Cardline articles from May 2004

Cardline archives from May 2004

MASTERCARD CEO SAYS HE DOES NOT FEAR AMEX THREAT.(American Express Co.)(Chief executive officers)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... MasterCard CEO Robert Selander says he is optimistic the U.S. Supreme Court will review a lower court decision allowing MasterCard and Visa members to issue such competing brands as American Express and Discover. But if the ruling stands,...

MBNA APPOINTS TWO NEW DIRECTORS TO HEAD OFF MAJOR SHAREHOLDER'S REVOLT.(Mary M. Boies, Laura S. Unger)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... MBNA Corp. announced today it had appointed two new members to its board of directors in advance of its shareholders' meeting scheduled for Monday. The announcement may pre-empt a resolution from institutional investor TIAA-CREF that would...

NOVA'S BUSY WEEK ENDS WITH ANOTHER BUY.(Nova Information Systems Inc.)(Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank PLC)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Nova Information Systems, the Atlanta-based payment processor, ended the seven-day week the way it started - by purchasing another company. Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank sold its merchant-acquiring business to Nova for PN83.5 million...

HYPERCOM REPORTS NET LOSS FOR QUARTER.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Hypercom Corp., a Phoenix-based point-of-sale terminal maker, today reported a net loss for the first quarter ended March 30 of $500,000 from continuing operations and a net loss of $2.2 million before discontinued operations. That compares...

FAIR ISAAC'S REVENUES, PROFITS INCREASE.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Scoring and risk-management software developer Fair Isaac Corp. today reported net income of $30.8 million for its second fiscal quarter ended March 31, up 20% from $25.6 million a year earlier. Revenues increased 9% to $173.2 million from...

CO-OP NETWORK MAILS $7.5 MILLION IN DIVIDEND CHECKS TO SHAREHOLDERS.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... CO-OP Network, the Ontario, CA, credit-union EFT network, Monday mailed a record $7.5 million in dividend, or patronage, checks for 2003 to its 967 credit-union shareholder members, Beth Meyers, CO-OP's executive vice president and CFO, told...

GLOBAL PAYMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL CYBERTRANS RENEW AGREEMENT.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Atlanta-based merchant processor Global Payments Inc. late yesterday announced that it signed a multi-year renewal agreement with International CyberTrans to provide a number of services, including payment card processing and BIN sponsorship...

TIAA-CREF WINS WITH MBNA, BUT IT'S FAR FROM HAPPY.(Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... MBNA Corp. stockholders voted today for a shareholder proposal from big investor TIAA-CREF that at least two-thirds of the issuer's directors be independent. The proposal was approved by about 56% of MBNA's shareholders at its annual meeting at...

PROFITS ROLL IN FOR CREDIT CARD ISSUERS.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... U.S. Visa-MasterCard credit card issuers posted a collective 2.53% after-tax return on assets in 2003, up from 1.99% in 2002, CardLine sister publication Credit Card Management magazine reports in its May edition. 2003 was the industry's most...

MASTERCARD'S FIRST-QUARTER CREDIT PERFORMANCE WAS UP 9%.(MasterCard International Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Saying that MasterCard International has benefited from an improving world economy, the Purchase, NY, card association today reported that first-quarter gross domestic volume for its credit programs worldwide was $270.1 billion, up 8.9%...

DEBIT MASTERCARD DOLLAR VOLUME WAS UP 15% DURING THE QUARTER.(MasterCard International Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... MasterCard International today reported that the 54.4 million debit MasterCard holders in the U.S. initiated 502.3 million signature-based purchases totaling $21.2 billion during the first quarter ended March 31. That compares with the total...

MBNA IS CLOSE TO HAVING AN EGG IN ITS BASKET, NEWSPAPER REPORTS.(acquisition of Egg PLC)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... A British newspaper reported yesterday that MBNA Corp. is close to putting Egg Plc, the United Kingdom's biggest Internet bank and one of the U.K.'s largest card issuers, on its plate of card offerings. Wilmington, DE-based MBNA reportedly is...

EGG NARROWS FIRST-QUARTER LOSS.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Egg Plc, the United Kingdom's biggest Internet bank and a leading card issuer, recently reported a narrower first-quarter loss because its domestic unit offset smaller losses in France. London-based Egg reported a net loss PN5.7 million ($10...

ANDREWS FCU BECOMES ANOTHER POINT ON ALLPOINT'S NETWORK.(Federal Credit Union)(AllPoints Systems Inc., contract)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... The Andrews Federal Credit Union in Suitland, MD, will participate in the Allpoint surcharge-free ATM network. Allpoint President Ben Psillas says the credit union will offer access to Allpoint to all of its debit cardholders, of which there at...

U.S. CHAMBER PICKS CITI AS PREFERRED MERCHANT PROCESSOR.(Citigroup Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Citigroup Inc. today said that the United States Chamber of Commerce has picked Citigroup's Citi Merchant Services unit as its recommended payment processor. Under the endorsement, Citi said it will offer nearly 3 million businesses and other...

MASTERCARD FACES CRITICISM ABOUT ITS ASIA PACIFIC REGION, NEWSPAPER SAYS.(MasterCard International Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... One day after Robert Selander, MasterCard International's president and CEO, said the association's Asia Pacific Region was turning around after a challenging 2003, the online newspaper, Asia Banker Interactive, published an article in today's...

S&P LOWERS RATINGS ON SOME CLASSES OF FIRST CONSUMERS CARD BONDS.(Standard & Poor's Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Standard and Poor's today lowered ratings on Classes A and B of First Consumers Master Note Trust series 2001-A, citing deterioration in the performance of the underlying pool of receivables since July the card bonds were issued by First...

PAYMENTECH CLIMBS INTO BED WITH MATTRESS MAKER SELECT COMFORT.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Paymentech L.P. has signed an agreement to process credit card payments for Select Comfort Corp., the nation's largest bed retailer, Paymentech said in a statement today. Paymentech is processing cards at 356 Select Comfort locations that...

CO-OP EXPANDS SURCHARGE-FREE ATM NETWORK IN HAWAII AND GUAM.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... CO-OP Network, the Ontario, CA, credit-union EFT network, has formed an alliance with Western Corporate Federal Credit Union (WesCorp) that expands the number of surcharge-free ATMs available throughout the Hawaiian Islands and Guam, a CO-OP...

FORMER AMEX EXECUTIVE NAMED HEAD OF CARD OPERATIONS AT KOREA EXCHANGE BANK.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Korea Exchange Bank has named a former American Express Co xecutive as the new president of the bank's card operations. Kevin W. Kneebone is a former vice president of American Express International, and he has worked as director of financial...

TRM REPORTS 233% INCREASE IN FIRST-QUARTER INCOME.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... TRM Corp., the Portland, OR-based operator of ATMs and copy machines in retail locations, reports a 233% increase in net income, to $2.5 million during the first quarter from net income of $753,000 during the first quarter of 2003. The income...

MORE QSRS ACCEPTING CARDS, BUT PIN DEBIT ACCEPTANCE LAGGING.(Quick Service Restaurants)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Santa Clara, CA-based VeriFone Inc., which says it has shipped 25,000 payment terminals for use in quick-service restaurants since Jan. 1 and claims to have up to 80% of the U.S. QSR terminal market, says restaurants generally are not including...

ATM ISO CONSOLIDATION IS SlOWER, BUT CONTINUES.(independent sales organizations)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Consolidation of ATM independent sales organizations, highlighted by multimillion-dollar portfolio purchases the last several years, appears to have slowed, as some ISOs have been working to shore up finances and to grapple with impending new...

CIBC SELLING OFF GLOBAL PAYMENTS SHARES.(Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Transaction processor Global Payments Inc. announced today that its major shareholder, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, will sell as many as 8.3 million shares of Global stock over the next three years. Atlanta-based Global will not receive...

EFUNDS DOUBLES ITS FIRST-QUARTER INCOME.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... EFunds Corp., the Scottsdale, AZ-based electronic funds transfer transaction processor and ATM operator, reports a doubling in its first-quarter net income, to $9.4 million from $4.6 million in the first quarter of 2003. First-quarter revenue...

COMPUCREDIT INCOME DOWN 40% FOR QUARTER.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Atlanta-based subprime issuer CompuCredit Corp. reported first-quarter net income of $17.7 million, down 40% from $29.5 million in the year-earlier period. The company's net interest margin was 17.5%, up from 15.5% in 2003's first quarter. "We...

EASYGREEN CARDS MAKE THEIR DEBUT.(new service of Global Axcess Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Ponte Vedra Beach, FL-based Global Axcess Corp. is launching its own payroll card program. The program, called EasyGreen, allows employers to pay employees electronically via direct deposit to an EasyGreen Cash Card, enabling users to access...

CUBIC EXPANDS CARD SERVICES GROUP.(Cubic Transportation Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. today announced it is expanding its Card Services Group to broaden the use of pay-with-a-wave transit cards for parking, tolls, event ticketing, concessions, retail and security-access control. A spokesperson...

NELMS SEEKS BANK PARTNERS FOR DISCOVER.(David W Nelms, Discover Financial Services)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... David W Nelms, chairman and CEO of Discover Financial Services, today urged bank issuers to forge partnerships with Discover to issue credit cards and not just focus on American Express Co. "Some 4.9 million merchant locations accept Discover,...

DEBIT CARDS CAPTURING GREATER SHARE OF SMALL-TICKET PURCHASES.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... Since 2001, consumers have increased their debit card use for purchases under $100, while their credit card use generally is up as well, according to MasterCard International's Attitude and Usage Study. In most cases, consumers are opting to...

AMERICAN EXPRESS CARDS IN CHINA BY YEAR-END.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... American Express Co. will offer charge and credit cards through Industrial and Commercial Bank of China before the end of the year, David C. House, AmEx group president, tells CardLine today at Thomson Media's 16th annual Card Forum & Expo in...

REGULATORS FILE SUIT AGAINST NEXTBANK.(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has filed suit against former officers and directors of Internet-based NextBank N.A., seeking undisclosed damages stemming from the bank's failure in February 2002. In the suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District...

CONSUMERS UNFAZED BY WAL-MART DEBIT MASTERCARD DECISION, CHASE SAYS.(MasterCard International Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... The decision in February by Bentonville, AR-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to stop accepting signature-based debit MasterCard transactions caused worries at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., but none of the bank's debit MasterCard holders complained, Ben...

FLORIDA MALL MOVES TO CHIP CARDS FOR PARKING.(Seafarer Village Mall, LEGIC Identsystems Ltd, contract)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... The indoor Seafarer's Village Mall in Fort Myers Beach, FL, is converting its parking garage to a chip card-based payment system, according to Legic Identsystems Ltd. of Switzerland, the provider of the cards. The system is being installed by...

MORE PLASTIC AT THE GROCERS.(survey of smart cards usage)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2004... The shift to plastic payments will continue to grow at the grocery point-of-sale, according to two surveys of consumers and food retailing executives released this week by the Food Marketing Institute at its 2004 FMI Show in Chicago. Over half...

NELMS CONFIDENT CARD ASSOCIATIONS WILL HAVE TO OPEN THEIR NETWORKS.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... David W Nelms, chairman and CEO of Discover Financial Services, told CardLine yesterday that bank card issuers are hesitant to form cobrand agreements with Discover because MasterCard International and Visa USA plan to appeal to the U.S....

THE MOVIE IDENTITY THEFT HAS LITTLE IN COMMON WITH THE REAL VERSION.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... The high-profile crime of identity theft has fallen to a new low money-wise for the card industry, John J. Shaughnessy Jr., senior vice president of Visa USA, said at Thomson Media's 16th Annual Card Forum & Expo in Orlando, FL. Identity theft...

REVOLVING CREDIT GROWTH MODERATE IN FIRST QUARTER.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Revolving credit grew at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.9% in the first quarter, the Federal Reserve reported today. The Fed's preliminary figures show March ending with $747.7 billion in revolving credit outstandings, down 0.6%...

SIGNATURE DEBIT GROWTH STILL OVER 20%.(offline debit cards)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... U.S. consumers during the first quarter initiated 2.64 billion signature-based (offline) debit card purchases, up 21.1% from 2.18 billion during the same period last year, according to ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication. Total value...

INTERCHANGE LIKELY TO SURVIVE, ECONOMIST SAYS.(credit card interchange)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Despite attacks by regulators in Europe and Australia and by merchants in the United States, interchange is likely to survive, especially in the U.S., because of the value payment cards bring to merchants, says David Evans, an economist who has...

PHISHING COULD HURT E-COMMERCE, STUDY FINDS.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Phishing has the potential to devastate online commerce by financial institutions, according to a survey from Cyota, a provider of fraud-fighting tools. Phishing refers to the practice fraudsters use to entice consumers to surrender their...

iPAYMENT ANNOUNCES FIRST QUARTER RESULTS.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Nashville, TN-based iPayment Inc. Wednesday reported first-quarter revenues of $79.9 million, up 71% from $46.6 million in the first quarter of 2003 et income allocable to common shareholders jumped to $5 million, up from $450,000 a year ago....

MASTERCARD FILES APPEAL WITH THE U.S. SUPREME COURT.(MasterCard International)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... MasterCard International today appealed a lower-court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court that ordered the Purchase, NY, card association to open its network to competitors such as American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services, issuer of...

DECISION ON WHO WILL GET BANK ONE-CHASE'S BUSINESS IS DUE SOON.(J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Bank One Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. are expected to make a decision in a week or two about whether Total System Services Inc. or First Data Corp. will win the pot of gold at the end of the merger. The pot of gold is a long-term contract...

NELMS DON'T JUDGE DISCOVER ONLY BY ITS SLOW RECEIVABLES GROWTH.(David W elms)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... David W elms, chairman and CEO of Discover Financial Services, issuer of the Discover card, said Discover's receivables growth has slowed in the last two years, but he and his staff smiled at the question as to whether Morgan Stanley may sell...

CONSUMERS LIKE THEIR PAYMENT CHOICE, SO DON'T INTERFERE.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... The results of a survey released today and commissioned by the Pulse EFT Association found that regardless of which form of payment consumers prefer to use, they are "virtually united" in opposing anything that would interfere with their use of...

NACHA REPORTS 21% INCREASE IN FIRST-QUARTER TRANSACTION GROWTH.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... The Automated Clearing House conducted over 2.14 billion transactions in the first quarter, a 21% rise from the 1.77 billion conducted in the same period in 2003, NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association, announced today. The transactions were...

FAIR ISAAC MOVES HEADQUARTERS TO MINNEAPOLIS, HOME OF THE HIGHEST CREDIT SCORES.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Fair Isaac Corp. announced today it had shifted its headquarters to Minneapolis from San Rafael, CA. Fair Isaac began on the West Coast in 1956, but the move to the Twin Cities intensified in 1999 when Thomas G. Grudnowski became president and...

PHISHERS HAVE TARGETED 57 MILLION AMERICANS, STUDY FINDS.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... An estimated 57 million adults in the United States have received e-mail attacks from so-called phishers, the hackers who pretend to be trusted services providers in order to steal consumer bank account, credit card or other information. A...

VISA AND MASTERCARD AGREE TO PUBLISH EU INTERCHANGE.(Visa International, MasterCard International, Europe)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... In another concession to merchant demands on interchange, Visa International and MasterCard International have agreed to publish the interchange fees paid by merchant acquirers to card issuers on cross-border transactions in Europe. The move...

TSYS IS NEGOTIATING A CARD-PROCESSING CONTRACT WITH BANK OF AMERICA.(Total System Services Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Card processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) has entered into negotiations with Bank of America to provide processing for BofA's FleetBoston Financial Corp. bank card portfolio, a TSYS spokesperson tells CardLine today. A BofA spokesperson...

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP IS NEGOTIATING A DEAL WITH AN UNNAMED PROCESSOR.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, which purchased People's Bank's $2.3 billion credit card portfolio in February, is close to signing a contract with a new processor, but a bank spokesperson declined to say with whom. "We don't have a signed...

APRIL PROVES TO BE A GOOD MONTH FOR PROCESSORS.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... April proved a positive month for the stocks of 11 major processors, with a mean gain of 5.27% compared to a 1.15% rise in the S&P 500 Index and a 1.27% increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, according to Gary Prestopino, analyst with...

VISA FILES APPEAL WITH THE U.S. SUPREME COURT AND LASHES OUT AT AMERICAN EXPRESS.(Visa U.S.A. Inc.)
May 14, 2004... Visa U.S.A. announced yesterday that it had filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to overturn a lower court-ruling involving its exclusionary rule. The decision ordered the card association to let members strike...

GMAC LAUNCHES MORTGAGE CARD.(GMAC Mortgage Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... One of the 10 largest residential mortgage companies today introduced a rewards credit card that can help the cardholder pay down the principal on his or her mortgage. Horsham, PA-based GMAC Mortgage launched the GMAC Mortgage Equity Rewards...

HOUSEHOLD NAMES NEW CONSUMER LENDING EXECUTIVE.(Raman Muralidharan, Household International Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Household International Inc. has named former Capital One Financial Corp xecutive Raman Muralidharan vice president of marketing for Household's consumer lending unit. Muralidharan will be responsible for customer acquisition and marketing...

MEXICO BANKS NEAR DECISION ON SMART CARDS.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Mexico's banks are nearing completion of a smart card pilot and will evaluate the results this year before planning a chip card conversion, which is projected to occur by 2007. Six banks have been testing smart cards with 110,000 consumers and...

CZECH PORTAL OFFERS PREPAID CARD FOR ONLINE PURCHASES.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... France-based smart card vendor Gemplus International SA and Ireland-based software supplier Valista say they have signed a deal to provide a prepaid card for online purchases to PayNet in the Czech Republic. The I-plus card will allow consumers...

STRATUS REWARDS WILL BECOME AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK.(new service from U.S. Bancorp.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Stratus Rewards, U.S. Bancorp's answer to American Express Co.'s Centurion, or Black card, will become available next week to qualified applicants, Alison Chittum, president of Stratus Rewards, tells CardLine today. U.S. Bancorp decided to...

TOMLINSON'S LOOSE LIPS SAY PEOPLE'S BANK PROCESSING CONTRACT IS TSYS'S.(Philip Tomlinson, Total System Services Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Although a Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc spokesperson is mum about what company it is negotiating with to process cards for People's Bank, RBS apparently forgot to advise Philip Tomlinson, CEO of Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), to assume...

CANADIAN TIRE'S MANAGED CARD RECEIVABLES ARE UP 21% IN THE FIRST QUARTER.(Tire Corp. Ltd.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Retailer Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd., whose credit card operation includes the Options MasterCard and the Canadian Tire Retail card, yesterday reported first-quarter managed receivables of C$2.3 billion ($1.7 billion ), up 21% from C$1.9 billion...

BANK ONE EXPECTS MORE BARK FROM ITS NEW REWARDS CARD.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Bank One Corp. is issuing a cobranded rewards card with the American Kennel Club that Bank One hopes will have more bite with consumers. Applicants for the AKC Rewards Visa can choose a card that has a photograph of one of 35 popular dog...

PSCU HARVESTS ANOTHER FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT WITH DEERE HARVESTER CREDIT UNION.(PSCU Financial Services)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... PSCU Financial Services, the nation's largest credit-union service organization, recently announced that it has renewed for another five years its card-processing agreement with Deere Harvester Credit Union in East Moline, IL. Deere Harvester,...

CATUITY TO JETTISON ITS SMART CARD LOYALTY TECHNOLOGY.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Detroit, MI-based Catuity Inc. today announced it will attempt to sell or exclusively license its patented offline smart card loyalty technology. Offline smart card loyalty schemes track cardholder spending habits and loyalty points on the...

TARGET'S CARD EARNINGS UP 10%.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Retailer Target Corp. today reported that credit cards produced $166 million in pre-tax segment profits during the fiscal first quarter ended May 1, up 10% from $151 million a year earlier ven though net write-offs in Target's big Visa card...

FEW BANKS ALTERING PIN-DEBIT FEES.
May 14, 2004... Twenty-six financial institutions surveyed last week generally left unchanged since last May the fees they charge customers for PIN-based debit card use, CardLine sister publication ATM&Debit News reports in today's issue. Following a trend...

CARD ISSUERS STAND PAT ON CREDIT STANDARDS.(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Nearly 97% of respondents to the Federal Reserve's latest quarterly senior loan officer survey said their standards for approving credit card applications haven't changed. Some 96.7% of respondents to the April survey said standards "remained...

FIFTH THIRD FINDS THE BEEF WITH WENDY'S.(Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions, Wendy's International Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions today announced that Wendy's Restaurants has been using Fifth Third to process credit card payments at its U.S. stores ever since the fast-food chain began accepting cards last summer. Fifth Third Bank...

BENNY DEBIT CARD DEVELOPER SIGNS CONTRACT.(Evolution Benefits Inc., Benefitpoint Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... Evolution Benefits Inc., developer of the Benny benefits debit card, has signed a multi-year contract with BenefitPoint Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of services for employee-benefit brokers, the two companies announced this week....

HYPERCOM SIGNS BIG MALAYSIAN CONTRACT.(MBF Holdings Bhd.)(Brief Article)
May 14, 2004... MBF Cards Sdn Bhd, a MasterCard International and Visa International licensee in Malaysia, has purchased 10,000 Hypercom Corp. T7 Plus card payment terminals for an undisclosed price, a Hypercom spokesperson tells CardLine today. The deal,...

AGENCIES SEEK COMMENT ON GUIDANCE FOR COMPLEX STRUCTURED-FINANCE TRANSACTIONS.(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... Five federal agencies today said they are seeking comments on a proposed statement that would provide guidance to sellers and regulators on internal controls and risk-management procedures affecting structured-finance transactions. The...

ID-THEFT PROTECTION PROVIDER'S REVENUES GROW.(financial reports of Intersections Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... Revenues at Intersections Inc., a newly public provider of services to guard against identity theft, this week reported revenues of $38.2 million for the first quarter, up 8% from $35.2 million a year earlier. Most revenues came from...

ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE PASSES IDENTITY-THEFT BILL.(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... The Illinois Legislature has passed an identity-theft bill that was strongly backed by the Illinois Bankers Association. The IBA expects Gov. Rod Blagojevich will sign the legislation that would prohibit health-insurance companies from printing...

ECHO REPORTS SECOND-QUARTER FINANCIALS.(financial reports of Electronic Clearing House Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... Electronic Clearing House Inc. reported this week revenues of $11.8 million in its second fiscal quarter, a 20% increase from the same period a year ago, while net earnings reached $1.2 million, up from $268,000. Camarillo, CA-based Electronic...

KEYCORP ADDS FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS TO AGENT-BANKING PROGRAM.(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... KeyCorp is adding eight Ohio financial institutions to its agent-banking program, which includes surcharge-free debit cardholder access to KeyCorp's 534 ATMs in Ohio, 2,200 ATMs nationwide as well as 900 ATMs owned by Birmingham, AL-based...

JCB BECOMES INVOLVED IN NATIONWIDE SHOPPING PROMOTION.(Japan Department Stores Association)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... JCB Co. Ltd., Japan's largest credit card issuer, and the Japan Department Stores Association have kicked off a nationwide campaign to promote shopping. The two-month promotion that began April 29 will award prize money to customers at the 279...

PSCU RE-ELECTS BOARD MEMBERS.(PSCU Financial Services)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... PSCU Financial Services has announced the re-election of its board members, following company's recent annual meeting in Las Vegas. Shannon Riley, president of U.S. First Federal Credit Union, was re-elected chairman, and Ariel Chun, president...

METAVANTE MAKES A NYCE MOVE BY PURCHASING NYCE FOR $610 MILLION.(from First Data Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... Metavante Corp. today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with First Data Corp. to purchase First Data's 64% interest in NYCE Corp. for approximately $610 million in cash. As NYCE's majority shareholder, First Data will receive...

NYCE MOVE BY METAVANTE, BUT BANK OWNERS WILL HAVE FINAL SAY.(New York Cotton Exchange)
May 21, 2004... Metavante Corp., the Milwaukee, WI-based payments processor for financial institutions, has entered into negotiations with minority stakeholders of the NYCE EFT network to allow Metavante's planned purchase of NYCE to proceed. "We have engaged...

OCC ISSUES ADVISORY ON PAYROLL DEBIT CARDS.(Office of the Comptroller of the Currency)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday issued an advisory letter cautioning national bank executives about the potential consumer risks from issuing payroll debit cards. The letter recommends that banks address several...

SIGNS CONTACTLESS CARD DEAL.(Arthur Blank and Company Inc., All Night Auto)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... Boston-based card manufacturer Arthur Blank & Co. says it has signed an agreement to supply contactless cards that customers will use at franchises of All Night Auto, a company that offers car repairs outside of normal business hours. A chip on...

TERMINAL MAKERS ANNOUNCE DEALS AT RETAIL SHOW IN CHICAGO.(Retail Systems Concepts Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... Major terminal makers today touted their latest deals and wares as the big Retail Systems 2004 Conference & Exhibition opened in Chicago. Phoenix-based Hypercom Corp. reported it has installed its ICE 6000Plus terminal in 650 of The Children's...

ALLIANCE FLUSH WITH SUCCESS IN ST.LOUIS.(Alliance Data Systems)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... Alliance Data Systems Corp. recently announced that it had implemented a customer-information system for the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District. Under the multi-year deal, Dallas-based Alliance will manage customer data, provide electronic...

FORMER CONCORD EXECUTIVE GETS INTO THE PIPELINE.(appointments at Pipeline Data Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2004... Kevin R. Smith, former senior vice president of Concord EFS Inc., has been named chief operating officer of Pipeline Data Inc. The Braintree, MA, company provides integrated transaction processing services for all major credit cards. In his new...