Cardline articles from March 2007

Cardline archives from March 2007

CREDIT CARD CHARGE-OFFS FELL 29% IN 2006.
March 2, 2007... U.S. commercial banks last year charged off $13.9 billion in credit card loans, down 29.2% from $19.7 billion in in 2005, based on data released Thursday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and analyzed by CardLine sister publication...

OSCAR ADS: BOFA TO UNVEIL NEW SLOGAN, MASTERCARD TO DEBUT PAYPASS AD.
March 2, 2007... Bank of America announced yesterday a new advertising slogan "Bank of Opportunity," which it will debut with a commercial during Sunday's Academy Awards broadcast. The new slogan will replace BofA's previous slogan "Higher Standards." "'Bank...

CAPITAL ONE PARTNERS WITH NETSPEND ON PREPAID CARDS.
March 2, 2007... Capital One Financial Corp., the fifth-largest issuer of Visa and MasterCard products according to the latest edition of CardLine sister publication Card Industry Director, will launch its first reloadable prepaid debit card program in a...

ATM INVENTOR URGES STRONGER SECURITY.
March 2, 2007... John Shepherd-Barron, the retired De La Rue executive widely credited with inventing the automated teller machine, says ATM security needs to evolve in the face of increasing security threats. Shepherd-Barron, who retired from the UK-based ATM...

NEW BUYERS BID FOR CREDIT UNION CARD PORTFOLIOS.
March 2, 2007... Sixty-nine credit unions with credit card portfolios having receivables of at least $1 million sold their card programs in 2006, four more than during the previous year, reports Brookwood Capital, a credit union consulting company. The credit...

ISSUERS SIGN UP TO OFFER TEEN CARD.
March 2, 2007... Payjr Inc. says it has signed more than 10 small and mid-sized financial institutions to offer its prepaid card aimed at teen-agers, David S. Jones, the Dallas-based firm's CEO, tells CardLine sister publication ATM&Debit News. Payjr says its...

CANADIAN ATM USAGE RISES.
March 2, 2007... An increasing number of Canadians are using ATMs and online-banking services instead of bank branches to conduct day-to-day transactions, a new survey suggests. Last fall, 81% of Canadian adults surveyed used an ATM during the previous month,...

BRIEFS.
March 2, 2007... Jack in the Box Inc. will replace paper paychecks with payroll cards at Jack in the Box restaurants and Quick Stuff convenience stores.... Greensboro, N.C.-based Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. reported that gift card sales in 2006 were up...

CITIGROUP LURES AMEX CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER.
March 2, 2007... Citigroup announced over the weekend that it has hired Gary Crittenden as Citi's new chief financial officer. Crittenden, who had been American Express Co.'s chief financial officer for the last six years, will replace Sallie Krawcheck, who...

CREDIT CARD DEBT REPRESENTS NEARLY 72% OF NEWLY LISTED PORTFOLIOS.
March 2, 2007... A new wave of charged-off credit card account selling will hit the debt market in coming weeks as banks seek ways to increase revenues in an uncertain earnings environment this year, market watchers tell CardLine. Roughly $142 million of the...

WELLS FARGO MAY OFFER CREDIT CARDS TO PEOPLE WITHOUT SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS.
March 2, 2007... Wells Fargo & Co. is considering offering credit cards to people who don't have social security numbers, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman tells CardLine. "We are exploring the possibility of offering a similar program [to a Bank of America program];...

POLICE IDENTIFY SUPERMARKET CARD DATA THIEVES.
March 2, 2007... Coventry, R.I., police and the U.S. Secret Service have issued an all-points bulletin for three men wanted for questioning in the tampering of the payment terminals at two Stop & Shop supermarkets in which card data was stolen (CardLine 2/20)....

FORECAST PEGS 2 MILLION ATMS BY 2011.
March 2, 2007... Two million automated teller machines will be deployed around the world by 2011 according to a new forecast by Retail Banking Research Ltd., a London-based payments consultancy. Currently 1.5 million ATMs are deployed worldwide. Speaking at the...

RECIPIENTS PREFER GIFT CARDS, SURVEY SAYS.
March 2, 2007... Nearly 80% of consumers say they would prefer to receive a gift card from a favorite store than a gift that someone chooses for them, according to a recent survey. Perhaps that's why 22% of adults questioned in a Web-based survey said they...

CANADIAN PROVINCE WILL ISSUE SOCIAL ASSISTANCE DEBIT CARDS.
March 2, 2007... Alberta, Canada will offer its nearly 6,000 residents who receive public income support and do not have bank accounts the option of obtaining their financial assistance by debit card. The announcement follows a six-month pilot in Edmonton...

BRIEFS.(Dynamic Card Solutions)(Euronet Payments & Remittance Inc.)(Brief article)
March 2, 2007... TNB Card Services acquired Columbus, Ohio-based CME Federal Credit Union's credit card portfolio. The portfolio encompasses 5,500 cards and more than $145 million in balances....St. Paul, Minn.-based Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union, with...

TARGET'S CARDS BOOST COMPANY EARNINGS.
March 2, 2007... Target Corp. reported today for its fourth quarter ended Feb. 3 credit card receivables of more than $6.7 billion, up nearly 10% from $6.1 billion in the same period a year ago. Target's credit cards contributed $187 million to earnings before...

MASTERCARD DEVELOPING POS COMMERCIAL CARD REWARDS.
March 2, 2007... MasterCard Worldwide is developing a program to provide discount rewards at the point-of-sale for commercial cardholders. "Historically, the small business cardholder had to go someplace and get either a coupon or some other information and go...

VISA ANNOUNCES NEW PARTNERS FOR PREPAID CARD NETWORK.
March 2, 2007... Visa USA announced today nearly 20 new companies that will participate in its ReadyLink network, which allows consumers to reload value onto prepaid cards. In an announcement at the opening of the Prepaid Card Expo conference in Las Vegas, Visa...

REPORT SAYS CANADA'S EMV MIGRATION COULD LEAD DEBIT TO DISPLACE CREDIT.
March 2, 2007... Canada's migration to chip-and-PIN smart cards could help shift consumers' preferences toward debit cards, since cardholders are already familiar with using their PINs for debit card transactions but may not wish to memorize several new PINs...

LESS THAN 60% OF IMMIGRANTS USE CARDS, SAYS WHITE PAPER.
March 2, 2007... Prepaid cards are not catching on with immigrants who send money back to people in their home countries, according to a new white paper from the Center for Financial Services Innovation. Less than 60% of migrants use any type of card product,...

TNS POSTS $6.7 MILLION Q4 NET LOSS.(Financial report)(Brief article)(Statistical data)
March 2, 2007... TNS Inc., the Reston, Va.-based provider of high-speed data links between merchant terminals and transaction processors, reported today a $6.7 million fourth quarter net income loss, compared with a $1.4 million profit in the same period a year...

OBOPAY LETS TEENS SEND, RECEIVE MONEY VIA PHONE.
March 2, 2007... Redwood City, Calif.-based Obopay, a mobile payments service company, unveiled a sponsored accounts feature last week. The offering allows parents to give their children the ability to send and receive money, as well as make purchases, through...

BRIEFS.
March 2, 2007... Stop & Shop grocery chain officials said four people were arrested Tuesday night in connection with an investigation into information stolen from customers' personal accounts....Green Dot Corp., which began a four-month pilot in November...

BOFA PLANS ORGANIC GROWTH.
March 2, 2007... Bank of America has reached a size where it can outmuscle its competitors to grab market share, CEO and chairman Kenneth D. Lewis said Monday. At BofA's two-day investor conference, Lewis said the bank aims to mine its current customer base to...

7-ELEVEN JOINS VISA RELOAD NETWORK.
March 2, 2007... 7-Eleven convenience stores have joined the Visa ReadyLink card-reloading network, providing more than 5,350 additional U.S. locations where consumers can add value to Visa-branded prepaid cards, Visa USA President and CEO John Philip Coghlan...

YOU CAN'T TELL A CONSUMER'S RISK BY THEIR PAYMENT PREFERENCE.
March 2, 2007... Consumers who prefer to pay with cash or checks are not necessarily more risky than those who use credit and debit cards, concludes a new study from consulting firm Edgar, Dunn & Co. and credit bureau TransUnion. "From a credit risk...

CHECKFREE CITES CAPITAL BENEFITS OF RECENT DEALS.
March 2, 2007... CheckFree Corp.'s acquisitions of Carreker Corp. and Corillian Corp. this year may not address the company's traditional core competency of providing online bill-pay services directly, but they do provide CheckFree with capital to fuel...

STUDY REVEALS PREPAID CARDHOLDERS PREFER POS TO ATM.
March 2, 2007... Cardholders spend 92% of funds loaded on their prepaid general-spend cards, according to a new report released by the Center for Financial Services Innovation and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The report tracked usage over 12 months...

DEBIT TRANSACTIONS GREW 18% IN 2006.
March 2, 2007... Debit card transactions grew 18% in 2006, and they are expected to continue strong growth this year, according to a new study commissioned by the Pulse EFT Association. Debit card issuers reported an average transaction growth of 20.3% for...

WELLS FARGO, TWO OTHER BANKS ARE TAKING PROCESSING IN-HOUSE.
March 2, 2007... Wells Fargo & Co. and two other undisclosed banks will take their signature-debit processing in-house this year, according to a First Data Corp. filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the filing, Denver-based First Data said the...

BRIEFS.
March 2, 2007... Redwood City, Calif.-based mobile payment company Obopay named financial services veteran Dave Johnson as its chief financial officer.... Chase Card Services is now the official credit card issuer for Six Flags at all of its U.S. parks....

CITI STOPS UNIVERSAL DEFAULT...(Citigroup Inc. (New York, New York))(Brief article)
March 2, 2007... Citigroup Inc. announced today it plans to stop using the controversial credit card practice of universal default. Universal default occurs when an issuer raises the interest rate on a credit card if a cardholder misses a payment to another...

...AND BUYS PREPAID CARD PROVIDER.(Ecount)(Brief article)
March 2, 2007... New York-based banking giant Citigroup Inc. also announced today that it has purchased Ecount, a Conshohocken, Penn.-based firm that specializes in prepaid card programs for corporations. While Citi is a leader in most payments areas, "we have...

NEW MASTERCARD INTERCHANGE RATES REFLECT REWARDS CARD PROLIFERATION.
March 2, 2007... MasterCard Worldwide's interchange schedule released this week includes eight categories of cards, an increase over the six in the October 2006 schedule. Most of the new rates take effect in April, although some are effective in June. Changes...

RED CROSS, PAYMENTS PLAYERS GET READY FOR NEXT DISASTER.
March 2, 2007... Bank of America announced this week a new line of Visa-branded prepaid cards for providing disaster relief. Meanwhile, MasterCard Worldwide and the American Red Cross disclosed initiatives aimed at preparing for catastrophes such as Hurricane...

FRANK SAYS FIRM CAUSING DATA BREACH SHOULD PAY.(Barney Frank)(Brief article)
March 2, 2007... House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said this week that the party responsible for a data breach should accept full responsibility to fix it. "The responsibility for dealing with a breach-the expense, the...

DEBT BUYER EXEC ATTRIBUTES EARNINGS DROP TO COSTS OF NEW INITIATIVES.(Encore Capital Group Inc.)(Financial report)(Brief article)(Statistical data)
March 2, 2007... Public debt buyer Encore Capital Group Inc.'s net income for the fourth quarter dropped 15% to $6.6 million from $7.8 million in the same period the year before, the company reported Wednesday. Earnings per share stood at 28 cents, down 13%...

BARCLAYS MAY SELL MONUMENT CARD PORTFOLIO.
March 2, 2007... Barclaycard, the credit card division of UK-based Barclays Bank PLC, is in "advanced talks" to sell Monument, its card program for consumers with limited credit history, to U.S.-based subprime issuer CompuCredit Corp., according to a Reuters...

BRIEFS.
March 2, 2007... GE Money, the consumer lending unit of General Electric Comp. acquired a 39.3% stake in Banco Colpatria-Red Multibanca Colpatria S. A., a Bogota, Colombia-based consumer and commercial bank.... Global financial services payments consultancy...

CORRECTIONS.(Correction notice)
March 2, 2007... CardLine reported yesterday that 33% of issuers offered debit rewards cards in 2005. In fact, 36% of issuers offered debit rewards cards in 2005. CardLine yesterday also misspelled the name of Timothy Claytor of TransUnion. (c) 2007...

VERIFONE REPORTS 61% RISE IN FIRST-QUARTER REVENUE.(Financial report)
March 9, 2007... Bolstered by growing demand for profitable wireless payment terminals, which accounted for 21% of the company's worldwide system sales during the three months ended Jan. 31, VeriFone Inc. yesterday reported first-quarter revenues of $216.6...

DEBT BUYER GOES ON SPENDING SPREE.(Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. )(Brief article)
March 9, 2007... Debt buyer Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. spent a record $62.2 million during its fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 to purchase bad-debt portfolios with a total face value of $2.5 billion, the company reported yesterday. The investments represent a...

NEW NAME COMING FOR TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS.
March 9, 2007... Later this year, shareholders of Transaction Systems Architects, which owns ATM-software company Applied Communications Inc. Worldwide, will vote on whether to change the company's name to ACI Worldwide, company CEO Philip Heasley told analysts...

COUNCIL FINDS ITS ONLINE RETAILERS SAFER THAN AVERAGE.
March 9, 2007... A group of merchants who share anti-fraud information and best practices as members of the Merchant Risk Council report lower-than-average online fraud, according to a new survey by the council. The Merchant Risk Council says 42 of its merchant...

CREDIT CARD MAILINGS ROSE 6% IN 2006, MINTEL SAYS.
March 9, 2007... Issuers last year mailed more than 9.2 billion credit card solicitations, up 6% from 8.7 billion in 2005, according to research firm Mintel International Group. Mintel, whose U.S. operations are based in Chicago, says JPMorgan Chase & Co....

BEARINGPOINT SEES BIG ISSUER REVENUE FROM HEALTH ACCOUNTS.
March 9, 2007... Consulting firm BearingPoint this week projected a rapid increase in tax-advantaged health accounts from around 4 million today to more than 30 million by 2012. Consumers typically use debit cards to access funds in these health savings...

REDWOOD CITY INSTALLS WIRELESS PARKING PAYMENT TERMINALS.(Brief article)
March 9, 2007... Redwood City, Calif., has installed 40 WiFi-based multispace parking kiosks in its downtown. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based Digital Payment Technologies-manufactured kiosks are wirelessly connected to a network server. The pay stations...

BRIEFS.
March 9, 2007... Visa says online purchases with Visa-branded cards in the Latin America and Caribbean region rose 53% in 2006, to $3.3 billion in sales.... First Data Corp. today said it has completed its acquisition of data-analytics company Intelligent...

HSBC'S 2006 PROFITS RISE 5% DESPITE 21% PLUNGE IN NORTH AMERICAN PROFITS.
March 9, 2007... Banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC reported today that its pretax profits rose 5% to $22.1 billion in 2006 from $21 billion in 2005, despite the $10.6 billion hit the company took from its U.S. subprime mortgage sector. North America profit before...

CHARGED-OFF CREDIT CARD PORTFOLIOS JUMP 58%.(Brief article)
March 9, 2007... Banks continued cleaning out bad-debt portfolios last week, veteran market watchers tell CardLine sister publication CCRNewsline. Charged-off credit card portfolios listed for sale on the public portion of various Web sites jumped to more than...

MERCHANTS WILL DRIVE MOBILE PAYMENTS GROWTH, STUDY FINDS.(Brief article)
March 9, 2007... Nearly 70% of payments and financial-services industry professionals believe that merchants will drive acceptance of consumers' mobile-payments usage, according to a new survey from consulting firm Edgar, Dunn & Co. and Mobile Payments World...

OTI REVENUE MIX SHIFTS AWAY FROM AMERICA IN 2006.(On Track Innovations Ltd.)(Brief article)
March 9, 2007... North America accounted for 20% of contactless-technology vendor On Track Innovation's revenue in 2006, down from 39% in 2005, Guy Shafran, the Israel-based company's chief financial officer, noted during a conference call today. He said Asia...

RUBY TUESDAY TIGHTENS CREDIT CARD SECURITY.
March 9, 2007... Casual-dining restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday Inc. said today that it is one of the first national restaurants to roll out an "ultra-secure" credit card processing system that leaves no credit card information with the restaurant. The system,...

ECA$HIER TO DEPLOY FINANCIAL KIOSKS IN MEXICO.
March 9, 2007... Financial-kiosk manufacturer eca$hier Systems LLC has announced an agreement with Consejo Empresarial Gasolinero Valle De Mexico, A.C, the association for dealers, contractors and distributors of Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico's state-owned,...

ELAN AND SAPPHIRE PARTNER FOR MOBILE BANKING PILOT.
March 9, 2007... Elan Financial Services, a division of U.S. Bancorp, has partnered with mobile-banking and payments company Sapphire Mobile Systems to conduct a 90-day mobile-banking and payments pilot, which began Feb. 27. Elan will work with Sapphire to...

BRIEFS.
March 9, 2007... Transactions Systems Architects agreed to a $24.5 million settlement in the wake of disclosures that the software maker improperly booked sales....Mahwah, N.J.-based Shoppers Charge Accounts Co. purchased the private-label credit card...

COALITION LAUNCHES CREDIT AWARENESS CAMPAIGN.
March 9, 2007... Americans for Fairness in Lending, a coalition of the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza and other organizations, today launched a national campaign to shed light on what they consider...

REISSUANCE OF BREACHED DEBIT CARDS HIGH, FRAUD RATES LOW, SURVEY FINDS.
March 9, 2007... Since 2005, 90% of debit card issuers have been notified that their cards may have been affected by a merchant data breach, according to a new Dove Consulting survey. In the study, Dove surveyed 55 debit card-issuing financial institutions,...

EFUNDS CHANGES NAME TO EFD.(Brief article)
March 9, 2007... Transaction processor eFunds is changing its name to EFD. The main impetus for the name change was to avoid confusion, Keith S. Kendrick, senior vice president for marketing and strategy, tells CardLine. "When you say e-Funds, people think of...

BOFA GOES GREEN.
March 9, 2007... Bank of America announced today that it will begin issuing eco-friendly credit cards later this year as part of a larger $20 billion green initiative to provide more products and services that cause less harm to the environment. A BofA...

COINSTAR TO OFFER CHARTER ONE GIFT CARD.
March 9, 2007... Coinstar Inc. announced today that its subsidiary Coinstar E-Payment Services Inc. will distribute the Charter One MasterCard Gift Card to Coinstar gift card malls in drug, grocery, mass-merchant and convenience stores across the country....

NATIONAL CITY OFFERS FREE ATM ACCESS.
March 9, 2007... National City Corp. is offering free access to other banks' ATMs to new customers who open an Elite checking account, Jeffrey Kastelic, senior vice president of National City's Deposit Products Group, tells CardLine sister publication ATM&Debit...

HYPERCOM SERVICES MORE THAN 1 MILLION TERMINALS.
March 9, 2007... Payment-terminal maker Hypercom Corp. yesterday reported it serviced more than 1 million terminals from all major manufacturers in 2006 with deployment, help-desk, repairs and other services through its Netset operations in Brazil, Chile,...

BRIEFS.
March 9, 2007... Debt buyer Asta Funding Inc. closed its purchase on a $6.9 billion portfolio of receivables, primarily delinquent credit card accounts.... Citigroup Inc. finalized its acquisition of Grupo Financiero Uno and its affiliates and named former...

SENATE HEARING PUTS CREDIT CARD PRACTICES UNDER MICROSCOPE.
March 9, 2007... Today's hearing on credit card practices in the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations provided predictable attacks on the industry by senators and consumer advocates, and a rebuttal by a leading card issuer. Alys Cohen, an attorney...

CHASE EXEC APOLOGIZES FOR 'UNFAIR' OVERCHARGES.
March 9, 2007... Perhaps the lone surprise of today's Senate subcommittee hearing was Chase Card Services CEO Richard Srednicki apologizing for charging a financially strapped customer $7,500 in interest charges and late fees on his purchases of $3,200. Chase...

HYPERCOM REPORTS 5% Q4 REVENUE DROP, BUT TURNS PROFIT FOR YEAR.(Financial report)
March 9, 2007... Citing a decline in multilane product sales, payment-terminal maker Hypercom Corp. today reported a 4.9% drop in revenue for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, to $64.8 million from $68.1 million during the same period a year ago. Full-year...

FEMALE SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS SEEK BARGAINS, STUDY FINDS.
March 9, 2007... Female small-business owners tend to shop for the best deal for financial services, according to a new Synergistics Research Corp. The December 2006 survey asked 454 women who own their own businesses to rate the importance of various criteria...

BOSTON'S TRANSIT AUTHORITY TO ISSUE CONTACTLESS SMART CARDS.
March 9, 2007... The Boston area's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will issue 2.4 million contactless transit smart cards manufactured by Arlington, Va.-based Gemalto North America by the end of March. Gemalto says it ultimately expects to provide...

BIOMETRICS AND PREPAID CARDS PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHECK CASHERS, SAYS REPORT.
March 9, 2007... Prepaid cards could ultimately prove to be the "kiss of death" for the $2.6 billion a year check-cashing industry, according to an Aite Group LLC report released yesterday. Gwenn Bezard, the report's author and Aite research director, tells...

NYC CAB DRIVERS PROTEST CREDIT CARD ACCEPTANCE RULES.
March 9, 2007... New York City taxi drivers staged a protest outside New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission headquarters yesterday over a plan that would require New York taxicabs to add high-tech gadgetry that includes credit card readers. Drivers say...

BRIEFS.
March 9, 2007... TNB Card Services acquired Clark, N.J.-based FAA Eastern Region Federal Credit Union's credit card portfolio. The $16 million portfolio encompasses more than 6,000 card accounts.... San Diego-based ID Analytics today announced new services...

CONSUMER BORROWING RISES 3.2% IN JANUARY.
March 9, 2007... Consumer credit rose at an annual rate of 3.2% in January, following a 2.5% increase in December, according to the Federal Reserve Board's monthly Consumer Credit survey, known as the G.19, released yesterday. The rise in consumer borrowing...

CITIZENS BANK LAUNCHES MERCHANT REWARDS NETWORK, TWO OR THREE MORE BANKS MAY FOLLOW SUIT.
March 9, 2007... Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Bank announced yesterday the launch of the Citizens Bank and Charter One Bank Merchant Network that will allow the bank's debit card users to qualify for bonus points when they make purchases at retailers such as...

OFFICIAL SAYS TREASURY SECRETARY STIFLED PREPAID CARD REGS.
March 9, 2007... A former official at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a unit of the Treasury Department that focuses on fighting money laundering and terrorist financing, says the agency planned to introduce new regulations governing prepaid cards...

VISA CEO CHALLENGES BUSINESSES TO MAKE SECURITY PRIORITY.
March 9, 2007... Visa USA President and CEO John Philip Coghlan today told more than 400 attendees of at the second annual Security Summit in Washington, D.C., that while payment security has improved, everyone must work together to meet agreed-upon security...

FITCH PREDICTS PRIME CREDIT CARD RECEIVABLE CHARGEOFF RATE WILL APPROACH 5.5% BY END OF YEAR.(Fitch Ratings Ltd.)(Brief article)
March 9, 2007... The chargeoff rate for prime credit card receivables backing various asset-backed securities will approach 5.5% by the end of 2007, higher than the present rates, but slightly below the historic pre-2005 level of 6% due to the impact of 2005...

MAJOR CREDIT CARD ISSUERS MAY BE SLOW TO ADOPT VANTAGESCORE.
March 9, 2007... VantageScore, a year-old credit score created by three major credit bureaus, has a better chance of being used by credit card issuers than by mortgage and home equity lenders, but adoption by major credit card issuers will be a slow process,...

TELENET SERVICES TO OFFER PREPAID CARDS FOR LOW-COST FUND TRANSFERS TO MEXICO.(TeleNet Services International Inc. signs deal with Banco Del Ahorro Nacional y Servicios Financieros)
March 9, 2007... Worthington, Ohio-based TeleNet Services International Inc., a privately owned debit and prepaid card company, announced a deal with the Mexican government-owned Banco Del Ahorro Nacional y Servicios Financieros, S.N.C. (Bansefi), giving...

BRIEFS.
March 9, 2007... Neiman Marcus Inc. today reported an $18 million loss in income from credit card operations for the 13 weeks ended Jan. 27, up from a $17 million loss during a similar period a year ago. HSBC-North America operates the boutique department-store...

DEBT BUYER TO SUE MOST DEBTORS IN ITS NEWLY ACQUIRED $6.9 BILLION PORTFOLIO.(Asta Funding Inc. to sue portfolio's debtors from Great Seneca Financial Corp.)(Brief article)
March 16, 2007... Debt buyer Asta Funding Inc., which this week closed its near-record purchase of a $6.9 billion face value portfolio, says it plans to sue most of the portfolio's debtors. Purchased from New York-based debt buyer Great Seneca Financial Corp.,...

PAYMENT SERVICES PROVIDERS CRAVE BETTER BREACH INFO...(opinion of Rich Detura of Citi Cards North America on card data breaches)(Brief article)
March 16, 2007... Both a major credit card issuer and an alternative payments provider speaking at yesterday's Visa Security Summit in Washington, D.C., said they would like to receive more information sooner when card data breaches occur. Rich Detura, senior...

...BUT BREACH CRIME FIGHTERS EXPLAIN INFO DELAYS.(customer notification of data breaches )(Brief article)
March 16, 2007... The U.S. Secret Service rarely asks companies that have suffered data breaches to delay informing those whose personal or payment data was compromised, a Secret Service agent told attendees of yesterday's Visa Security Summit. "We see very few...