Cardline articles from June 2009

Cardline archives from June 2009

OBAMA ANNOUNCES NEW CYBER SECURITY EFFORTS ...(News)
June 5, 2009... President Obama today announced the creation of a new cyber security leadership post as part of an effort to help protect U.S. government and business computer networks. Such networks are "the backbone that underpins a prosperous economy and a...

CREDIT UNIONS HIT IN CREDIT 'CLEANSING' SCAM.(News)
June 5, 2009... As many as 12 credit unions may have been victims of a scheme that effectively cleansed individuals' credit records and enabled more than two dozen individuals with blemished credit histories to qualify for membership and for loans, reports The...

HEARTLAND SHARES MALWARE FROM BREACH FOR STUDY.(News)
June 5, 2009... After Heartland Payment Systems Inc. announced a massive data breach in January, its CEO, Robert O. Carr, issued a call to action, suggesting that payments players use encryption throughout the entire transaction and share breach forensics...

ADVANTA CUSTOMERS HAVE FEW BUSINESS CARD ALTERNATIVES.(News)
June 5, 2009... On Saturday, thousands of Advanta cards became useless plastic as the issuer of small-business credit cards turned off the tap. Spring House, Pa.-based Advanta Corp. announced the drastic measure earlier this month (CardLine, 5/15, 5/29) after...

UNDERBANKED PAY MORE TO AVOID TRADITIONAL 'BANK' SERVICES.(News)
June 5, 2009... Depending on the product or provider, underbanked individuals in the U.S. pay an average of $10 to $100 in fees per month for the same financial transactions as those who use traditional checking accounts, according to a study by The Center for...

MERRICK SUIT AGAINST SAVVIS ADVANCES.(News)
June 5, 2009... Merrick Bank Corp.'s lawsuit against Savvis Inc., a technology firm that certified breached processor CardSystems Solutions Inc. as compliant with Visa Inc.'s security protocol, has moved to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona...

NCR SINGS 'GEORGIA ON MY MIND' WITH HEADQUARTERS MOVE ...(News)(Company overview)
June 5, 2009... NCR Corp. is moving its worldwide headquarters to Duluth, Ga., from Dayton, Ohio, where John Patterson founded the company in 1884 as National Cash Register. NCR's decision to relocate is part of the company's strategic plan to become and...

... AND WILL BUILD SELFSERV ATMS AT NEW SITE.(News)
June 5, 2009... Besides relocating its headquarters, NCR Corp. will take over the manufacturing of its SelfServ line of ATMs for North America at a plant in Columbus, Ga. NCR had outsourced the manufacturing to Flextronics International Ltd, a Singapore-based...

AMEX PRICES $500 MILLION STOCK OFFERING TO RAISE CAPITAL.(News)
June 5, 2009... American Express Co. today announced it has priced a $500 million public offering of its common stock at $25.25 per share to raise capital. The company says it will use the funds raised from selling approximately 19.8 million shares for general...

CREDIT MANAGER'S INDEX RISES FOR FOURTH CONSECUTIVE MONTH.(News)
June 5, 2009... The seasonally adjusted Credit Manager's Index for May rose to 45.4 from 44.3 in April, marking the fourth consecutive month the index has increased, according to a report released today by the National Association of Credit Management. The...

CREDIT UNION 24 TO PILOT INTERNET PIN-DEBIT ACCEPTANCE.(News)
June 5, 2009... Credit Union 24, the nation's largest credit-union owned ATM and point-of-sale debit network, has become the fourth electronic funds transfer network to agree to pilot Acculynk Inc.'s PaySecure Internet PIN-debit product. Acculynk enables...

... AND VISA APPLAUDS PLANS.(News)
June 5, 2009... In a recent interview with CardLine sister publication Cards&Payments, Ellen Richey, global head of enterprise risk at Visa Inc., praised the Obama administration's plans to improve online security. "It's building on the groundwork of the...

STUDY: TEXT MESSAGING EFFECTIVE IN COLLECTING DEBT.(News)
June 5, 2009... Text messaging can be an effective method to reach delinquent accountholders, especially when combined with other communication methods, concludes a report released last week from Mercator Advisory Group Inc., a Maynard, Mass.-based...

CAP ONE LAUNCHES NEW AFFINITY CARD PROGRAM.(News)
June 5, 2009... Capital One Financial Corp. today launched Capital One Card Lab Connect, a credit card affinity program for nonprofit organizations. Nonprofits of any size can register online for Card Lab Connect, design up to three credit cards specific to...

GREEN DOT LOWERS PREPAID CARD PRICE TO COMPETE WITH WAL-MART ...(News)
June 5, 2009... The prepaid industry still may be young, but Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s decision to lower fees four months ago is continuing to help it mature. Green Dot Corp., one of the oldest and biggest players in the prepaid market, is about to drastically...

... WHILE NFINANSE ALSO CUTS ITS PREPAID CARD CHARGES.(News)
June 5, 2009... To compete with recent price cuts made to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s reloadable prepaid cards, nFinanSe Inc., a prepaid card provider and reload network, today announced plans to cut the retail price of its Discover-branded reloadable prepaid card...

VERIFONE POSTS $18.6 MILLION FISCAL Q2 PROFIT.(News)(VeriFone Holdings Inc.)(Financial report)(Brief article)
June 5, 2009... VeriFone Holdings Inc. Tuesday reported net income of $18.6 million for its fiscal second quarter ended April 30. The San Jose, Calif.-based payment-terminal maker reported a net loss of $17.9 million during the same three-month period a year...

DAIRY QUEEN IN MOBILE-LOYALTY PROGRAM.(News)
June 5, 2009... A pilot under way at a Rochester, Ind., Dairy Queen store is using a mobile-rewards program that requires consumers to affix a sticker to their mobile phone of other device. The sticker, called the Tetherball Tag and developed by...

CONSUMERS MORE CONFIDENT, BUT STILL CAUTIOUS.(News)
June 5, 2009... The percentage of consumers who said they believe the economy is improving continued to grow in May, marking three consecutive monthly increases, according to survey data Discover Financial Services released today. The Riverwoods, Ill.-based...

MOBILE-BANKING PREDICTED TO REACH 53 MILLION USERS BY 2013.(News)
June 5, 2009... Consumers' desire for immediate account access and the proliferation of mobile devices in their lives will spur mobile-banking use to more than 53 million active users in 2013 from 10 million this year, predicts a report from TowerGroup, an...

DIEBOLD REACHES ATM DEAL WITH ITALIAN BANK.(News)
June 5, 2009... Diebold Inc. has signed an agreement to upgrade and to sell ATMs to Banca Carige in Genoa, Italy, both companies say. Banca Carige agreed to purchase Diebold Opteva ATMs and Diebold Agilis software. North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold customized...

CHASE LAUNCHES NEW REWARDS PROGRAM AND PREMIUM OFFERING.(News)
June 5, 2009... JPMorgan Chase & Co. today announced a broad new credit card rewards program for its core Freedom cardholders, and it introduced a premium-level Sapphire card. Both leverage new online travel, entertainment and shopping hubs for earning and...

U.S. BANCORP TESTS CONTACTLESS CARD WITH ACCESS CONTROL.(News)(U.S. Bancorp. (Minneapolis, Minnesota))(Brief article)
June 5, 2009... While bankers have been waiting for mobile phones that could contain multiple contactless accounts, U.S. Bancorp has introduced the capabilities in a card. The Minneapolis-based company announced Wednesday it has begun a pilot of a Visa-branded...

DEBIT CARD ISSUERS EXPECT TRANSACTION VOLUMES TO GROW.(News)
June 5, 2009... Despite an unsteady economy, debit card issuers predict 7% transaction growth both for PIN- and signature-debit this year, according to the Pulse electronic funds transfer network's 2009 Debit Issuer study released today. "Debit card use is...

CHANGE IN PREPAID PRICING DUBBED 'WAL-MART EFFECT'.(News)
June 5, 2009... A "Wal-Mart effect" on the prepaid industry is occurring as more companies, including Green Dot Corp. and nFinanSe Inc., have announced changes to their pricing structures to match the mega-retailer's, prepaid card industry observers note....

NEW CARD ACCOUNTS STILL POPULAR FRAUD TARGET: JAVELIN.(News)
June 5, 2009... Reports by victims of incidents in which crooks used their identities to obtain new credit card accounts grew by seven percentage points from autumn 2007 to autumn 2008, according to a new report by Javelin Strategy & Research Inc. The...

SOME ISOS BACKING AWAY FROM CASH-ADVANCE SALES.(News)(Brief article)
June 5, 2009... Higher underwriting criteria imposed by cash-advance providers mean some merchants that previously may have qualified for a cash advance no longer are eligible, and independent sales organizations may encounter increased difficulty in getting...

BILLEO TO TARGET UNDERBANKED WITH NETSPEND DEAL.(News)
June 5, 2009... Banking-technology vendor Billeo Inc. has struck a deal that makes some of its bill-payment capabilities available to holders of NetSpend Corp.'s prepaid cards, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The agreement makes it...

ITALIAN TRANSIT OPERATOR TO PUT NFC THROUGH ITS PACES.(News)(Near Field Communication)(Azienda Transporti Milanesi SpA)(Conference news)
June 5, 2009... Milan's mass-transit operator, Azienda Transporti Milanesi SpA, plans to conduct a second trial of mobile ticketing using phones supporting Near Field Communication technology by early next year, Massimo Bellossi, Azienda head of electronic...

BRIEFS.(News)
June 5, 2009... American Express Co. Wednesday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against musician Courtney Love seeking $350,000 in unpaid charges and fees on her AmEx Gold Card. Love claims the charges were fraudulent. Maverick...

TARGET WINS PROXY BATTLE WITH ACKMAN.(News)
June 5, 2009... Target Corp. appears to have prevailed in a contentious proxy battle waged by activist investor William Ackman, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The Minneapolis-based retailer said shareholders re-elected its four...

MOBILE-PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS PREDICTED TO GROW 429%.(News)(Report)(Brief article)
June 5, 2009... Consumers globally will make nearly 4.5 billion mobile-payment transactions in 2012, up 429% from an estimated 850 million this year, according to projections from Gartner Inc., a United States-based consultancy. The majority of transactions in...

E-VENDOR UPCLICK PITCHING FREE PROCESSING.(News)(Electronic funds transfer systems)(Report)
June 5, 2009... UpClick Ltd. says it has developed a processing system that enables online merchants to avoid paying transaction fees for sales of less than $40, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The Montreal-based company says it can...

PREPAID CARD PROGRAM SIGNS DEAL TO ADD MOBILE COUPONS.(News)
June 5, 2009... RocketBux Inc. has signed a memorandum of understanding to deliver digital coupons to the mobile phones of consumers who use nFinanSe Inc.'s prepaid cards, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. Once cardholders sign up for the...

FACEBOOK TESTS VIRTUAL-CURRENCY PAYMENT SYSTEM.(News)(Company overview)
June 5, 2009... Facebook Inc. in May began testing a virtual-currency payment system for customized online greeting cards and prepaid gift cards in what the products' developers say is the first such test within the social-networking Web site. Facebook users...

WITH MERGER DEAL NOW DEAD, TRITON LAYS OFF 58 WORKERS.(News)
June 5, 2009... Triton Systems of Delaware Inc., a Long Beach, Miss.-based ATM manufacturer, has laid off 58 of its 306 workers to cut costs following the collapse of a merger deal with Nautilus Hyosung Inc.(CardLine, 5/29). "We had to 'right-size' the...

HOUSE CHAIRMAN REINTRODUCES INTERCHANGE BILL.(News)
June 12, 2009... House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Thursday reintroduced legislation designed to give merchants more control over interchange, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The bill would remove antitrust hurdles to let...

SOME TERMINAL LESSORS REJECTING MORE APPLICATIONS.(News)
June 12, 2009... Some point-of-sale terminal lessors are rejecting an increased percentage of lease applications because more merchants are facing financial difficulties and have lower credit scores, according to industry insiders. "There are a lot more...

U.S. BANK HEADS INTO PRIVATE PRACTICE.(News)
June 12, 2009... U.S. Bank, a unit of U.S. Bancorp, has launched Healthcare Payment Management Essentials, a service designed to help private-practice physicians collect patient co-pays and deductibles. Users can accept and track payments made with credit...

NEW LEGISLATION PROMPTS EBILLME TO ADD TEEN ENHANCEMENT.(News)
June 12, 2009... EBillMe has begun offering a product that enables teens and young adults to purchase goods online without a credit card. The Ottawa, Canada-based company developed the product, dubbed eBillMe Teens, in response to new credit card legislation...

MAGTEK TOUTS TECHNOLOGY THAT PREVENTS ATM FRAUD.(News)
June 12, 2009... MagTek Inc.'s decade-old MagnePrint antifraud technology, which evaluates the physical properties of debit cards' magnetic stripes, is making headway in the United States and Latin America. Chile-based Banco de Credito e Inversiones of Santiago...

GERMAN COMPANY TESTS 'ATM' THAT DISPENSES GOLD.(News)
June 12, 2009... TG-Gold-Super-Markt.de, a German asset-management company, is selling one-, five- and 10-gram pieces of gold using what it calls "Gold-To-Go ATMs" to pique consumers' interest in buying larger amounts of the precious metal sold through the...

MASTERCARD EXEC: ISSUERS CURTAILING NEW-ACCOUNT MARKETING.(News)
June 12, 2009... Many credit card issuers have put their account-acquisition plans on hold to cope with the economic downturn and instead are focusing on managing existing customers, Chris McWilton, U.S. markets chief at MasterCard Worldwide, said last week in...

BANKRUPTCY COURT SPARES GM REWARDS CARD POINTS.(News)
June 12, 2009... The rewards points holders of cobranded General Motors Corp. credit cards have accumulated are safe for now, despite the automaker's bankruptcy filing earlier this month. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, which is...

PAYMENTS COALITION TAKES TO YOUTUBE.(News)
June 12, 2009... The Electronic Payments Coalition, whose members include the major card brands and issuers of their products, is urging Congress to oppose interchange legislation, and it is using a link to a popular video-sharing Web site to propagate its...

BUDGETS FORCE BANKS TO PUT OFF ATM PURCHASES.(News)
June 12, 2009... Tight budgets are keeping most banks from buying envelope-free ATMs, which can cost as much $35,000 each, suggest the results of a recent survey of 23 of the 80 largest U.S. banks based on ATM-network size. Envelope-free ATMs enable bank...

FIRST DATA TO PROCESS WACHOVIA'S CREDIT CARD PORTFOLIO.(News)
June 12, 2009... Wells Fargo & Co. has expanded its processing agreement with First Data Corp. and intends to move its recently acquired Wachovia Corp. credit card portfolio to First Data's processing platform, according to First Data and Wells Fargo. Wells...

MASTERCARD SOUNDS OFF ON INTERCHANGE LEGISLATION.(News)
June 12, 2009... The interchange legislation U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced yesterday that would exempt merchants from antitrust laws to negotiate interchange rates with card issuers "would result in less credit availability, along with higher...

TRANSUNION: Q1 BANKCARD BORROWER DEBT INCREASES.(News)
June 12, 2009... The average bankcard borrower debt in the United States was $5,776 during the first quarter ended March 31, up 0.82% from $5,729 the previous quarter and up 4.1% from $5,548 during the first quarter last year, according to TransUnion.com's...

GATEWAY COSTS DECREASING FOR ACQUIRERS.(News)(Brief article)
June 12, 2009... Acquirers paying for online payment-gateway services have seen their average cost per transaction decrease over time, a recent analysis by First Annapolis Consulting found. One acquirer, which First Annapolis did not name, saw its average...

DODD ASKS FED TO REQUIRE OPT IN FOR OVERDRAFT PROGRAMS.(News)(United States. Federal Reserve Board)(Christopher Dodd )(Brief article)
June 12, 2009... Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd yesterday called for the Federal Reserve Board to rein in overdraft-protection programs. The Connecticut Democrat urged the central bank to require card companies to get their customers'...

MOST ISOS SHY AWAY FROM FREE-TERMINAL PROGRAMS.(News)
June 12, 2009... A minority of independent sales organizations continue to offer free-terminal programs, according to results of a recent ISO&Agent survey. CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent found that 72% of 60 respondents do not offer merchants the option...

PROPOSED INTERCHANGE LEGISLATION COULD REDUCE PROCESSOR INCOME.(News)
June 12, 2009... Interchange legislation U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced last week could negatively affect card processors such as Total System Services Inc. and First Data Corp., according to a research note published last week by investment firm...

MERCHANT GROUPS CALL FOR PCI CHANGES.(News)
June 12, 2009... Six merchant trade groups have submitted a joint letter to the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council calling for changes to the PCI data-security standards. Members of the merchant groups "take data security seriously and have spent...

SOME POS EQUIPMENT LESSORS HAVE TIGHTENED UNDERWRITING.(News)
June 12, 2009... Some point-of-sale terminal-leasing companies have tightened the criteria they use to approve merchants for long-term lease contracts, according to industry insiders. The move by some lessors is in reaction to the lower credit scores and...

LOSS RATES FROM DEBIT FRAUD DROPPED IN 2008, DATA SUGGESTS.(News)
June 12, 2009... Despite increased fraud attempts in 2008, fraud-loss rates per debit card decreased from the previous year, according to the Pulse electronic funds transfer network's 2009 Debit Issuer study released last week. The signature-debit loss rate...

HIGHER CREDIT SCORES GENERATE MORE FRAUD, CREDIT BUREAU SAYS.(News)
June 12, 2009... Identity and data thieves are less likely to open a new credit card or other loan in a consumer's name if the consumer has bad credit, according to a new report released today by Experian Information Solutions Inc. In April, Experian's Fraud...

STARBUCKS CITES 'PROCESSING ERROR' IN DOUBLE-BILLING.(News)
June 12, 2009... A "settlement processing error" caused Starbucks Corp. to double-bill customers' credit or debit card purchases at some of its coffee-shop locations on May 22 and 23, according to a spokesperson for the Seattle-based coffee retailer. "We...

MASTERCARD EXEC: SPENDING 'FREEFALL' IS ENDING.(News)
June 12, 2009... New data suggest the "freefall" in retail consumer spending through the first few months of this year is ending, Chris McWilton, U.S. markets chief at MasterCard Worldwide, said yesterday in New York during a conference Keefe, Bruyette & Woods...

NORTHWEST SETTLES SUIT AGAINST U.S. BANCORP.(News)
June 12, 2009... Northwest Airlines Inc. has settled a lawsuit against U.S. Bancorp. The airline, now owned by Delta Air Lines Inc., sued the bank in late April to prevent it from converting frequent-flier cardholders from the Northwest WorldPerks reward...

AMEX TO PAY ADVANTA FEES FOR ACCOUNT REFERRALS.(News)
June 12, 2009... Advanta Corp., which shut down lending for its 1 million cardholder accounts last month (CardLine, 5/29), has signed an agreement to refer some of those customers to American Express Co., reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication....

NEW VISA SERVICE REVEALS TOURIST CARD-SPENDING DATA.(News)
June 12, 2009... Visa cardholders from the United States last year spent more than $42.4 billion using their cards in 225 top destination countries, while cardholders from all other countries spent more than $52 billion with their Visa cards in the U.S., Visa...

MAY RETAIL SALES DECREASED MORE THAN 10%.(News)
June 12, 2009... Estimated retail sales for May decreased 10.7%, to $301.7 billion from $338 billion during the same month last year, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. Retail sales for May increased 0.53% from $300.1 billion during the previous month,...

ILLINOIS BANK TO BASE REWARDS ON TRANSACTION HABITS.(News)
June 12, 2009... Busey Bank of Champaign, Ill., which has given out debit rewards since 2005 to help increase incremental interchange revenue from cardholders' purchases, is reaching out to local gas stations, bookstores and coffee shops to participate in new...

WAL-MART OFFSHOOT IN INDIA LAUNCHES CREDIT CARD.(News)
June 12, 2009... Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt. Ltd. and Kotak Mahindra Bank have signed a deal to issue a cobranded credit card, the India-based companies announced. Bharti Wal-Mart, a joint venture between India-based telecommunications operator Bharti Airtel and...

BRIEFS.(News)
June 12, 2009... * Independent sales organization Graphite Payments has hired Kim Doran as director of national sales support. She previously was a senior ISO support representative at North American Bancard. * Momentum Payment Systems, an independent sales...

BANKS URGED TO ANALYZE ATM NETWORKS FOR MALWARE.(News)
June 12, 2009... Trustwave, the Chicago-based data-security company, is urging U.S. banks that own ATM networks to have their machines analyzed to determine whether malware is present. Malware is malicious software that thieves insert inside an ATM to steal...

DELINQUENCY RATES IMPROVE, CHARGE-OFFS WORSEN.(News)(Report)(Brief article)
June 12, 2009... The May charge-off rate for prime credit card portfolios set a record high for the third consecutive month, according to Fitch Ratings' credit card industry report released yesterday. The charge-off rate was 9.66% of outstanding receivables, 77...

COMPANIES ADD PREPAID CARDS FOR ONLINE GAME PURCHASES.(News)
June 12, 2009... Coinstar Inc. this week announced it will allow users of its coin-exchange kiosks to put funds on Rixty Inc. prepaid cards gamers can use to pay for online games. It also is selling other game cards on in-store racks. Separately, CyKash Inc., a...

BARCLAYCARD ISSUES CONTACTLESS CARDS TO GOLD, CLASSIC CUSTOMERS.(News)
June 12, 2009... Barclaycard has begun issuing Visa-branded contactless "gold" and "classic" credit cards, the latest step in the United Kingdom-based issuer's push to put millions of contactless cards into customers' hands. The issuer, an arm of UK-based...

VISA BLASTS INTERCHANGE LEGISLATION.(News)
June 12, 2009... Joining the sentiment expressed last week by MasterCard Worldwide, Visa Inc. in a statement to CardLine Friday lambasted the introduction of interchange legislation by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. The bill "will significantly and negatively...

CONSUMER CREDIT DECLINES IN APRIL.(News)
June 12, 2009... U.S. revolving credit, 98% of which is credit card debt, decreased in April, to $931 billion from $939.6 billion the previous month, according to a Federal Reserve G.19 report on consumer credit released Friday. Total seasonally adjusted...

GLOBAL PAYMENTS BUYS OUT HSBC IN UK JOINT VENTURE.(News)
June 19, 2009... HSBC Bank plc has sold its 49% ownership in HSBC Merchant Services to joint venture partner Global Payments Inc. for $307.7 million. The deal closed today. The two companies created the payment-processing entity in 2008 (CardLine, 6/20/08) to...

EXPERIAN UNVEILS NEW SMALL BUSINESS CARD-SCORING TOOLS.(News)
June 19, 2009... Experian PLC today unveiled a new set of credit-risk products designed to help card issuers and other lenders predict when small-business borrowers are likely to fall behind on their payments. Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Experian Business...

CAP ONE CHARGE-OFF RATE EDGED UP AGAIN IN MAY.(News)(Capital One Financial Corp.)(Report)(Brief article)(Statistical data)
June 19, 2009... Capital One Financing Corp. today reported that its U.S. credit card segment's net charge-off rate increased to 9.41% of managed receivables in May from 8.56% the previous month. McLean, Va.-based Cap One's 30-day delinquency rate fell to 4.9%...

SOLVPORT TO SERVICE KIOSKS DEPLOYED IN CALIFORNIA CASINOS.(News)
June 19, 2009... Solvport, an ATM and kiosk-services provider, has signed a contract to provide telephone support to kiosks deployed in an undisclosed number of casinos throughout California. The Portland, Ore.-based company will provide full-time telephone...

MERCHANTS SEEK LOWER-COST TERMINAL OPTIONS IN RECESSION.(News)
June 19, 2009... The difficult economy and lower credit scores are causing some merchants to seek lower-cost methods of obtaining point-of-sale terminals for their businesses, note industry insiders. Many customers ask "Is there anything else you can do for...

NFC PUSH COULD EXPAND TO TWO MORE CITIES.(News)(Near Field Communication )
June 19, 2009... French mobile operators and banks plan to expand Near Field Communication projects to two additional cities following a "precommercial launch" in Nice projected to start by March 2010. France's major telcos and banks hope to launch more NFC...

FORMER FIRST DATA CEO CREATING NEW HOLDING COMPANY.(News)
June 19, 2009... Former First Data Corp. CEO Charles Fote is creating a company that will integrate electronic-payment and funds-transfer products at the point of sale, Fote's spokesperson tells CardLine. Fote intends to purchase different payments-industry...

CHASE SAID TO BE REVIEWING CONTACTLESS-STICKERS.(News)
June 19, 2009... JPMorgan Chase & Co. is considering rolling out contactless stickers consumers can attach to their mobile phones, CardLine sister publication Cards&Payments has learned. Chase, the largest U.S. issuer of contactless cards, either is conducting...

SUNTRUST INTRODUCES DELTA CHECK CARDS.(News)
June 19, 2009... Beginning Monday, SunTrust Banks Inc. will offer a cobranded Delta Air Lines Visa check card that will enable holders to earn Delta miles on all signature-debit purchases, the Atlanta-based companies announced Monday. The SunTrust SkyMiles...

MERCHANT E-SOLUTIONS ADDS ACCOUNT UPDATERS.(News)(MasterCard International Inc.)(Merchant eSolutions Inc.)(Visa Inc.)(Brief article)
June 19, 2009... Merchant E-Solutions Inc., an e-commerce payment company, says it has added automated data-updating features from MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. to its card products. Dubbed Account Updater by Visa and Automatic Billing Updater by...

NEW SERVICE MOVES GIFT CARD FUNDS FROM U.S. TO CENTRAL AMERICA.(News)(Brief article)
June 19, 2009... RegaloCard LLC is launching a service that enables gift card holders in the U.S. to send recipients in Central America funds for purchases at participating retailers in that region using redemption codes on their mobile phones. Consumers in the...

ATLANTA FIRM TO TEST TARGETED MERCHANT OFFERS.(News)
June 19, 2009... Atlanta-based startup Cardlytics is planning pilots during which three banks will send targeted merchant offers to customers banking online, reports U.S. Banker, a CardLine sister publication. Cardlytics CEO Scott Grimes would not name the...