Cardline articles from March 2008

Cardline archives from March 2008

FEDERAL RESERVE CONTEMPLATES POLICING CREDIT CARDS:.
March 7, 2008... Credit card-industry practices, already under fire from legislators and consumer groups, are garnering the attention of the Federal Reserve Bank. Presenting proposed guidelines, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the...

TRAVELEX OFFERING FOREIGN-CURRENCY TRAVEL CARD.(Travelex Currency Services Inc.)
March 7, 2008... London-based Travelex Currency Services Inc. announced yesterday it is offering prepaid cards to travelers in euros or English pounds. West Suburban Bank, which is based in Lombard, Ill., will issue the cards, says Christopher Russell, Travelex...

WAIVING WITHDRAWAL FEE FOR GIFT CARD BUYERS BOOSTS ATM VOLUME.
March 7, 2008... Waiving the withdrawal fee when consumers buy gift cards from ATMs can increase transaction volume and earn independent sales organizations more revenue, according to Better ATM Services Inc. "When someone buys a gift card at a Better...

FTC OFFICIAL SAYS COMMISSION SUES NONBANKS FOR UNFAIR CARD PRACTICES.(Brief article)
March 7, 2008... The Federal Trade Commission has no jurisdiction over bankcard issuers, but it does bring legal actions against other companies that use deceptive or unfair means to market debit and credit cards, according to an FTC official's testimony...

THREE CARD ISSUERS AGREE TO DISCLOSE POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
March 7, 2008... As scrutiny of credit and debit card issuers' lobbying efforts intensifies, American Express Co., Capital One Financial Corp. and Washington Mutual Inc. have agreed to report their donations to trade associations and other tax-exempt and...

CARDTRONICS TO DEPLOY 32 ATMS IN WALGREEN STORES FOR OLD POINT BANK.
March 7, 2008... Cardtronics Inc. this week announced an agreement to deploy 32 ATMs bearing the Old Point National Bank name in Walgreen drug stores in Hampton Roads, Va. The ATMs will display Old Point's brand on the machines' housings and transaction...

TELCOS RANK MOBILE FUNDS TRANSFERS AS KEY TO FUTURE SERVICE.
March 7, 2008... Mobile-network operators view remittances and other funds transfers as key to their plans for offering mobile financial services to subscribers. More than 70% of operators in developing countries and at least 47% of telcos in industrialized...

BRIEFS.
March 7, 2008... Electronic payments processor Galileo Processing Inc. has hired Todd Brockman as president. For the last seven years, Brockman has run Visa Inc.'s prepaid card business....Northrop Grumman Corp. has renewed Affiliated Computer Services Inc.'s...

UNITED TECHNOLOGIES MAKES UNSOLICITED BID FOR ATM MANUFACTURER DIEBOLD.
March 7, 2008... United Technologies Corp. on Sunday made public an unsolicited, hostile bid to buy Diebold Inc., the world's second-largest ATM manufacturer, based on 2006 shipments. The offer by United Technologies of $2.63 billion, or $40 per share, for all...

HSBC USA PROFITS DROPPED 87% IN 2007.
March 7, 2008... HSBC USA Inc. earned net income of $138 million during the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2007, down 87% compared with more than $1.03 billion in fiscal 2006, the company reported Monday. The credit card business contributed more than $1.76 billion...

ANALYST BEGINS COVERAGE OF ADVANTA WITH HOLD RATING.
March 7, 2008... Investment banking firm Stifel Nicolaus, based in St. Louis, last week initiated coverage of Advanta Corp., a business credit card issuer, with a Hold rating on its Class B shares. "The weakening economy and distressed capital markets have made...

FEBRUARY CREDIT INDEX REMAINS UNCHANGED.(Brief article)
March 7, 2008... The Credit Manager's Index, a gauge of economic factors affecting credit and collection professionals, remained unchanged from January to February at 51.4, breaking a streak of five consecutive declines, the National Association of Credit...

MONEYGRAM LETS META CUSTOMERS USE ITS NETWORK.
March 7, 2008... Moneygram International Inc. has signed an agreement with Meta Payment Systems to allow Meta prepaid cardholders to reload their cards at MoneyGram's agent locations nationwide. Minneapolis-based MoneyGram has more than 30,000 retail locations,...

CYBERSOURCE ADDS FEATURES TO ONLINE FRAUD DETECTION SERVICE.
March 7, 2008... CyberSource Corp., a Mountain View, Calif.-based payment security company, says it has updated its fraud detection service for online merchants. One new function includes a way to identify a shopper's computer by creating a digital...

NEW BUSINESSES BRING OPPORTUNITY AND RISK FOR ISOS.
March 7, 2008... While there is no consensus within the ISO industry on whether new businesses make for good clients, many ISOs see them as obvious and reliable targets. "New companies are a key component in our strategy... and we are still on the street...

BRIEFS.
March 7, 2008... Barclaycard US, the U.S. division of United Kingdom-based Barclays Plc , named Scott A. Young as general manager, partnerships, where he will oversee co-branded card programs, and Tom Karinshak as managing director of customer care and bank...

FED MONITORS CARD BORROWING FOR SIGNS OF WEAKNESS.(Brief article)
March 7, 2008... Could troubles with mortgages seep into the card market? The Federal Reserve Board thinks it's plausible, and it is monitoring patterns of consumer borrowing, FRB Vice Chairman Donald L. Kohn told members of the U.S. Senate Committee on...

ATM ISO BORROWS $1 MILLION TO PAY DOWN DEBT.
March 7, 2008... An investment fund has loaned $1 million to financially troubled TRM Corp., a Portland, Ore.-based ATM independent sales organization, to pay down a multimillion-dollar debt, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. LC...

TSYS ROLLS OUT 'MULTI-PURSE' HEALTH CARE PAYMENT CARD.
March 7, 2008... Columbus, Ga.-based Total System Services Inc., known as TSYS, this week rolled out what it is calling the industry's first "multi-purse" health care payment card of its kind, providing access to tax-advantaged health care accounts, credit...

CHICAGO TRANSIT TAKES CREDIT, DEBIT AT NEW FARE CARD VENDING MACHINES.
March 7, 2008... The Chicago Transit Authority is installing the first five of an expected 60 vending machines that accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express credit and debit cards to purchase or reload fare cards. Riders must spend a minimum $5 to...

TOWSON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS GET OFF-CAMPUS DINING CARD.
March 7, 2008... Fine Dine, a meal plan debit card created by a former Towson University student, will allow students at the Baltimore-area school to take advantage of off-campus dining. The cards require $200 minimum deposits, and students can use them at 11...

HEARTLAND BUYS STAKE IN CANADIAN MERCHANT SERVICES PROVIDER.(Brief article)
March 7, 2008... Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has acquired a controlling stake in Collective Point Of Sales Solutions Ltd., a Woodbridge, Ontario-based merchant services provider, the processor announced today. Heartland did not disclose...

MASTERCARD APPEALS EUROPEAN RULING ON INTERCHANGE.(Brief article)
March 7, 2008... MasterCard Europe said Monday it has filed an appeal over a decision last year from European regulators that the card organization's cross-border interchange rates violate anti-trust rules. MasterCard wants the European Court of First Instance...

BRIEFS.
March 7, 2008... Merchant acquirer First American Payment Systems LP has selected wireless-payments company Apriva as its provider of wireless products and services....MasterCard Worldwide and Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) today announced a multi-year...

UNITED TECHNOLOGIES MISCHARACTERIZED NEGOTIATIONS WITH DIEBOLD, CHAIRMAN SAYS.
March 7, 2008... United Technologies Corp., which this week offered to buy ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc. for $2.63 billion, has mischaracterized negotiations between the two companies, John N. Lauer, Diebold's non-executive chairman, charged in a letter to...

SECURITY SYSTEM USES PAYMENT CARD AND PHONE LOCATION TO STEM FRAUD.
March 7, 2008... Secure Identity Systems, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based fraud prevention company, is testing mConfirm, a PC-based software program designed to prevent fraudulent use of debit and credit cards. When a payment card is swiped, mConfirm identifies the...

CHASE PAYMENTECH OFFICIAL WELCOMES PCI UPDATES, WISHES FOR MORE.
March 7, 2008... As chief compliance officer for merchant acquirer Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, Mike Herman welcomes continued clarification of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. But, like most payments industry stakeholders, Herman also has a...

SURVEY SUGGESTS FINANCIAL ILLITERACY PLAGUES MAJORITY OF CONSUMERS.
March 7, 2008... As rising consumer debt becomes a hot political topic, a study released last month by the New York-based research company TNS and professors at Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College suggests that a majority of Americans suffer from...

WAMU AND CARDTRONICS ENTER INTO ATM-BRANDING AGREEMENT.
March 7, 2008... Cardtronics Inc. will brand more than 425 ATMs in CVS/pharmacy stores in Arizona and California with Washington Mutual Inc.'s logo, the bank announced today. Under the agreement, the Cardtronics-owned ATMs also will feature WaMu's transaction...

CANADIAN ISSUER SEES PROFITS FALL 27%.(Financial report)
March 7, 2008... BMO Financial Corp., parent of the Bank of Montreal, posted net income of Cdn $255 million (U.S. $257.6 million) in its first quarter ended Jan. 31, 2008, down 27% from Cdn $348 million (U.S. $351.6 million) in the same period a year ago. Total...

OKLAHOMA BANK OFFERS PAYROLL CARDS AND HELP TO HAITI.
March 7, 2008... Central National Bank, based in Enid, Okla., has signed an agreement to issue cards that Jacksonville Savings Bank, Jacksonville, Ill., will offer to Jacksonville-area employers as payroll cards, officials announced Monday. Last week, Central...

BRIEFS.
March 7, 2008... American Bancard LLC, an independent sales organization, is selling check and gift products supplied by Secure Payment Systems Inc. under a recently signed agreement....CheckFreePay, now part of Fiserv Inc., today announced it has appointed...

SAFEWAY MAY SELL A PIECE OF BLACKHAWK NETWORK.
March 7, 2008... Safeway Inc., the parent company of Blackhawk Network, may try to sell a part of Blackhawk because Safeway's stock price does not reflect the contributions that Blackhawk makes to the company, said Steven Burd, Safeway executive chairman and...

DIEBOLD'S RESPONSE TO BUYOUT OFFER DISAPPOINTS UNITED TECHNOLOGIES.
March 7, 2008... United Technologies Corp. is disappointed Diebold Inc. spurned a recent United Technologies' unsolicited buyout officer, Louis Chenevert, United Technologies president and chief operating officer, told investors in New York yesterday. "We made...

CHASE SUES THREE LAW FIRMS FOR URGING DEBTORS TO LIE ABOUT BILLS.
March 7, 2008... Three Florida-based debt-relief law firms urged consumers to claim nonexistent billing errors on credit card statements so the consumers could avoid paying the balances, Chase Bank USA alleges in a lawsuit filed Friday. Chase says in the suit...

WAL-MART CLAIMS PREPAID CARD SUCCESS BUT REVEALS NO METRICS.
March 7, 2008... Jane Thompson, president of financial services at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., told an audience at the 2008 Prepaid Card Expo Tuesday in Las Vegas that Wal-Mart's prepaid card program was a success, but she did not back the claim with details. In her...

ON TRACK INNOVATIONS REPORTS LARGER LOSS FOR 2007.(Financial report)(Brief article)
March 7, 2008... Israel-based contactless technology vendor On Track Innovations Ltd. reported a US$20.6 million net loss for 2007. The company had a $6.6 million loss in 2006, according to the company's annual report, released Thursday. For the fourth quarter...

COLLECTIONS CONFERENCE REPORT: WHAT ARE CARDHOLDERS DOING?(Conference notes)
March 7, 2008... A pair of receivables portfolio brokers talked today about how borrowers are juggling their payment obligations during the 12th annual National Collections & Credit Risk Conference in New Orleans. Lou DiPalma and Sean McVity, managing partners...

ATM ISO SEES INCREASED TRANSACTIONS AT BRANDED ATMS.
March 7, 2008... Transaction volume increases at ATMs that carry financial-institution brands, according to Keith Myers, chief sales and marketing officer at Cardtronics Inc. "We see the largest increase in transactions from customers of the branding bank," he...

BRIEFS.
March 7, 2008... Vesdia Corp. announced today that it has hired Lars Holmquist as chief marketing officer. He formerly was president of TSYS Loyalty Inc., a division of Total System Services Inc.... Processor Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC certified the...

LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE BILL TO SET INTERCHANGE RATES.
March 14, 2008... Battle lines were drawn this week in the war of credit card interchange rates, as House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, introduced legislation to set interchange rates for credit and debit...

SHARPER IMAGE TO ACCEPT GIFT CARDS AGAIN.
March 14, 2008... Sharper Image Corp. plans to start accepting its gift cards again once it gets approval to do so from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, according to a press release. The San Francisco-based company filed for...

MARKETING, CUSTOMER RETENTION ARE KEYS TO PREPAID SUCCESS.
March 14, 2008... Companies looking to start prepaid card programs should know their goals and make sure their transaction processors are knowledgeable about marketing, Marc Edmondson, senior vice president of corporate development at Chockstone Inc., said March...

CARDTRONICS TO PUT CHASE NAME ON 107 ATMS IN GAS STATIONS.
March 14, 2008... Chase, the banking brand of JPMorgan Chase & Co., is putting its name on 107 Cardtronics Inc. ATMs in New York and New Jersey Hess Express gas stations under a multiyear agreement announced Wednesday. The deal is a new agreement with Chase and...

CITI, SK TELECOM IN JOINT VENTURE TO PROVIDE MOBILE-BANKING SERVICES.
March 14, 2008... Citigroup Inc. and South Korea-based mobile-telephone company SK Telecom Co. Ltd. have launched a joint venture to develop mobile-banking and payments services for use in markets around the world, the companies announced this week. The new...

SURVEY: CONSUMER SPENDING CONFIDENCE RISING.
March 14, 2008... Discover Financial Services reported Wednesday that its monthly survey data suggest consumer spending confidence improved slightly in February after a sharp slide that began late last year. The Discover U.S. Spending Monitor crept up to an 86.4...

MASTERCARD EMV CARDS REACH 300 MILLION GLOBALLY.
March 14, 2008... Financial institutions have issued more than 300 million MasterCard-branded chip cards with the EMV security application, MasterCard Worldwide said Thursday. More than 8 million locations around the world accept EMV chip cards, MasterCard says....

BRIEFS.
March 14, 2008... Trustwave has certified London-based Capita Group Plc for compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, the Capita Group announced this week....Interac Association is promoting debit card safety by releasing debit...

DECOUPLED DEBIT'S ROBUST REWARDS INTRIGUE CONSUMERS.
March 14, 2008... Roughly one-third of online consumers who hold either a debit or credit card are interested in obtaining decoupled-debit cards because of the product's potential rewards, according to an Aite Group report released today. With decoupled debit,...

FAMILY MEMBERS POOL REWARDS POINTS WITH CHASE CREDIT CARD.
March 14, 2008... JPMorgan Chase & Co. is developing a proprietary rewards credit card that would enable family members to pool points in a single rewards account. Chase also plans to offer more choices for merchandise redemption and charitable giving. Gordon...

FED: CONSUMER CREDIT OUTSTANDING GREW 3.3% IN JANUARY.
March 14, 2008... Consumer credit outstanding rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.3% in January, boosted by a 7% increase in borrowing on revolving accounts consisting primarily of credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve Board's monthly...

SAKS SEES NO MAJOR SHIFTS IN CREDIT QUALITY OF ITS CARD LOANS.
March 14, 2008... Officials at Saks Inc., which operates the tony Saks Fifth Avenue department-store chain and offers a cobranded credit card with private-label card issuer HSBC, say they have not seen major changes in the store's credit portfolio despite a...

MORE SCHOOLS ADD FUNDS TRANSFERS FOR AID DISBURSEMENT.
March 14, 2008... Financial-aid disbursements at colleges and universities are moving away from checks and toward electronic funds transfers, according to Mark Volchek, chairman and chief financial officer with Higher One Inc., which provides...

DROPOUTS CITE CARD DEBT AS FACTOR IN DECISION TO LEAVE COLLEGE.
March 14, 2008... Students dropping out of college cited financial pressures as the No. 1 reason for leaving, according to a new survey from Duck9, a Web-based platform for peer-to-peer lending and credit counseling for college students. The survey of 14,500...

AMERICANS SHOW INTEREST IN INSIDE'S NEW CONTACTLESS CARD CHIPS.
March 14, 2008... France-based Inside Contactless has released a chip package for contactless payment cards, and it expects North American issuers to express the most initial interest in the product, a company executive tells CardLine sister publication CardLine...

BRIEFS.
March 14, 2008... Personal financial planning firm Ameriprise Financial Services Inc., which has more than 2.8 million clients, today announced it has paired up with MasterCard Worldwide and Barclaycard US to issue four types of payment cards.......

ATM ISO SUES FORMER BUSINESS PARTNER.
March 14, 2008... ATM Equity LP, a San Francisco-based independent sales organization, is suing a former business partner, alleging the company and its owner defrauded ATM Equity out of $29.5 million through an elaborate scheme involving the purchase, deployment...

NEW YORK PROSECUTORS CHARGE 38 IN CARD-FRAUD RING.(Brief article)
March 14, 2008... New York police have arrested and charged 38 suspects with participating in a crime ring that allegedly used information purchased from a source in China to create fake credit and debit cards and counterfeit government documents, such as...

NEIMAN MARCUS AND HSBC WORK TO RESOLVE CARD DISPUTE.
March 14, 2008... Neiman Marcus Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings PLC are working to resolve a dispute over the terms of HSBC's agreement to issue the retailer's private-label credit cards. The Dallas-based luxury retailer sued HSBC last month in Dallas County...

HOUSE TO HOLD CARDHOLDERS' BILL OF RIGHTS HEARING THURSDAY.
March 14, 2008... The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit is scheduled to hold a hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday on the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2008 (H.R. 5244). The bill, introduced by Rep. Carolyn...

DECOUPLED DEBIT THREATENS INSTITUTIONS THAT OFFER WEAK REWARDS.
March 14, 2008... Financial institutions that do not offer competitive debit card rewards have the most to fear from decoupled debit, according to a recent TowerGroup Inc. research report. With decoupled debit, card issuers that do not hold demand deposit...

OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL DROPS POTBELLY LAWSUIT; CITI STILL NAMED.
March 14, 2008... Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has dropped a lawsuit against Potbelly Sandwich Works LLC concerning alleged violations of the state's Consumer Sales Practices Act. In exchange, the sandwich restaurant chain agreed to help teach college...

OBERTHUR RECEIVES AMEX LICENSE TO MAKE CLEAR CARDS.
March 14, 2008... France-based Oberthur Technologies says U.S.-based American Express Co. has signing a licensing agreement allowing Oberthur to make transparent payment cards for other issuers. Oberthur says AmEx owns several patents related to transparent...

BRIEFS.
March 14, 2008... Electronic-payments processor Cyberbit A/S is offering merchant-service providers a product called Vfraud v.2.01, which monitors e-commerce transactions for fraud and enables merchants to view customer information such as Internet Protocol...

GENERATION Y COULD POPULARIZE NEW PAYMENTS TECHNOLOGY.(Brief article)
March 14, 2008... Generation Y, young adults born between 1978 and 1989, may popularize new payment technology, and industry analysts say companies should start marketing products to the group. "These are people who are not going to use an old Hypercom terminal...

NCR CEO'S COMPENSATION MORE THAN DOUBLED IN 2007.
March 14, 2008... William Nuti, chairman, president and CEO of NCR Corp., received $16.8 million in compensation last year, more than double the amount he earned the previous year, according to the ATM maker's proxy statement. Nuti earned $6.9 million in 2006,...

COLLEGES SAVE WITH ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFERS FOR FINANCIAL AID.
March 14, 2008... Colleges and universities that use electronic funds transfers for financial-aid disbursements to students reduce costs by eliminating the need for staff members to spend time preparing and distributing checks, says Richard Jones, director of...

ISOS OFFER WAYS OF MAINTAINING DIALOGUE WITH MERCHANTS.(independent sales organization )(Brief article)
March 14, 2008... After an independent sales organization or agent has earned a merchant's business, it should keep the lines of communication open to cultivate a long-term relationship. Ongoing communication can be as simple as providing customers rolls of...

OPTIMAL GROUP OPEN TO SELLING PROCESSING BUSINESS.(Brief article)
March 14, 2008... Optimal Group Inc., a Montreal-based company with varied subsidiaries, has agreed to allow some potential suitors to explore buying its Optimal Payments processing group, the company disclosed yesterday in its fourth-quarter and year-end...

BILLEO WORKING WITH NEW CREDIT BUREAU.
March 14, 2008... Billeo Inc., an online bill-pay company based in Santa Clara, Calif., says it is working with Payment Reporting Builds Credit, a credit bureau, to provide data on recurring bill payments. The service enables consumers to augment their credit...

APACS TIES INCREASE IN UK CARD FRAUD TO U.S. ACTIVITY.
March 14, 2008... For the second year in a row, the United States in 2007 led the list of countries with the most fraud committed with payment cards issued in the United Kingdom, a spokesperson for the APACS payment association tells CardLine sister publication...

BRIEFS.
March 14, 2008... Union Bank of California says it will issue MasterCard Worldwide PayPass-enabled debit cards to its nearly 1 million debit cardholders.... Schools Financial Credit Union has chosen the IntelliCat System by MagTek Inc. to support PIN-debit...

LAW PROFESSOR TELLS CONGRESS CARD INDUSTRY 'TRICKS' CONSUMERS.
March 14, 2008... A Harvard law professor, testifying today before a House subcommittee, said proposed legislation would prevent card industry "tricks and traps" that hurt millions of consumers who need clear disclosure and better control over when their credit...

COULD PREPAID CARDS HAVE SAVED ELIOT SPITZER?
March 14, 2008... The author of a post on a Wired magazine blog suggested Wednesday that former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer could have avoided getting caught by authorities investigating a prostitution ring by using a prepaid card to pay for his alleged liaisons...

NEW JERSEY SENATOR INTRODUCES NEW CREDIT CARD BILL.
March 14, 2008... U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., introduced a credit card bill yesterday that would "put an end to deceptive and irresponsible marketing," according to a statement from the senator's office. The Credit Card Reform Act would require credit...

DEBIT CARDS IN USE TO REACH 5.2 BILLION WORLDWIDE BY 2012.
March 14, 2008... Debit cards in use reached roughly 3 billion worldwide in 2007 and should reach 5.2 billion by 2012, according to a Global Industry Analysts Inc. report. North America had roughly 428 million debit cards in use in 2007, and the number will grow...

FEDERAL RESERVE TO HOST CREDIT CARD REGULATIONS FORUM.
March 14, 2008... The Federal Reserve will present a forum April 8 to discuss rules proposed under Regulation Z, part of the Truth in Lending Act, according to Federal Reserve Board Gov. Randall S. Kroszner, who spoke yesterday at the American Bankers...

TRM APPLIES FOR TRANSFER TO NASDAQ CAPITAL MARKET.
March 14, 2008... TRM Corp. is applying to transfer its NASDAQ listing from the NASDAQ Global Market to the NASDAQ Capital Market, the company announced Wednesday. The ATM independent sales organization's stock price does not meet the $1 minimum required for...

IOWA SENATE CONSIDERING BILL TO BAN CLOSED-LOOP GIFT CARD FEES.
March 14, 2008... The Iowa Senate is considering a bill that would ban fees and expiration dates on closed-loop prepaid cards sold by businesses in Iowa. The Senate Commerce Committee approved the bill on March 10. The bill would not cover open-loop gift cards...

BRIEFS.
March 14, 2008... The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court's decision to rule in favor of MasterCard Worldwide, Visa and several banks on the so-called Kendall interchange case filed by a small group of California merchants, which claimed...

CITIGROUP DEVELOPING BRANDED NFC PHONE, REPORT TO FCC SAYS.
March 28, 2008... Citigroup Inc. is developing an NFC mobile phone and plans to brand it with a Citi logo, CardLine sister publication Cards&Payments has learned. Citi intends to load a contactless credit application onto the handsets, according to a lab report...

DIEBOLD WARNED OF DELISTING ON NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE.
March 28, 2008... The New York Stock Exchange has warned Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc. that it is subject to delisting for failing to file its 10-K annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Diebold, the world's second-largest ATM...

BANKS AND TRANSIT COOPERATE TO COMBINE FARES AND PAYMENTS.
March 28, 2008... The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council describes two approaches to combining transit and payment applications on one card in a new white paper entitled "Co-branded Multi-Application Contactless Cards for Transit and Financial Payment."...

NASA PICKS CHASE FOR PURCHASE, TRAVEL AND FLEET CARDS.
March 28, 2008... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has chosen JPMorgan Chase & Co. to provide purchase, travel and fleet charge card services, the company announced today. Chase will issue roughly 20,000 charge cards to NASA employees....