Cardline articles from May 2008

Cardline archives from May 2008

AMEX WRITES OFF MORE THAN $1 BILLION IN CARD LOSSES...
May 2, 2008... American Express Co. wrote off more than $1 billion in credit card account losses during the first quarter ended March 31, a 59.2% increase from $628 million in the same period last year, the company reported yesterday. AmEx's net charge-off...

...BUT THE ISSUER'S RESULTS SHOW PAYOFF OF GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY.
May 2, 2008... American Express Co.'s first-quarter earnings illustrate how much it pays to diversify geographically, but analysts still expect the economic downturn to dampen AmEx's stock price. "Their non-U.S.-based income really prevented the past quarter...

WINCOR NIXDORF PROFITS RISE, BUT WEAK DOLLAR MAY CURB SALES.(Financial report)(Brief article)
May 2, 2008... Wincor Nixdorf International GmbH, a Paderborn, Germany-based ATM manufacturer, yesterday reported a net profit of $95 million for the first six months of fiscal 2008, up 23.9% from $76.7 million during the same period last year. Wincor...

STIMULUS CHECKS ON THE WAY, BUT PUBLIC WARY OF RECESSION.(Brief article)
May 2, 2008... "It's obvious our economy is in a slowdown," President Bush said Friday before announcing the Treasury Department on Monday will begin delivering the first batch of economic-stimulus checks by direct deposit. "During the first week alone,...

DIEBOLD PAYS DIVIDEND, SIGNALING CALM DESPITE HOSTILE OFFER.
May 2, 2008... Diebold Inc., target of an unsolicited buyout offer, says it will pay a second-quarter dividend of 25 cents per share on all common shares. The dividend, which might not strike some observers as big news, holds significance because it signals...

NFC ADOPTION CHALLENGED BY LACK OF A MUST-HAVE TRANSACTION.
May 2, 2008... Mobile contactless payment systems using Near Field Communication continue to face barriers to adoption in the United States, according to the results of a recent study by Forrester Research Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based research company. The...

PRIVATE-LABEL CARDS COULD CEMENT ROLES OF CARD NETWORKS.
May 2, 2008... As contactless cards and mobile-phone payments gain popularity, credit card networks could cement their leadership roles by co-promoting merchants' private-label cards, according to a study released this week by Javelin Strategy and Research....

BRIEFS.(Brief article)
May 2, 2008... Red Lion Hotels Corp. has installed Merchant Link LLC's Transaction Vault payment card-acceptance software in 15 Red Lion hotel locations. Red Lion expects to install the software at all of its more than 50 hotels in the United States and...

COURT REINSTATES CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST FIVE BIG CARD ISSUERS.
May 2, 2008... The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals has reinstated a class-action lawsuit by cardholders against five major issuers in which the plaintiffs seek the right to resolve grievances against card issuers in the courts instead of being forced into...

DEMOCRATS LIKELY TO FAVOR INTERCHANGE REGULATION, GROUP SAYS.
May 2, 2008... The presidential election could affect the fate of interchange legislation and other bills currently swirling about the electronic payments industry. "If a Democrat wins the White House, and the Democrats get gains in the House and Senate, then...

FIRST DATA CORP. ANNOUNCES DEAL TO BUY INCOMM.
May 2, 2008... First Data Corp., a privately held payments processor, announced today it is has signed an agreement to purchase InComm, a marketer and distributor of gift and prepaid cards. The agreement's terms were not disclosed, but the deal is expected to...

PSCU MEMBERS WILL DIVIDE $20.5 MILLION REAPED FROM THE VISA IPO.
May 2, 2008... PSCU Financial Services, a principle member of Visa Inc., will return to some of its credit-union members the entire $20.5 million PSCU received from Visa's initial public offering, a PSCU spokesperson tells CardLine sister publication...

MOBILE BANKING ADOPTION TO TRIPLE BY 2009 AT LARGE INSTITUTIONS.
May 2, 2008... The percentage of online banking users at large financial institutions who use mobile banking will climb from 4% of banking customers in 2007 to 13% in 2009, according to a report released today by Aite Group LLC, a Boston-based consulting...

SMALLER MERCHANTS AT GREATER RISK FOR FRAUD, TRUSTWAVE SAYS.
May 2, 2008... Smaller merchants, those processing fewer than 1 million card transactions per year, account for 92% of the 350 payment-security investigations Trustwave completed through December 2007, the Chicago-based security and compliance-management firm...

WINCOR NIXDORF SAYS IT SOON WILL OVERTAKE NCR IN EUROPE.
May 2, 2008... Wincor Nixdorf International GmbH, a Paderborn, Germany-based ATM manufacturer, expects to overtake NCR Corp. as the largest seller of ATMs to European banks, Andreas Bruck, Wincor Nixdorf's head of corporate communications, told CardLine...

BRIEFS.
May 2, 2008... Point-of-sale software provider AccuPOS Inc., and independent sales organization Cynergy Data LLC, have teamed up to provide merchant services to small businesses. Co-op Financial Services distributed $13.3 million in patronage last year to...

VISA REPORTS SOARING INCOME, REVENUE AND TRANSACTION VOLUME.(Financial report)
May 2, 2008... In its first earnings report since going public last month, Visa Inc. yesterday reported net operating revenue of $1.5 billion for the quarter ended March 31, a 25% increase over $1.2 billion for the same quarter a year earlier. Net income for...

MASTERCARD MORE THAN DOUBLES FIRST QUARTER PROFIT.(Financial report)
May 2, 2008... MasterCard Inc. credits increased card use worldwide with more than doubling its net income in the first quarter. MasterCard this morning reported profit of $446.9 million during the quarter, which ended March 31, up 108% from $214.9 million...

TSYS ANNOUNCES FIRST QUARTER EARNINGS OF $56.6 MILLION.(Financial report)
May 2, 2008... Total System Services Inc. announced yesterday that its net income for the first quarter was $56.6 million, down 1.2% from $57.2 million in the same quarter in 2007. Diluted earnings per share were 29 cents, which was flat from 29 cents in the...

METAVANTE REPORTS FIRST-QUARTER FINANCIALS.
May 2, 2008... Metavante Technologies Inc., a Milwaukee-based payments and banking technology company, today reported first-quarter net income of $34.9 million, down 29% compared with $49.3 million for the same three-month period last year. Metavante has a...

MONERIS ADDING DISCOVER CARD ACQUIRING.
May 2, 2008... Moneris Solutions Inc., a Schaumburg, Ill.-based processor, announced today it is adding Discover card processing and statement services to its offerings, eliminating the need for the merchant to have a separate Discover Financial Services...

SMALL-BUSINESS CONFIDENCE STILL IN DECLINE, DISCOVER SAYS.
May 2, 2008... Small-business economic confidence continues to slide, marked by another drop in the number of owners who say that economic conditions for their business are getting better. In April, 24% of owners said things were looking up, down from 45% in...

MASTERCARD MANDATES DEBIT ISSUERS PARTICIPATE IN MAESTRO.(Conference notes)
May 2, 2008... Beginning in October, MasterCard Worldwide is requiring its debit card issuers to participate in the Maestro PIN-debit network, according to attendees of the 2008 Pulse Conference this week in Las Vegas. MasterCard is trying to expand Maestro's...

AFTER ONE-YEAR DELAY, DIEBOLD ADOPTS NEW ACCOUNTING METHOD.
May 2, 2008... Diebold Inc. today reported estimated revenue for the first quarter of 2008 using a new revenue-recognition method. The North Canton, Ohio-based ATM maker said first-quarter revenue was $700.2 million, up 8.1% compared with a revised figure of...

SIGNATURE-DEBIT INTERCHANGE RATE TWICE AS HIGH AS FOR PIN-DEBIT.(Brief article)
May 2, 2008... Signature-debit interchange rates are more than double PIN-debit interchange rates, but both rates are increasing, according to an Oliver Wyman study released Tuesday at the 2008 Pulse Conference in Las Vegas. Average gross signature-debit...

CEO BLAMES CONSUMER DELINQUENCIES AS ADVANTA Q1 PROFIT DIPS 14%.
May 2, 2008... Business credit card issuer Advanta Corp. today reported net income of nearly $18.4 million for the first quarter ended March 31, down 14% from earnings of $21.4 million in the same period of 2007. Income from its Business Cards segment...

DEAL PAIRS PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTION OF PREPAID, ANALYSTS SAY.
May 2, 2008... First Data Corp.'s acquisition of inComm illustrates the need to link processing with distribution to create successful prepaid card companies, analysts tell CardLine sister publication Prepaid Trends. Success requires getting cards into the...

WRIGHT EXPRESS Q1 ADJUSTED INCOME UP; SLOWER GROWTH EXPECTED.(Financial report)
May 2, 2008... Wright Express Corp., the payment processing company for commercial and government vehicle fleets, today reported revenues of $92.9 million for the quarter ended March 31, a 29.3% increase from $71.8 million for the same period a year earlier....

EURONET WORLDWIDE REPORTS Q1 NET INCOME DOWN 28%.(Financial report)
May 2, 2008... Euronet Worldwide Inc. Wednesday reported net income of $6.8 million for the first-quarter ended March 31, down 28% from $9.5 million in the same period a year earlier. The Leawood, Kansas-based company operates ATMs, processes prepaid card...

BRIEFS.
May 2, 2008... HBNet Inc., a Hypercom Corp. subsidiary that operates a transaction network, says payment-processor SecureNet Payment Systems will use its network for transactions in a 2,100-space parking garage at Pittsburgh International Airport....Sen....

CREDIT CRUNCH POSES THREAT TO BANKS AND ISSUERS, EXECS SAY.
May 2, 2008... One-third of risk-management executives at the nation's top 50 banks and credit card issuers view the credit crunch as a "severe" or "systemic" threat to their businesses, the results of a survey released this week by TowerGroup and Fair Isaac...

FISERV Q1 REVENUE JUMPS 39% WITH HELP OF CHECKFREE ACQUISITION.
May 2, 2008... Fiserv Inc. yesterday reported a 39% increase in first-quarter revenue, to a record-high $1.31 billion from $944 million in the same period last year. The quarter ended March 31. Jeffery Yabuki, president and CEO of the Brookfield, Wis.-based...

DEBT PURCHASER SEES 'POSITIVE BUYING ENVIRONMENT' IN 2008.(Financial report)(Brief article)
May 2, 2008... The first quarter brought with it one of the most positive buying environments Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc. has seen in years, Steven Fredrickson, the company's chairman, president and CEO, said during a conference call with analysts this...

PCI COMPLIANCE MATTERS TO LARGE AND SMALL MERCHANTS.
May 2, 2008... Large merchants typically have a good understanding of their compliance requirements explained in the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, according to Dan Glennon, senior vice president of marketing and strategy at Cybera Inc., a...

TNB ACQUIRES TWO MORE CREDIT UNION CARD PORTFOLIOS.
May 2, 2008... TNB Card Services has acquired the credit card portfolios of Adirondack Regional Federal Credit Union in Tupper Lake, N.Y., and Trivantage Community Federal Credit Union in Huntington, W.Va. The deals added more than $1 million in card...

PERCEPTION OF DEBIT CARD FRAUD POSES CHALLENGE, EXPERT SAYS.
May 2, 2008... One of the biggest challenges facing the debit card industry is quelling consumer fears regarding fraud and security, Dave Schneider, president of Pulse, the Houston-based electronic funds transfer network owned by Discover Financial Services,...

DIEBOLD THIS YEAR TO DECIDE FATE OF TWO OPTEVA ATM FACTORIES.
May 2, 2008... Diebold Inc. will decide this year what to do with two of its four plants that manufacture the Opteva ATM line. The North Canton, Ohio-based ATM manufacturer said Wednesday that it is "transitioning" from four to two Opteva factories to control...

BRIEFS.(Brief article)
May 2, 2008... Point-of-sale products and services provider Squirrel Systems has begun using Merchant Link LLC's TransactionVault system. The "vault" secures data so the information does not reside in the merchant's system....Card Express International, a...

FEDS POST PROPOSED RULE TO END 'DECEPTIVE' CARD PRACTICES.(federal)(Brief article)
May 9, 2008... Two federal agencies today posted a proposed rule on their Web sites that would prohibit what officials consider "unfair" or "deceptive" credit and debit card practices. The agencies, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit...

ANALYST: Q1 REVENUE SHOWS DIEBOLD SHOULD REMAIN INDEPENDENT.(Financial report)
May 9, 2008... Anticipated first-quarter revenue for Diebold Inc., which United Technologies Corp. is attempting to acquire, provides a strong case for Diebold to remain independent, Gil Luria, an analyst for Los Angeles-based Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc.,...

WAUGH RESIGNS AS WINCOR NIXDORF USA PRESIDENT AND CEO.
May 9, 2008... Brad Waugh, president and CEO of Wincor Nixdorf USA, is leaving the company after two years, the firm's Paderborn, Germany-based parent announced today. Wincor Nixdorf International GmbH did not give a reason for Waugh's impending departure,...

APRIL CREDIT INDEX REMAINS WEAK; BANKRUPTCIES UP BY 48%.
May 9, 2008... The Credit Manager's Index, a gauge of economic factors affecting credit and collection executives, rose weakly in April to 50.1 from a record-low score of 49.9 in March, the National Association of Credit Management reported Thursday. April's...

FITCH: CHARGE-OFFS WILL REACH 7% THIS YEAR FOR PRIME CARDS.(Brief article)
May 9, 2008... Charge-offs of defaulted card accounts in April reached a rate of 5.73% of outstanding receivables tracked by the Prime Credit Card Performance Index, which Fitch Ratings produces and released this week. The April charge-off rate increased from...

HEARTLAND Q1 REVENUE JUMPS, SIGNS DISCOVER PROCESSING DEAL.(Financial report)
May 9, 2008... Heartland Payment Systems Inc. yesterday reported a 19.5% increase in revenue for the first-quarter ended March 31, to $339.6 million from $284.2 million in the same period last year. Net income increased by 30.4%, to $9 million from $6.9...

PIN-DEBIT FRAUD INCREASING MORE THAN SIGNATURE-DEBIT FRAUD.
May 9, 2008... Loss rates for signature- and PIN-debit have increased significantly since 2005, with PIN-based point-of-sale debit fraud increasing at a higher rate than signature-debit fraud, according to an Oliver Wyman study released Tuesday at the 2008...

BRIEFS.
May 9, 2008... Transaction processor Global Payments Inc. says Pioneer Petroleums, one of Ontario's largest independent gas retailers, is now accepting MasterCard PayPass....As of the first quarter of 2008, MasterCard's PayPass contactless-payment product...

CAPITAL ONE ENDS TWO DECOUPLED-DEBIT PILOTS:.
May 9, 2008... Capital One Financial Corp. is ending its decoupled-debit pilots at Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. and Sheetz Inc. May 10 and is closing the cardholder accounts associated with them, according to Pam Girardo, a spokesperson for McLean, Va.-based...

NACHA LAUNCHES SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT NETWORK.
May 9, 2008... NACHA, which manages the development, administration and governance of the automated clearinghouse system, today announced that its Secure Vault Payments product has gone live. Secure Vault moves Web-based ACH transactions between consumers'...

CARDTRONICS' UK SUBSIDIARY OPTS NOT TO RENEW EURONET ATM-PROCESSING CONTRACT.
May 9, 2008... Euronet Worldwide Inc. has lost a major ATM-processing and switch contract in the United Kingdom, Mike Brown, Euronet chairman and CEO, told analysts during an earnings call last week. Leawood, Kan.-based Euronet signed a five-year agreement in...

CALIFORNIA UTILITY UNSURE IT WILL CONTINUE TO ACCEPT VISA CARDS WITHOUT CHARGING CARDHOLDERS.
May 9, 2008... Officials at San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. are unsure whether the utility will continue not to charge Visa cardholders once its fee-free Visa card-acceptance pilot ends in June, a spokesperson for the utility tells CardLine...

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS RELEASES THINNER CHIP FOR CONTACTLESS CARDS.
May 9, 2008... Dallas-based Texas Instruments Inc. today announced the availability of a thinner contactless payment chip that enables card manufacturers to create cards with more colorful artwork and intricate designs. The chip is 26% thinner than those...

ENFORCEMENT OF PCI STANDARDS A 'GRAY' AREA.(Payment Card Industry)(Brief article)
May 9, 2008... As the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council issues updated standards for working with sensitive card data, the potential for ambiguities over enforcement can surface. Vicky Conlee, vice president of equipment sales at Tasq...

BUSINESS DEBIT CARDS ARE A COMMON OFFERING, BUT THEIR SHARE OF THE DEBIT MARKET IS LOW, STUDY FINDS.
May 9, 2008... While 74% of 62 financial institutions surveyed issue business debit cards, the cards comprise only 6% of the overall debit card market, according to an Oliver Wyman study released April 29 at the 2008 Pulse Conference in Las Vegas. Consumer...

BRIEFS.
May 9, 2008... JPMorgan Chase announced today that it will purchase an undivided interest in Target's credit card receivables for approximately $3.6 billion in cash....Discover Financial Services today will begin running new print, online and television...

TARGET CFO WANTS MARRIAGE TO CHASE TO LAST.
May 9, 2008... Doug Scovanner, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Target Corp., the Minneapolis-based retailer that yesterday announced it would sell 47% of its card-receivables portfolio to JPMorgan Chase & Co. but retain control over...

CAP ONE SUES TO STOP PROBE INTO ITS CARD PRACTICES.
May 9, 2008... Capital One Financial Corp. last week filed an injunction to prevent the California Attorney General's office from conducting further investigations into the issuer's credit card practices, claiming its status as a national bank precludes such...

CAP ONE SAYS DECOUPLED-DEBIT DECISION NOT TIED TO NEW NACHA RULE.
May 9, 2008... Capital One Financial Corp.'s decision to end two decoupled-debit pilots at Sheetz Inc. and Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. was unrelated to a new NACHA rule regarding the bundling of automated clearinghouse payments, according to Pam Girardo, a...

ACQUISITION CHANGES HEARTLAND'S REVENUE MIX.(Heartland Payments Systems Inc.)(Alliance Data Systems Corp. (Dallas, Texas))(Brief article)
May 9, 2008... Heartland Payments Systems Inc., a Princeton, N.J.-based payment processor, is buying the Network Services business of Dallas-based Alliance Data Systems Corp. for $77.5 million, Heartland announced Monday. Expected to close by early June, the...

USA TECHNOLOGIES Q3 REVENUE JUMPS NEARLY 60%.(Financial report)
May 9, 2008... USA Technologies Inc. today reported a 59% increase in revenue for the fiscal third quarter ended March 31, to $4.3 million compared with $2.7 million for the corresponding quarter a year ago. The revenue increase represents the third...

EVERLINK PAYMENT SERVICES TESTS ATM CHIP CARD TECHNOLOGY.
May 9, 2008... Payments processor Everlink Payment Services Inc. announced yesterday that it is working with an undisclosed financial institution based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, to test chip cards and ATM terminals. Mark Ripplinger, Everlink president,...

NXP TO OPEN AVAILABILITY OF CONTACTLESS TECHNOLOGY FOR NFC.
May 9, 2008... NXP Semiconductors, the largest supplier of chips for contactless transit cards worldwide, plans to open its popular Mifare technology for licensing to all suppliers of secure chips in NFC mobile phones, an executive with the Netherlands-based...

BRIEFS.
May 9, 2008... GE Money has signed a multi-year deal to provide private-label credit card services to Boyles Distinctive Furniture in its North and South Carolina locations and online....Neiman Marcus Group Inc. says it has settled a lawsuit with HSBC...

REWARDS CARD INTEREST RATES NEARLY AS IMPORTANT AS POINTS.
May 9, 2008... The annual percentage rate is becoming nearly as important as rewards points in determining which rewards credit card consumers use most frequently, according to new research from Westbury, N.Y.-based Auriemma Consulting Group. According to...

MOBILE BANKING AVAILABILITY COULD DOUBLE BY 2010, SURVEY FINDS.
May 9, 2008... The number of financial institutions offering mobile-banking services could double by 2010, with the United States trying to catch up with Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, suggest new survey data released this week by Sybase Inc. The Dublin,...

ENVELOPE-FREE ATMS HELP BOOST NCR INCOME 41% IN FIRST QUARTER.(Financial report)
May 9, 2008... NCR Corp. this morning reported net income of $48 million for the first quarter ended March 31, up 41% compared with $34 million for the same period last year. Revenues totaled $1.2 billion, up 21% from $992 million. The Dayton, Ohio-based ATM...

HYPERCOM NARROWS Q1 LOSS; SALES RESULTS MIXED AMONG REGIONS.(Financial report)
May 9, 2008... Hypercom Corp. this morning reported a $332,000 loss for the first quarter ended March 31. The company reported a $2.5 million loss in the same quarter a year ago. The point-of-sale terminal maker also reported improvement in revenue, which...

CARD SCHEMES HELP EASE MOTORISTS' PAIN AT THE PUMP.
May 9, 2008... Looking to take advantage of rising gas prices, several companies are offering discounts and prepaid cards for gas. MasterCard Worldwide announced today that it is offering small businesses rebates of 1% on fuel purchases and 5% for maintenance...

STUDY: DEBIT REWARDS MORE COMMON BUT STILL NOT WIDESPREAD.
May 9, 2008... The percentage of consumers who have debit cards that offer rewards rose to 31% in 2008 from 27% in 2006, but the debit-rewards market still is not widespread, Synergistics Research Corp. survey data suggests. "We don't see a significant number...

A THIRD OF BANKS TIGHTEN STANDARDS ON CARD LOANS.
May 9, 2008... About one-third of 37 U.S. banks responding in April to the Federal Reserve's Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices said they had tightened their credit standards for approving applications for credit cards from individuals and...

BRIEFS.
May 9, 2008... Metavante Corp. announced today a long-term banking agreement with Cathay Bank in Los Angeles that includes processing, document-imaging and fraud-prevention products....Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union has signed an exclusive agreement...

CLARIFICATION.(Correction notice)
May 9, 2008... Paul Tomasofsky also is president of Montvale, N.J.-based Two Sparrows Consulting. An item in today's issue noted only his position as executive vice president and acting chief operating officer at the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association....

MAESTRO MANDATE STIFLES COMPETITION, INDUSTRY EXECS CLAIM.
May 9, 2008... MasterCard Worldwide's requirement that its signature-debit card issuers participate in the Maestro PIN-debit network by Oct. 15 restricts choice and harms competition, contend Dave Schneider, president of the Pulse PIN-debit network, and Jeff...

STATE OFFICIAL WARNS AGAINST STIMULUS GIFT CARD PROMOTIONS.
May 9, 2008... With some retailers encouraging consumers to deposit their federal stimulus-check funds into store prepaid gift cards, one state's top legal adviser is warning that the offers may not be the best thing for consumers or the economy. In a press...

Q1 CONSUMER CREDIT OUTSTANDING GREW BY 5.4%, FED SAYS.
May 9, 2008... Consumer credit outstanding rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.4% during the first quarter ended March 31, aided by a 6.7% increase in borrowing on revolving accounts, which consist primarily of credit cards, according to...

CARDTRONICS BLAMES $4.6 MILLION Q1 LOSS PARTLY ON 7-ELEVEN DEAL.(Financial report)
May 9, 2008... Cardtronics Inc. today reported a $4.6 million net loss for the first-quarter ended March 31, $1.1 million more than the $3.5 million net loss the company reported for the same three-month period last year. The Houston-based ATM independent...

SUBPRIME ISSUER COMPUCREDIT RECORDS $2.5 MILLION Q1 PROFIT.(Financial report)
May 9, 2008... CompuCredit Corp., which issues branded credit cards to underserved-or subprime-consumers, yesterday reported net income of $2.47 million for the first quarter ended March 31. That compares with a net loss of $2.51 million in the same period a...

GLOBAL CASH ACCESS STILL FEELS PINCH OF DECLINE IN GAMING.(Financial report)(Brief article)
May 9, 2008... Global Cash Access Inc., which provides cash advance and ATM services for the gaming market, reported a 3.2% decrease in revenues for the first quarter ended March 31, to $143.5 million from $148.2 million in the same quarter last year. Net...

COMMERCE DEPARTMENT AWARDS SMARTPAY2 CONTRACT TO CHASE.
May 9, 2008... The U.S. Department of Commerce has selected JPMorgan Chase & Co. to provide its charge card services as part of the U.S. General Services Administration's SmartPay 2. The department expects SmartPay2, which will involve more than 23,000...

BRIEFS.
May 9, 2008... First Annapolis Consulting Inc. has promoted Sarah Phelps, Joel Van Arsdale and Dave Woynerowski to principals of the company....Concur Inc. has launched RideCharge, an electronic offering which employers can use to enable their traveling...

BANKCARD ISSUERS' PROFITS DOWN SLIGHTLY IN 2007.
May 16, 2008... Bankcard issuers in 2007 posted a collective after-tax return on assets of $18.08 billion, or 2.79% of average outstandings, down 1.58% from $18.37 billion and 2.97% in 2006, according to Cards&Payments' 2008 Bankcard Profitability Study and...

THREE COMPANIES TEAM UP TO CREATE A MOBILE PREPAID CARD.
May 16, 2008... United Kingdom-based mobile-payments firm Monitise plc and its United States-based partner Metavante Corp. are collaborating with UK handset retailer Carphone Warehouse Group plc to create a prepaid card consumers can manage from a mobile...

DISCOVER TO BUILD RISK-MANAGEMENT CENTER IN CHINA.
May 16, 2008... Discover Financial Services, hoping to bolster its risk-management operations, this summer will begin construction of a risk-analysis center in Shanghai, China, to serve the card company's operations in the United States and around the world....

BILLS OF RIGHTS WOULD CUT CREDIT AVAILABILITY, CARD ISSUER SAYS.
May 16, 2008... The chairman of CompuCredit Corp., the Atlanta-based branded card issuer for consumers with subprime credit scores, says price controls on card products "would cause a large reduction in credit available to a large portion of the American...

MERCHANTS CAN HOLD AGENTS LIABLE FOR DATA BREACHES, EXPERTS SAY.(Brief article)
May 16, 2008... By the time a merchant is fined for failing to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, the financial liability has worked its way through the payments chain. The card brands originate the fines and impose them on member...