Cardline articles from March 2009

Cardline archives from March 2009

NEW BREACH NOT THAT AT ALL; PART OF EXISTING ONE.
March 6, 2009... Rumors of a third intrusion at a U.S. processor can be laid to rest. A Visa Inc. spokesperson tells CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent Weekly that alerts it issued in February regarding network intrusions stem from its investigation into two...

FED PLANS SYSTEM FOR SAME-DAY ACH TRANSACTIONS.
March 6, 2009... The Federal Reserve banks announced today that they plan to introduce a system so banks can clear and settle certain automated clearinghouse transactions on the same day instead of in one or two business days. Richard R. Oliver, executive vice...

AMEX RESTATES Q4 EARNINGS, BOOSTING CARD-SEGMENT RESULTS.(Financial report)
March 6, 2009... American Express Co. on Friday restated its earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, resulting in a dramatic increase in net income for the company and its U.S. card services segment. A calculation error related to fair-value hedging...

LENDER FORCES HEARTLAND CEO TO SELL SHARES.
March 6, 2009... Heartland Payment Systems Inc. says a securities firm, which the processor is not naming, has forced company CEO Robert O. Carr and his wife to sell 692,412 shares in the Princeton, N.J.-based processor, Heartland announced today. The Carrs had...

CREDIT UNIONS, BANKS SUE HEARTLAND OVER BREACH.
March 6, 2009... Three credit unions and two banks last week became among the first financial institutions to seek recompense through the courts against Heartland Payment Systems for one of the biggest credit card breaches ever, according to Credit Union...

MERCHANT TARGETS WELLS FARGO FOR 'OUTRAGEOUS' TACTIC.
March 6, 2009... Frustrated with the financial industry's stricter terms, some small businesses and consumers are using the media and Troubled Assets Relief Program funds as leverage against banks. Last week, after Wells Fargo & Co. withheld funds from a credit...

ASTA FUNDING REPORTS $7.8 MILLION NET LOSS.(Asta Funding Inc.)(Financial report)(Brief article)
March 6, 2009... Asta Funding Inc., an asset-management company that buys unpaid credit card loans and tries to collect them, today reported a net loss of $7.8 million for the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31. The Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based company reported...

BRIEFS.
March 6, 2009... Harbor, Ore.-based Chetco Federal Credit Union is consolidating its debit and credit card processing with Dallas-based TNB Card Services Inc. Compass Group North America, which provides food and hospitality services, will accept MasterCard...

GE CUTS TROUBLED RETAIL ACCOUNTS OUT OF ITS MASTER TRUST.
March 6, 2009... General Electric Co. last week removed 2 million underperforming private-label retail credit card accounts worth $1.5 billion from its securitized master trust, returning them to issuer GE Money Bank's balance sheet, according to a recent...

ELAVON FIRST TO USE AMEX ACCEPTANCE PROGRAM FOR ISOS.
March 6, 2009... Payment processor Elavon Inc. says more than 170 independent sales organizations and 1,500 banks it works with are the first third-party groups to use an American Express Co. program designed to boost merchant acceptance of AmEx cards. Under...

ISOS SHOULD PROTECT RESIDUALS IN PROCESSOR CONTRACTS.(Brief article)
March 6, 2009... Independent sales organizations should ensure that processors do not lower or stop their residual payments from merchant transactions by including specific residual provisions in their processor contracts, according to Jill Miller, attorney and...

PROCESSOR BUYING $10 MILLION IN POS TERMINALS.
March 6, 2009... Moneris Solutions Corp., a Toronto-based payment processor, is buying $10 million in point-of-sale terminals from VeriFone Holdings Inc. The contract calls for the purchase of several thousand terminals over a 15-month period. Neither company...

UNITED AND AMERICAN AIRLINES ADOPT IN-FLIGHT CARD ACCEPTANCE.
March 6, 2009... United Airlines this week announced that, beginning March 23, it will begin accepting credit and debit cards for onboard purchases within North America, South America and the Caribbean. United will phase out cash acceptance next month except on...

WEB SITE ENABLES SERVICE PROVIDERS, MERCHANTS TO COMMUNICATE.
March 6, 2009... Some merchant-service providers are using a Web-based system called CardFellow.com to find potential merchant clients and communicate with them, according to Ben Dwyer, founder and managing member of the Web site. Merchants can "get three, four...

CANADA'S RETAILERS SEEK TO BLOCK VISA, MASTERCARD DEBIT.
March 6, 2009... The Retail Council of Canada has asked Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to block Visa Canada and MasterCard Canada from entering the country's PIN-debit card market because their entrance would create higher prices for consumers, according to...

BRIEFS.
March 6, 2009... Transaction risk-management service provider Verifi Inc. has signed a preferred-partner agreement with Chase Paymentech under which Verifi will recommend Chase as a preferred merchant-account provider to its merchant customers and provide...

VERIFONE POSTS LARGER Q1 NET LOSS DESPITE REVENUE GAIN....(VeriFone Holdings Inc.)(Financial report)(Brief article)
March 6, 2009... VeriFone Holdings Inc. yesterday reported a $182 million net loss for its fiscal first-quarter ended Jan. 31 on revenue of $214 million. The San Jose, Calif.-based point-of-sale terminal maker reported a net loss of $33.5 million on revenue of...

...AND SAYS IT LAID OFF 100 WORKERS IN DECEMBER.
March 6, 2009... Point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Holdings Inc. disclosed this week that it laid off approximately 100 employees in December in response to weakened demand for the San Jose, Calif.-based company's products. CEO Douglas G. Bergeron told...

KEYBANK ISSUES NEW MASTERCARD WORLD DEBIT CARD.
March 6, 2009... KeyBank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cleveland-based KeyCorp, today announced it is the first financial institution to offer MasterCard Worldwide's World Debit PayPass contactless card. The card features MasterCard's Savings Plus rewards...

ACCEL/EXCHANGE, ACCULYNK SET PIN-DEBIT PILOT LAUNCH DATE.
March 6, 2009... Acculynk Inc. and the Accel/Exchange electronic funds transfer network said today they will launch their previously announced pilot to enable consumers to use PIN-debit cards to shop online later this month. An undisclosed number of banks that...

CITI FORWARD CARD REWARDS BETTER CREDIT MANAGEMENT.
March 6, 2009... Citibank today announced its launch of a new Visa-branded credit card that features tools and rewards to help cardholders manage their spending and credit use. Citi lowers the interest rate on Citi Forward card purchases by a quarter percent...

DISCOVER U.S. SPENDING MONITOR HITS ALL-TIME LOW.
March 6, 2009... Consumer confidence and spending hit new lows last month, while more consumers are trying to put more savings aside than in previous months, suggests a new report Discover Financial Services released today. The Riverwoods, Ill.-based company's...

CARDTRONICS, COSTCO EXTEND ATM-PLACEMENT AGREEMENT.
March 6, 2009... Cardtronics Inc. has extended its ATM -deployment agreement with Costco Warehouse Corp. to include an additional 41 Costco locations in Washington and Oregon, both companies announced yesterday. "With this expansion, Cardtronics ATMs will be...

MASTERCARD CANADA BLASTS CALL TO BLOCK VISA, MASTERCARD DEBIT.
March 6, 2009... MasterCard Canada yesterday responded angrily to the Retail Council of Canada's request that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty block Visa Canada and MasterCard Canada from entering the country's PIN-debit market. "It is an extraordinary suggestion...

BRIEFS.
March 6, 2009... The Pulse electronic funds transfer network today released a video addressing savings methods on its debit card-information Web site debitfacts.org. SunTrust Banks Inc. this week promoted Robert Blair to senior vice president, commercial...

AMEX ANNOUNCES THREE MORE ONEPOINT ACQUIRING PARTNERS.
March 6, 2009... American Express Co. has added three more third-party acquirers for its transactions. Innovative Merchant Solutions, an independent sales organization based in Woodland Hills, Calif., owned by Intuit Co.; PNC Merchant Services, a division of...

U.S. BANK TRANSACTIONS STEADY EVEN AS SPENDING DECREASES.
March 6, 2009... U.S. Bancorp's position as a consumer bank and merchant acquirer gives it a "great view" of how consumers are spending, saving and revolving on credit and debit cards, Richard Davis, chief executive of the Minneapolis-based corporation, noted...

SMS TEXT COMPANY SUES VISA OVER PATENT INFRINGEMENT.
March 6, 2009... Charge Notification Services Corp. has filed a lawsuit against Visa Inc. for allegedly violating its patent for technology that notifies consumers of their payment card activity via SMS text messages on cell phones. The Miami-based company,...

DISCOVER BOOSTS MARKETING FOR SPEND ANALYZER.
March 6, 2009... Discover Financial Services is ramping up marketing for its Spend Analyzer tool, which it launched late last year as a way for cardholders to track their Discover card spending. Discover is running an integrated media campaign, which includes...

CASHSTAR INTRODUCES PRINT-AT-HOME GIFT CARDS.
March 6, 2009... Attempting to take advantage of the growing popularity of print-at-home coupons and airline tickets, CashStar Inc. is offering consumers the ability to print or e-mail customized gift cards purchased from a retailer's Web site. Uno Chicago...

FIRST DATA SIGNS PREPAID CARD DEAL.
March 6, 2009... Urban Trust Bank, one of the nation's largest black-owned banks, will issue network-branded prepaid payroll cards as part of a deal the bank announced this week with First Data Corp. First Data, which is based in Greenwood Village, Colo., will...

CREDITORS ADVISED NOT TO IGNORE THE UNBANKED MARKET.
March 6, 2009... Despite an ailing U.S. economy brought on, in part, by rising unemployment and tightened credit, lenders should not eschew the unbanked and underbanked markets, an industry analyst contends. "As a whole, the unbanked and underbanked represent a...

BRIEFS.
March 6, 2009... Online shoe retailer Shoebuy.com is offering as a payment option Moneta, a payment service that transfers funds directly to the merchant from a shopper's checking account. EBay is adding Australia-based Paymate as payment option, the...

COUPON WEB SITE OFFERS DISCOUNTED GIFT CARDS.
March 6, 2009... MyCoupons LLC announced Wednesday it is offering discounted gift cards in addition to the coupons and coupon codes found on its Web site. Consumers can purchase the discounted gift cards after clicking a link on a specified merchant's coupon...

CREDIT CARD CHARGE-OFF RATE RISES TO 7.7%.
March 6, 2009... The U.S. credit card charge-off rate rose to 7.74% of overall card receivables in January, up from 5.48% during the same period a year earlier. The January charge-off rate increased slightly from 7.73% in December, according to Moody's Credit...

DECLINING CONSUMER CONFIDENCE CONTINUES RECORD PACE.
March 6, 2009... The Consumer Confidence Index continued its record-setting downward trajectory this month, The Conference Board, a research organization, announced this week. The February index stands at a record low of 25, down from 37.4 in January. The...

PSCU SIGNS 10-YEAR AGREEMENT WITH ILLINOIS CREDIT UNION.
March 6, 2009... PSCU Financial Services today announced it has signed a 10-year agreement with Baxter Credit Union in Vernon Hills, Ill. St. Petersburg, Fla.-based PSCU will process Baxter's signature and PIN debit cards as well as its credit cards. Baxter has...

VISA SURVEY SPOTLIGHTS CANADIAN SMALL-BUSINESS FRAUD RISK.
March 6, 2009... More than half of Canadian small businesses have never sought information about how to properly store electronic data, and 41% believe "data thieves and hackers" are unlikely to target them because of their smaller size, according to a survey...

BRIEFS.
March 6, 2009... First Data Corp. has renewed its agreement to provide credit, debit and merchant processing services for TMG (The Members Group), a Des Moines, Iowa-based financial services provider to financial institutions. RDM Corp., a provider of...

VISA CONSOLIDATES GLOBAL IMAGE WITH NEW AD CAMPAIGN.
March 6, 2009... Visa Inc. today announced its first global advertising campaign. The "More people go with Visa" tagline is meant to reflect Visa's move to a single, global company. Visa also is consolidating its global marketing efforts, which it says will...

CREDIT CARDS PREDICTED TO EMERGE FROM CRISIS LEANER, MORE EFFICIENT.
March 13, 2009... Credit card issuance will emerge from the recession less profitable but more efficient than before the economic downturn, an industry analyst tells CardLine sister publication Cards&Payments. For starters, credit card lending and use will...

TRANSUNION: Q4 90-DAY BANKCARD DELINQUENCY RATES EASED.
March 13, 2009... The ratio of bankcard borrowers who were at least 90 days delinquent on one or more of their credit cards eased slightly during the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the same period a year earlier, signaling tighter discipline in card...

MERCHANT-ACQUISITION CHANNELS SAID TO AFFECT ATTRITION RATES.(Survey)(Brief article)
March 13, 2009... Merchants that found their service providers through a sales call or referral from a friend are less likely to stay with them than those that found them by other methods, such as professional organization referrals or through financial...

REVOLVING CREDIT UP SLIGHTLY IN JANUARY.(Financial report)(Brief article)
March 13, 2009... U.S. revolving credit, 98% of which is credit card debt, rose slightly in January, to $961.3 billion from $960.4 billion the previous month, according to a Federal Reserve G.19 report on consumer credit released Friday. Total seasonally...

NYCE TO PROVIDE PIN-DEBIT PROCESSING FOR ILLINOIS BANK.
March 13, 2009... Amacore Bank of Rockford, Ill., has selected NYCE Payments Network LLC as its exclusive provider of PIN-debit card processing and ATM card access. A $5 billion asset bank, Amacore Bank has issued nearly 100,000 debit cards, and it owns 83 ATMs....

TNB SIGNS DEBIT CARD-PROCESSING DEAL WITH CREDIT UNION.
March 13, 2009... TNB Card Services has signed an agreement to process PIN- and signature-debit card transactions for Tarrant County Credit Union of Texas in Fort Worth. Dallas-based TNB also will drive the credit union's ATMs, the two companies said in a news...

GERMANY SHUTS DOWN INTERNET SITE FOR CARD FRAUDSTERS.
March 13, 2009... State police in Germany reportedly arrested three men accused of using an Internet forum to share tips on how to create counterfeit credit cards. Internet-crime investigators from the Landeskriminalamt last week arrested a 22-year-old Swiss...

BRIEFS.
March 13, 2009... Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC will offer its payment-processing services to customers of Web.com, an online-marketing service for small and midsize businesses, Web.com announced today. Preferred Health Technology Inc., a provider of...

REVISED INTERCHANGE RATES BRING NEW ACQUIRER FEES.
March 13, 2009... MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. plan to introduce new acquirer fees as part of card brands' new interchange-rate schedules, CardLine has learned. According to documents one acquirer is providing its sales agents, MasterCard will collect a...

VISA INKS RELOAD DEAL WITH MONEYGRAM.
March 13, 2009... Visa Inc. is partnering with MoneyGram International, a major competitor in funds transfers, to drive more volume to its prepaid debit card-reloading network, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The two companies announced...

SHOPPERSCHOICE.COM TO ACCEPT PIN-DEBIT CARDS ONLINE.(U.S. Bancorp. (Cincinnati, Ohio))(EFT networks Accel/Exchange)(NYCE Payments Network LLC)(ShoppersChoice.com)(Brief article)
March 13, 2009... ShoppersChoice.com, a luxury cooking retailer, will begin accepting PIN-debit cards for online purchases this week, Corey Tisdale, the company's chief operating officer, tells ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication. "We will begin...

DEBT-MANAGEMENT FIRM SEES PROSPECTS' FICO SCORES RISING.(Brief article)
March 13, 2009... A growing number of consumers with healthy credit scores and higher-than-average incomes are seeking help with debt-settlement and credit counseling, according to one of the nation's largest consumer debt-management firms. Columbia, Md.-based...

PSCU REPORTS BANNER YEAR FOR PREPAID CARD SALES.(Financial report)
March 13, 2009... PSCU Financial Services Monday reported strong gains in its Visa-branded reloadable and nonreloadable prepaid debit card programs for 2008 compared with the previous year. The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based credit-union service organization also...

TIO NETWORKS CONTINUES ITS TEXAS EXPANSION.
March 13, 2009... Tio Networks Corp. has expanded the number of bill-payment kiosks it deploys in Texas, which it says has become a strong market for the company. The Burnaby, British Columbia-based company recently announced the deployment of bill-payment...

PCI COUNCIL RELEASES MERCHANT-COMPLIANCE RESOURCE.(payment card industry)(Brief article)
March 13, 2009... The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council last week released a free guide to promote adoption of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard among merchants not yet compliant with the standard, according to the Wakefield,...

BARCLAYCARD, ORANGE TO OFFER NFC PAYMENTS IN UK.
March 13, 2009... Barclaycard will work with mobile operator Orange UK to develop contactless payments and other services for mobile phones, the United Kingdom-based credit card issuer said Monday. The two firms have formed a "strategic partnership" designed to...

BRIEFS.(TriSource Solutions LLC)(RDM Corp)(Software developer Inc.)(Digital Check Corp.)(U.S. Bancorp. (Cincinnati, Ohio))(Brief article)
March 13, 2009... Independent sales organization TriSource Solutions LLC will resell electronic check-conversion software and hardware made by RDM Corp., RDM announced today. Software developer Inc. has certified Digital Check Corp.'s CX30 check scanner for...

FOURTH FIRM FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST HEARTLAND.
March 13, 2009... Brodsky & Smith LLC has filed a class-action lawsuit against Heartland Payment Systems Inc., the Bala Cynwyd, Penn.-based law firm announced today. The lawsuit alleges the payment processor violated federal securities laws by issuing a series...

LENGTH, DEPTH OF DOWNTURN WILL SHAPE LONG-TERM CARD HABITS.
March 13, 2009... The current credit crisis and economic slowdown coupled with pending federal rules that will limit how credit card issuers can change interest rates on existing balances are making issuers more careful about lending and consumers more careful...

HYPERCOM Q4 LOSS GROWS DESPITE 36% RISE IN REVENUE.(Financial report)
March 13, 2009... Point-of-sale terminal maker Hypercom Corp. yesterday reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $74.8 million. The company reported net income of $262,000 for the same period a year earlier. Revenue, however, was up a 35.9%, $121.6 million from...

BOFA LAUNCHES SHOPPING PORTAL WITH NEW SAVINGS PROGRAM.
March 13, 2009... Bank of America Corp. yesterday launched a new online-shopping Web site that enables customers to earn up to 20% cash back on purchases they make on the site. The "Add It Up" Web site features more than 270 retailers, including Walmart.com,...

BLACKHAWK NETWORK TO SELL MYPLASH PREPAID CARD.
March 13, 2009... Blackhawk Network, the nation's largest third-party provider of prepaid gift cards based on locations, has signed a distribution deal with Plastic Cash International LLC, the developer and marketer of the Visa-branded Myplash prepaid card, the...

LOYALTY FIRM FAVORS INDIVIDUALIZED MERCHANT PROGRAMS.
March 13, 2009... The Business Builder Alliance Inc.'s new loyalty initiative eschews sharing customers with other businesses in favor of program specific to individual merchants. Consumers use their own payment cards rather than receive a loyalty card for the...

CONFUSED MERCHANTS GOING ONLINE FOR PROCESSING HELP.
March 13, 2009... Many merchants are confused by credit card processing rates and fees, and increasingly they are turning to the Internet for information, says Sean Harper, CEO of Transparent Financial Services LLC, a Chicago-based provider of financial service...

BARCLAYCARD, ORANGE PLAN COBRANDED CONTACTLESS CARD.
March 13, 2009... The contactless-payment partnership announced Monday by Barclaycard and Orange UK should produce a cobranded credit card within "the next couple months," a Barclaycard spokesperson tells CardLine sister publication CardLine Global. The card,...

BRIEF.
March 13, 2009... Prepaid card provider Meta Payments Systems is partnering with NetSpend Corp. to offer the iAdvance line of credit to NetSpend prepaid cardholders.

EBAY CITES THE STRENGTH OF PAYPAL UNIT...
March 13, 2009... EBay Inc. hopes that combining the longtime risk-management strengths of its PayPal Inc. unit with new features designed to attract new types of users will help it become the dominant online global payment brand. The San Jose, Calif.-based...

... AND PLANS TO INTEGRATE BILL ME LATER INTO THE ONLINE SERVICE.
March 13, 2009... PayPal Inc. this year plans to integrate parent eBay's Inc.'s Bill Me Later system with its existing online payment service. Several merchants support both systems as separate payment options; PayPal wants to combine them into a single payment...

DIEBOLD RESTATES EARNINGS PER SHARE.(Diebold Inc.)(Brief article)
March 13, 2009... ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc. has restated its full-year and fourth-quarter 2008 financials to account for a higher tax provision that lowered by 8 cents the company's per-share earnings for the year and the quarter, Mike Jacobsen, a Diebold...

18% OF AMERICANS PLAN TO CLOSE CARD ACCOUNTS.
March 13, 2009... Over the next six months, 18% of Americans plan to close a credit card account, according to a new study by Synovate, a Chicago-based market-research division of London-based Aegis Group PLC. In a survey of 1,000 American adults conducted Feb....

SECURITY FEARS INFLUENCE CONSUMER TRANSACTION PRACTICES.(Survey)(Brief article)
March 13, 2009... Security concerns have spurred 59% of consumers to change how they shop and pay online, according to a new report by Gartner Inc. The Stamford, Conn.-based consultancy based its findings on an online survey of 3,895 adults it conducted in...

INGENICO POSTS 2008 PROFIT, ALBEIT SMALLER THAN 2007's.(Financial report)
March 13, 2009... Point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico S.A. says it earned net income of 36.7 million euros (US$46.9 million) last year, down 7.1% from 39.5 million euros in 2007. Revenues totaled 728 million euros, up 22.8% from 568 million euros. France-based...

UK'S ALTAIR SIGNS U.S. FIRM FOR PREPAID CARD PROCESSING.
March 13, 2009... M2 Global Ltd. has signed a deal with Altair Technologies Ltd. to process transactions initiated with Altair's prepaid cards, spokespeople from both companies tell CardLine sister publication CardLine Global. United Kingdom-based Altair has...

ISOS TOUT 'PERSISTENCE' TO OVERCOME MERCHANT SALES OBJECTIONS.(Brief article)
March 13, 2009... As margins shrink and merchant business opportunities decrease in the turbulent economy, competition for clients among independent sales organizations is increasing, according to some ISOs. Many merchants, however, resist service offers from...

BRIEFS.
March 13, 2009... Sea Shepherd, the global environmental nonprofit known for defending ocean wildlife worldwide, and CardPartner Inc., a New York-based company that helps nonprofits and membership groups set up affinity credit card programs, announced today that...

CANADA TO HOLD HEARINGS ON DEBIT SYSTEM.
March 13, 2009... The Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology will investigate Canada's debit card payment system and credit card interchange rates, Anthony Rota, the committee's vice chairman, tells ATM&Debit News, a...

THE PAST SAID TO OFFER FUTURE BRIGHT SPOTS FOR PAYMENTS.
March 13, 2009... Payments professionals should look to previous financial crises for a silver lining in the dark economic clouds, says Gareth Lodge, European payments regional research director at TowerGroup, an independent research firm owned by MasterCard...

BARCLAYS ISSUES ITS FIRST CONTACTLESS DEBIT CARD.
March 13, 2009... Barclays PLC this week began issuing its first Visa-branded contactless debit card. The United Kingdom-based financial institution expects the effort will lead to most of its debit cardholders having chip cards by 2011. Barclays expects to...

PHISHING CRIME UP IN POOR ECONOMY.
March 13, 2009... Phishing, typically a cyclical crime that dwindles in the winter, has started to buck that trend as the poor economy increases the supply of both perpetrators and victims. With phishing, crooks distribute via e-mail messages links to false Web...

VISA REMOVES RBS WORLDPAY, HEARTLAND FROM COMPLIANT LIST ...
March 20, 2009... Visa Inc. has removed Heartland Payment Systems Inc. and RBS WorldPay from its list of service providers compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard because of data breaches at the companies, according to a company statement...

VISA E-MAIL TO CLIENTS CONFIRMS HEARTLAND 'PROBATIONARY PERIOD'.
March 20, 2009... Visa Inc. last week sent an e-mail update to its clients notifying them that the brand has placed Heartland Payment Systems Inc. in a "probationary period" because of the data compromise the processor disclosed earlier this year, according to a...

GOOGLE MAKES CHANGES IN ITS CHECKOUT-PRODUCT FEES.
March 20, 2009... Google Inc. last week announced a significant increase to most of its credit card processing fees that has outraged merchants and prompted some observers to speculate the service may be in trouble, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister...

CAP ONE REPORTS RISE IN FEBRUARY NET CHARGE-OFF RATE.
March 20, 2009... Capital One Financial Corp. today reported that its U.S. card segment's net charge-off rate broke the 8% threshold last month. The rate increased to 8.06% of card receivables in February from 7.82% in January. Cap One's 30-day delinquency rate...

START-UP SECURES TELCO DEALS FOR MOBILE-PHONE PAYMENTS.
March 20, 2009... Paymo Inc., an alternative-payments start-up company, announced several deals last week that significantly expand its reach and mark its debut in the United States, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The San Francisco-based...