PIN-DEBIT REWARD PROGRAM.
June 8, 2007... To attract new customers and expand its banking relationships with existing ones, Bank of Montreal yesterday announced that it is extending its credit card Air Miles program to its debit cardholders. Since Canadians increasingly are using debit...

CREDIT CARD LATE FEES RISE 115% SINCE 1995.
June 8, 2007... Since 1995, the average credit card late fee has risen 115%, to $28 from $13, according to the 2007 Credit Card Survey conducted by Consumer Action, a nonprofit education and advocacy organization. The survey, which examined 83 cards from 20...

HSBC PLEDGES $100 MILLION FOR GREEN PROJECTS.(partners with Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute and the World Wildlife Foundation)(Brief article)
June 8, 2007... United Kingdom-based banking group HSBC is creating a "green taskforce" with four environmental organizations to address climate change in a five-year, $100 million partnership. The effort will focus on climate change in New York, London, Hong...

BRIEFS.
June 8, 2007... California's State Assembly Committee on Appropriations yesterday approved a bill that would prohibit merchants from storing, retaining, sending or failing to encrypt payment-related data. The bill also would mandate that breached entities...

CORRECTION.(Correction notice)
June 8, 2007... CardLine reported on May 25 that Target's earnings were for the period ended March 31. In fact, the period ended May 5. CardLine regrets the error. (c) 2007 CardLine and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cardforum.com...

MORGAN STANLEY SETS DISCOVER SPIN OFF DATE.
June 8, 2007... Morgan Stanley said late Friday that it will spin off its Discover Financial Services unit on June 30. Morgan Stanley, which announced its plans to spin off Discover last December (CardLine, 12/22/06), said last month that shareholders will...

'SORRY, WRONG NUMBER' TOP DEBT COLLECTOR-RELATED COMPLAINT.(Federal Trade Commission complaints )(Brief article)
June 8, 2007... Debt collectors calling the wrong person spurred 69 Federal Trade Commission complaints in December, making it the most common complaint among a sample of 490 consumer complaints filed during December, according to an examination of the month's...

CAPITAL ONE ISSUES DEBIT CARD NOT TIED TO A PARTICULAR BANK.
June 8, 2007... Capital One Financial Corp. has been issuing a MasterCard-branded debit card that is not tied to any particular bank's checking account since the first quarter, says Matt Sexstone, Capital One head of business development for merchant client...

PUBLIC CREDIT CARD DEBT OFFERINGS JUMP.
June 8, 2007... Charged-off credit card portfolios listed for sale on the public portions of various Web sites totaled $81.9 million last week, a major jump from the $6.8 million listed the previous week but still well below levels seen in early May, reports...

ABN AMRO UNIONS, BIDDERS DISCUSS POSSIBLE JOB CUTS.
June 8, 2007... United Kingdom-based-Barclays and a consortium of European banks led by the Royal Bank of Scotland, both of which are seeking to buy Dutch bank ABN AMRO, met today with unions representing ABN AMRO employees to discuss the unions' response to...

HALF OF AMERICANS WORRY ABOUT CARD DEBT.
June 8, 2007... Fifty percent of Americans confess they are "concerned or extremely concerned" about the amount of credit card debt they have, according to LendingTree's new Smart Borrower Survey released today. Young families, which consists of consumers ages...

IDENTITY THEFT CONCERNS RISE.
June 8, 2007... Americans are more concerned with identity theft today than they were a year ago, according to a national survey released last week. The survey "The Americans' Identity Confidences Index" was conducted by the Identity Theft Resource Center and...

BRIEFS.
June 8, 2007... ATM deployer TRM Corp. selected NCR Corp. to maintain its network of ATMs in the United States....The Automobile Club of Southern California launched the AAA Cash Rewards MasterCard credit card that offers cardholders 1% cash back on their...

FAIR ISAAC TO ADJUST FICO SCORING FORMULA.(Fair, Isaac and Company )(Brief article)
June 8, 2007... Fair Isaac Corp., the Minneapolis-based creator of the FICO credit score, will adjust its FICO-scoring formula to protect lenders and FICO scores from abuse of authorized user credit card accounts by a new kind of credit-repair service. The...

MOBILE BANKING IMPACT IS LOW.
June 8, 2007... Mobile banking using cell phones and other portable devices is only a faint blip on consumers' radar screens, and using credit cards as part of mobile bill-payment is an even fainter concept, according to a new study from Synergistics Research...

MOUTAINEER GIFT CARD TAPS SCHOOL SPIRIT.
June 8, 2007... Glimcher Realty Trust, a Columbus, Ohio-based mall owner, and Salt Lake City-based processor NBO Systems Inc. have launched a West Virginia University-themed gift card that routes transactions over the Discover network. The Mountaineer Gift...

CLICKANDBUY FINDS ITS MOJO.(Metromojo.com will use ClickandBuy online payment method)(Brief article)
June 8, 2007... Metromojo.com, an online social-networking company based in Louisville, Ky., will use ClickandBuy as its online payment method, the companies announced today. Consumers register a ClickandBuy account and fund it with money using a credit or...

HEWLETT-PACKARD EXPERIMENTS WITH LOYALTY SYSTEM.
June 8, 2007... HP Labs, Hewlett-Packard's central research facility, is working on an experimental system that could link personalized retail discounts with payment card and other types of transactions made using mobile phones or at store kiosks. The Retail...

CRYPTOMATHIC SELLS ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE TO CANADIAN ISSUER.
June 8, 2007... Cryptomathic Ltd., a United Kingdom-based developer of security software for the payments industry, has signed a deal to provide its CardInk data-encryption system to an unnamed Canadian card issuer. Morten Landrock, Cryptomathic managing...

BUFFALO OFFERS PREPAID CARDS FOR ILLEGAL GUNS.
June 8, 2007... Buffalo, N.Y., Mayor Byron W. Brown held a "No Questions Asked" gun-buyback program on Saturday, accepting illegal guns in exchange for prepaid cards having denominations ranging from $10 to $100. JPMorgan Chase and Co. issued the cards. About...

BRIEFS.
June 8, 2007... Central American merchant acquirer Credomatic International Corp. named Phoenix-based payment terminal vendor Hypercom Corp. the best provider of electronic payment products in Central America. Hypercom's payment systems ranked 97% in product...

WAL-MART TO LAUNCH VISA-BRANDED PREPAID CARD.
June 8, 2007... Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to launch a Visa-branded prepaid card that targets customers without bank accounts, according to a report in today's Financial Times. GE Money, the retail giant's financial partner, will issue the card, which...

VISA REPORTS INCREASES IN DEBIT, CREDIT CARD USE.
June 8, 2007... Visa USA says U.S. holders of signature-based, or offline, Visa check cards used the plastic to initiate 3.2 billion purchases during the first quarter ended March 31, up 10% from 2.9 billion during the same period last year. Check card...

NFC DEVELOPERS ANNOUNCE LICENSING FEES.(Near Field Communication)
June 8, 2007... Makers of mobile phones and other consumer devices that support Near Field Communication, or NFC, technology would have to pay up to 49 cents per device shipped under a licensing-fee program announced yesterday. Three companies that claim...

TJX CEO APOLOGIZES FOR BREACH.(Carol Meyerowitz apologizes for retailer's security breach )
June 8, 2007... TJX Cos. CEO Carol Meyerowitz yesterday apologized to shareholders at the company's annual shareholder meeting for the retailer's security breach that involved at least 45.6 million credit and debit card numbers, according to a report today in...

SURVEY SHOWS AMERICANS CONFLICTED, UNINFORMED ABOUT THEIR CREDIT CARDS.
June 8, 2007... "An easy way to get into debt" is not a flattering moniker for credit cards, but it is how 84% of Americans view the tools of revolving credit, according to findings of a recent survey sponsored by the consumer card-comparison site...

SMALL BUSINESSES MAY TURN TO CARDS TO COUNTER INCREASED COSTS.
June 8, 2007... Visa USA reported today that small-business owners increasingly may turn to credit and debit cards to help hedge against spending increases and economic uncertainty, as well as to better manage their cash flow. The report "Visa Small Business...

REPORT: CONSUMERS ARE AWARE OF THEIR CREDIT SCORES.
June 8, 2007... Efforts by credit card issuers and credit bureaus to make consumers aware of their credit scores seem to be working, according to new research conducted by Auriemma Consulting Group. Nearly 60% of 501 credit card users surveyed in March believe...

BRIEFS.
June 8, 2007... The European Commission yesterday approved private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts' proposed $29 billion purchase of transaction processor First Data Corp. The European Commission cleared the deal after finding no antitrust problems and...

7-ELEVEN SELLS ATMS TO CARDTRONICS.
June 8, 2007... Cardtronics Inc. has reached an agreement to purchase all of 7-Eleven Inc.'s U.S. ATM operations for $135 million in cash, the company announced late Tuesday. Cardtronics, which claims to be the world's largest nonbank owner of ATMs, will add...

HOUSE EXAMINES POTENTIAL IMPACT OF TRUTH IN LENDING ACT CHANGES...
June 8, 2007... Both consumer advocates and issuers acknowledged the need for changes to Regulation Z of the Truth in Lending Act during today's hearing before the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. The hearing focused on the...

...AND FED'S WEB SITE FEATURES CARDHOLDERS' COMMENTS ON CHANGES.
June 8, 2007... As of this morning, the Federal Reserve Board's Web site had only nine public comments about amendments to Regulation Z, which the Fed proposed May 23. The purpose of the amendments is to make terms of credit card agreements and statements...

BANKRUPTCIES SHOW STEADY, STEEP RISE.
June 8, 2007... Bankruptcy filings have jumped 58%, to 324,447 in the first five months of 2007 from 294,980 in the same period last year, according to Jupiter eSources LLC, which tracks federal bankruptcy data. Meanwhile, the top 10 states of per-capita...

BANKS TOUT EDUCATION, BUT CONSUMERS WANT SIMPLIFIED FEES.
June 8, 2007... While a number of major banks, such as Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., recently have started promoting their own credit and financial-education campaigns, the Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America are countering...

CELLULAR SOUTH LAUNCHES 'WIRELESS WALLET' PILOT.(Brief article)
June 8, 2007... Cellular South, a privately held wireless telecommunications provider that serves 640,000 customers in Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama, announced yesterday the launch of a consumer trial of its WirelessWallet service in Memphis,...

GAS GIFT CARD SALES UP AS GAS PRICES SOAR.(Financial report)
June 8, 2007... The rise in gasoline prices this year has spurred Americans to spend $23 billion more on gasoline so far this year than last, or about $167 for each passenger car in the country, according to the Energy Information Administration. In turn, SVM...

BRIEFS.
June 8, 2007... CVS Caremark Corp. announced today a six month pilot of a CVS-branded loyalty rewards payment card that HSBC Finance Corp. will issue through the Tempo Payment Network....Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Committee on...

COURT ORDERS VISA TO REPEAL SETTLEMENT SERVICE FEE.
June 15, 2007... U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones of the Southern District of New York ruled yesterday that Visa USA's settlement service fee is unlawful and must be repealed. The fee, which Visa enacted in 2003, allowed the card association to penalize its...

WAL-MART CARD TO RELOAD USING GREEN DOT.
June 15, 2007... While Wal-Mart Stores Inc. officially has remained mum on its new Wal-Mart MoneyCard Visa (CardLine, 6/8), the company's Web site says that cardholders will be able to reload their cards by using cash, PIN-debit cards or checks at Wal-Mart...

TRM MAY NOT SURVIVE, WARNS AUDITOR.
June 15, 2007... TRM Corp., the nation's second-largest nonbank ATM owner, may not survive, its auditor warns. Because of a net loss of $120.1 million in 2006, Portland, Ore.-based TRM is unable to meet certain loan conditions, which could make $2 million in...

CERIDIAN DEAL TOO LOW, SUIT CLAIMS.
June 15, 2007... Ceridian Corp.'s $5.3 billion deal with Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Fidelity National Financial Inc., two private equity investors (CardLine, 6/1), undervalues the company, claims the Minneapolis Firefighters' Relief Association in a lawsuit...

CREDIT CARD USE DECLINES, BORROWING PACE SLOWS IN APRIL.
June 15, 2007... Consumer credit outstanding rose at an annual rate of 1.3% in April. That compares with a 7.0% annual growth rate in March and an average of 4.7% growth during the first quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Board's monthly Consumer Credit...

HSBC TO LAUNCH CVS COBRANDED DEBIT CARD.
June 15, 2007... HSBC Finance Corp.'s card and retail services business has signed CVS pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Caremark Corp., as the first merchant client for its OptiPay loyalty rewards PIN-debit program. The program, launched in March, uses the...

SINGAPORE-BASED COMPANY BUYS NCR ATM MANUFACTURER.
June 15, 2007... Singapore-based Flextronics International Ltd. announced Monday that it has reached a $3.6 billion stock and cash agreement to purchase Milpitas, Calif.-based electronics manufacturer Solectron Corp. In January, NCR Corp., the world's largest...

BRIEFS.
June 15, 2007... Loan processor Ocwen Financial Corp. has acquired collection agency Nationwide Credit Inc. for $55 million. Nationwide had $74 million in revenues last year, according to CardLine sister publication Collections & Credit Risk....First Data...

CORRECTION.(Correction notice)
June 15, 2007... CardLine reported on June 8 that Raghav Lal, Visa senior vice president, said that small-business owners are impacted by microeconomic trends. In fact, Lal was referring to macroeconomic trends. CardLine regrets the error. (c) 2007...

FINANCIAL-SERVICES INSTITUTIONS SHOULD TARGET UNDERSERVED SEGMENTS, SAYS PROFESSOR.
June 15, 2007... The widespread international penetration of cell phones-even among the poorest populations of the world-shows that businesses, particularly financial-services institutions, can make money serving underserved segments, said C.K. Prahalad,...

BOFA LAUNCHES AMEX CARD AIMED AT AFFLUENT CONSUMERS.
June 15, 2007... Bank of America Corp. today launched its first American Express card that targets affluent consumers who have $100,000 to $3 million of deposits and investments in the bank's Premier Banking & Investments, the Private Bank of Bank of America...