Cardline articles from November 2005

Cardline archives from November 2005

SURVEY: PIN DEBIT CARDS WILL REPRESENT 24% OF RETAIL TRANSACTIONS BY 2012.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... PIN debit cards will be used for 24% of retail transactions in 2012, but will account for only 1.3% of payment revenues for banks, according to an analysis by IBM Corp.'s Business Consulting Services group. That's because PIN debit cards don't...

CHASE'S AD CAMPAIGN ENCOURAGES A LONG LOOK AT BLINK.(Chase Bank of Arizona's contactless credit cards )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Chase cardholders in five East Coast states are about to get an up-close look at the marketing campaign for the "blink" contactless credit cards now being mailed to Chase credit cardholders. Chase Bank USA, a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co.,...

EXPERIAN HAS DELIVERED 40 MILLION CREDIT SCORES TO U.S. CONSUMERS.(Experian Consumer Direct)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Experian Consumer Direct says it has provided 40 million credit scores to U.S. consumers over the Internet. The firm is owned by credit reference agency Experian, which has offices in Nottingham, UK, and in Costa Mesa, CA. Experian Consumer...

CHASE, UNITED AIRLINES VISA BUSINESS CARD TAKES OFF.(J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.'s United Mileage Plus Business Awards Visa credit cards)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... JP Morgan Chase & Co. and United Airlines have launched the United Mileage Plus Business Awards Visa credit card. The new card enables small businesses to earn travel rewards, Mileage Plus miles, and Perks Plus points for their business...

ADVANTA REPORTS THIRD-QUARTER RESULTS.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Advanta Corp.'s Advanta Business Cards yesterday reported third-quarter net income of $16.2 million, up 36% compared with $11.9 million in 2004's third quarter. The Spring House, PA, issuer originated 58,000 new accounts during the quarter...

HUNTINGTON WILL PLACE 77 ATMS IN CVS DRUGSTORES.(Huntington National Bank)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Huntington National Bank will place 77 ATMs in CVS drugstores in Cincinnati, Dayton and Springfield, OH, and Northern Kentucky, the bank says. When complete, the rollout will increase Huntington's ATM fleet to more than 900. Huntington, a unit...

MERCURY WINS NESTLE CAFE CHAIN PROCESSING CONTRACT.(Nestle Toll House Cafe by Chip and Mercury Payment Systems)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Nestle Toll House Cafe by Chip is replacing its paper gift certificates with gift cards issued by Mercury Payment Systems, the Durango, CO-based payments processor says. The cafe chain also signed an agreement to use Mercury's gift card and...

ANOTHER FORMER SIVAULT EXECUTIVE JOINS HYPERCOM.(Jonatan Schmidt appointed)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Payment terminal maker Hypercom Corp. yesterday named Jonatan Schmidt to the newly created position of chief scientist and technology officer. Schmidt will focus on research and engineering development activities, including identifying new...

ICMA ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT.(International Card Manufacturers Association, Herbert Grun )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The International Card Manufacturers Association's Board of Directors today announced that it has elected Herbert Grun as the association's new president. Grun is director of card engineering solutions for Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, a...

COMPANY TARGETS MOBILE MERCHANTS WITH CELL PHONE-BASED PAYMENTS.(Mobile Evolution)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Following a pilot in which 100 mobile merchants nationally, including cab drivers and trade-show vendors, accepted payment cards by keying the card numbers into cell phones, an Austin, TX-based company is now unveiling the card-processing...

SALES OF DELINQUENT CARD DEBT ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE.
November 4, 2005... Sales of delinquent credit card debt will increase in the fourth quarter and into the start of 2006, spelling an improved business climate for major debt-collection companies, says Joe Chumbler, an analyst who follows such publicly traded...

HUDSON'S BAY RECEIVES BID FOR ENTIRE COMPANY, NOT JUST CARD PORTFOLIO.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Hudson's Bay Co., which recently announced that it was reviewing strategic alternatives for its proprietary credit card business, including selling it, says it has received an unsolicited offer for the entire company. Maple Leaf Heritage...

CERTEGY SIGNS CARD-PROCESSING AGREEMENT WITH HOME TRUST.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Home Trust Co., a Canadian-based issuer of secured Visa cards, today announced that it has signed a five-year, card-processing agreement with Certegy Inc. Certegy Card Services Inc. will provide full-service processing for Home Trust's...

VERISIGN PURCHASES RETAIL SOLUTIONS FOR $24 MILLION.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... VeriSign Inc., a supplier of Internet security technology, has purchased Retail Solutions Inc., a provider of point-of-sale data designed to help retailers increase sales. VeriSign says it is paying $24 million in cash for Retail Solutions,...

VISA TEAMS UP WITH ORACLE FOR COMMERCIAL CARD REPORTING.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Visa International has teamed up with U.S. software vendor Oracle Corp. to make it easier for companies to manage their business-expense reporting. Under the terms of their global agreement, the two companies have integrated Visa Commercial...

CANADIAN POLICE BREAK UP IDENTITY-THEFT RING.(Yazhkovan Balazuntharam and Kirupaharan Balasingham arrested by Toronto Police Department )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The Toronto Police Department says it has broken up a nationwide identity theft ring involving credit and debit cards with the arrests of the ring's masterminds, Detective Dave Yarmoluk of the Toronto Police Department's Fraud Squad, tells...

DEXIT EXITS ONE TORONTO OFFICE FOR ANOTHER TO SAVE MONEY.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Dexit Inc., the Canadian contactless micropayments company, has moved its headquarters office in Toronto to a new location to cut expenses. The company says the new office will enable it to cut rental costs by C$130,000 (US$111,000) over the...

BANKRUPTCY FILINGS DELIVER A BLOW TO DISCOVER.(Discover Bank)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Discover card parent Morgan Stanley announced late yesterday it could take a pretax charge of $200 million to $250 million in its fiscal fourth quarter due to an increase in bankruptcy filings. Morgan reported that Discover Bank, the division...

VISA DECIDES TO GET SMALL AS A WAY OF MAKING IT BIG IN SMALL PAYMENTS:.
November 4, 2005... Comedian Steve Martin used to utter to rousing applause the line "let's get small." As it turns out, Visa is following Martin's advice because small payments are big business. Visa USA flexed its payment muscles today, unveiling a strategy to...

CONTACTLESS SPECIALIST OTI RAISES $22 MILLION.(On Track Innovations Ltd.'s financial data)
November 4, 2005... Israel-based On Track Innovations Ltd. announced today that it had raised $22.2 million in new capital that it will use to support large-scale payment and identification projects involving contactless smart card technology. With many major...

NATIONAL CITY LAUNCHES HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT PRODUCT.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... National City Corp. today announced the launch of a health savings account product, which the bank will offer at its branches to individuals and small businesses that use high-deductible health plans. Over the past year, National City has...

NEXT ESTATE CHANGES NAME TO GREEN DOT CORP.(Next Estate Communications Inc)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Next Estate Communications, which claims to be the largest provider of network-branded prepaid debit cards sold in retail locations, is changing its name. Next Estate will now be known as Green Dot Corp., according to CEO Steve Streit. The firm...

BRIEFS.(First American Payment Systems L.P. acquires Govolution Inc., First Data Corp. and Provident Bank (Cincinnati, Ohio)'s licesing agreement and Federal Reserve Board increases fund rates)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... First American Payment Systems Inc., the Fort Worth, TX, merchant credit card processor, announced today that it has purchased Govolution Inc., a company that enables federal, state, and local governments and their depository financial...

PREPAID OFFERS BIG OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROCESSORS.(prepaid card processing market's revenue to increase)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The U.S. third-party prepaid card processing market will be worth $1.8 billion in revenues by 2009, up from $480 million in 2005, according to a report from Aite Group. Open-loop prepaid card processors will have total combined revenues of $1.3...

SMALL BUSINESSES BORE THE BRUNT OF KATRINA'S ECONOMIC PUNCH.(blances hit by hurricane)
November 4, 2005... Small businesses located in the Gulf States carried the majority of outstanding balances when Hurricane Katrina struck, according to a study by Experian, which examined data from more than 4,000 contributors. The study revealed that small...

VOTE ON DATA SECURITY BILLS NEARS.
November 4, 2005... Banks are lobbying hard against two data security bills that are scheduled to go to vote tomorrow, arguing that the measures conflict and that they should not have to comply with confusing legislation. The two bills aim to tighten requirements...

STOP & SHOP TESTS LOYALTY CARD.(Stop and Shop Supermarket Co.)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Grocery chain Stop & Shop began testing in October a combined loyalty and payment card at 10 stores in southeastern Massachusetts, Marketing Director Peg Merzbacher tells CardLine. The PayVantage program allows consumers to assign a credit,...

MASTERCARD TRANSACTION VOLUME UP 14%.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Holders of MasterCard-branded credit and debit cards in the United States during the third quarter ended Sept. 30 initiated 2.14 billion purchases with the plastic, up 14% from 1.88 billion during the same three-month period last year. Total...

VISA DOUBLES NUMBER OF MERCHANT CATEGORIES IN SMALL-TICKET PROGRAM.
November 4, 2005... Visa USA, which yesterday unveiled its small ticket payments strategy, expanded its small-ticket program to include 14 merchant categories from seven because of dramatic annual growth, a Visa spokesperson tells CardLine. Small ticket purchases...

WITH THE FED FUNDS INCREASE, CARDHOLDERS WILL SEE AN INCREASE IN INTEREST RATES.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Cardholders who have variable rate credit cards can expect to see a jump in their cards' interest rates in the next 30 to 60 days as a result of the Fed's action yesterday, Keith Leggett, senior economist for the American Bankers Association,...

COMPUCREDIT REPORTS THIRD-QUARTER INCOME OF $52.7 MILLION.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... CompuCredit Corp., which offers subprime credit cards, yesterday reported third quarter net income of $52.7 million and $1.05 a share compared with $37.9 million and 75 cents a share in the same quarter of 2004. Company CEO and Chairman David...

EFUNDS REPORTS A 25% INCREASE IN THIRD-QUARTER REVENUES.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... eFunds Corp. today reported third-quarter revenues of $133.2 million, up 25% compared with $106.4 million in 2004's third quarter. Third quarter net income increased 48% to $15.8 million, from $10.7 million, according to eFunds' quarterly...

CARDTRONICS REPORTS THIRD-QUARTER LOSS.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Cardtronics LP reported a third-quarter loss of $200,000 compared with a net income of approximately $2 million in last year's third quarter. The ATM firm reported revenues of $71.7 million, up 13.3% from $63.3 million the same time last year....

BRIEFS.(Boeing Employees Credit Union and CheckFree Corp.'s contract, MasterCard Canada and CardLine's conference, Jeff Yolen appointed at MobileLime)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... BECU, formerly known as the Boeing Employees Credit Union, renewed its contract for CheckFree Corp. to provide online billing and payment services to BECU members. With the service, BECU members can set up automatic payments of recurring bills....

VISA WILL RECONSTITUTE BOARD, ADDING INDEPENDENT DIRECTORS TO DECIDE ISSUES OF INTERCHANGE.(Visa U.S.A. Inc.)
November 4, 2005... Visa USA today announced plans to reconstitute its board of directors over the next 12 months, giving an independent committee the authority to make final decisions on interchange, member fees, processing fees and other core economic issues. A...

VISA WANTS A BROAD CROSS SECTION FOR NEW BOARD.(reorganizng board of directors)
November 4, 2005... Visa USA is seeking a broad cross section of senior-level experts from business, academia, government and elsewhere as it plans to remake it board of directors, Elizabeth Buse, Visa USA's executive vice president, tells CardLine today. Visa...

IT'S BACK TO THE FUTURE AS WACHOVIA ANNOUNCES IT WILL RE-ENTER CREDIT CARD BUSINESS.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Wachovia Corp. will re-enter the credit card market as a direct issuer beginning in January, years after selling its portfolio to MBNA Corp. The move ensures that Wachovia's credit card program will not be controlled by its chief competitor,...

RBS LYNK SIGNS CARD-PROCESSING AGREEMENT.(Dari Mart Stores Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Dari Mart Stores Inc., a Junction City, OR, owner of 43 convenience stores that sell dairy products, has selected RBS Lynk to process card transactions as Dari Mart for the first time in its 40-year history moves to accept credit and debit...

NACHA TO ALLOW SOME BUSINESS CHECK CONVERSION: NACHA TO ALLOW SOME BUSINESS CHECK CONVERSION.(check float regulations)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... A new amendment to NACHA regulations will allow merchants and billers to convert business checks to electronic transactions if those checks have the same magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line length as consumer checks. The rule tweak...

GLOBAL AXCESS COMPLETES ATM NETWORK PURCHASE.(Amer-E-Com Digital Corp.)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Global Axcess, Inc., the Ponta Vedra Beach, FL-based ATM operator, says it has completed the purchase of 1,590 ATMs from Amer-E-Com Digital Corp., a Florida-based company. As part of the sale, Global Axcess acquired Amer-E-Com's agreements with...

ARCATECH PICKS UP SAGEM DENMARK PRODUCTS.(distribution agreements)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... ArcaTech Systems, a Mebane, NC-based payment technology distributor, has picked up Sagem Denmark products for worldwide distribution. ArcaTech will distribute personal identification number entry pads in the United States that use the...

BRIEFS.(Les E. Riedl appointed at Speer & Associates Inc., Austin Ventures investment in PreCash Inc. , Visa International and Ticket Exchange's partnership)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... A U.S. House subcommittee today approved by a 13-8 vote a proposal that requires companies to keep consumer data secure, but which banking industry officials have said is ambiguous on what would be required of financial services firms. A Senate...

OHIO HYPERMARKET IS SOLD ON PAY BY TOUCH.(Hyper Shoppes Inc)
November 11, 2005... bigg's, a Milford, OH, retailer that advertises itself as a "true minimum-price hypermarket," today announced that it has joined a growing list of retailers using Pay By Touch, the biometric payment system. bigg's will employ Pay By Touch in...

BANKS VOICE CONCERN ABOUT DATA SECURITY LEGISLATION.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... A data security measure approved by a U.S. House subcommittee late yesterday is raising financial industry concerns that it could subject banks and other financial services firms to a new set of data security regulations. The measure, passed...

ENCORE AND ASSET ACCEPTANCE REPORT HIGHER THIRD-QUARTER NET INCOMES.(Encore Capital Group )(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Debt collections firm Encore Capital Group reported net income of $7.8 million and 33 cents a share for the third quarter compared with net income of $5.9 million and 25 cents a share for the same period last year. Gross collections rose to...

BANK OF AMERICA MAKES TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION COMPULSORY IN 20 STATES.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Bank of America is making it compulsory for its online banking customers to use the SiteKey two-factor authentication system in the 20 states where the bank offers the security technology. SiteKey, which was developed by Menlo Park, CA-based...

S1 CEO IS DISAPPOINTED WITH THIRD-QUARTER RESULTS.
November 11, 2005... S1 Corp., an Atlanta banking software firm that produces the Postilion debit transaction switching software, reported a third-quarter loss of $7.5 million compared to net income of $3.2 million for the same three-month period last year. Total...

FAIR ISAAC REPORTS INCREASE IN FISCAL FOURTH-QUARTER NET INCOME.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Fair Isaac Corp. reported late Wednesday fiscal fourth quarter net income of $35.7 million from revenues of $203.3 million, compared to net income of $14.4 million on revenues of $190.4 million in the same period a year ago. Last year's fourth...

BRIEFS.
November 11, 2005... Target Corp. announced yesterday it would receive at least $27 million as its share of the $3.05 billion Visa USA and MasterCard International agreed to pay in 2003 to settle the merchant class-action lawsuit over their "honor all cards" rules....

CARD RECEIVABLES GREW 3% IN THE THIRD QUARTER.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Receivables grew slowly in the third quarter for the group of 10 major credit card issuers, notching a 3% gain compared with the third quarter of 2004, according to the Consumer Finance Monthly report from UBS Securities LLC analyst Eric E....

REVOLVING CREDIT WAS $801 BILLION IN SEPTEMBER.(Federal Reserve Board)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Revolving credit, which is mostly credit card debt, grew at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.7% in September, but overall credit growth was unchanged because of a 2.8% decline in nonrevolving credit, the Federal Reserve reported...

WAWA BUYS 2,000 CONTACTLESS TERMINALS FROM HYPERCOM.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Wawa Inc., the Wawa, PA, convenience store chain, which recently begin offering a contactless Visa card, has installed contactless terminals to accept "wave and pay" cards and devices. Payment terminal maker Hypercom Corp. today announced that...

AND THE CONTACTLESS WAVE BOOSTS SALES FOR OTHER VENDORS.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... VeriFone Inc., the San Jose, CA, terminal maker, likewise is seeing a boost in sales thanks to contactless technology. Recent installations come close to 120,000 units, at such retail locations as McDonald's, Meijers supermarket and...

LIPMAN REPORTS THIRD-QUARTER RESULTS; CEO OF DIONE SUBSIDIARY IS FIRED.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Lipman Electronic Engineering Ltd., the Rosh Haayin, Israel-based payment terminal manufacturer, today reported a third-quarter net income of $7.8 million, down 19% compared with $9.6 million for the same three-month period last year. Isaac...

FIRSTMERIT SEES BIG POTENTIAL IN MINI DEBIT CARD.(Mini Check and Cash Card )(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... FirstMerit Bank has developed a Visa-branded Mini Check & Cash Card for its customers that is three-quarters the size of the bank's original Visa-branded Check &Cash debit card. Fitting easily onto a keychain, FirstMerit says the card offers...

AMERICANS FIND PAYMENT PROMISES HARD TO KEEP, INDEX SHOWS.(Cambridge Consumer Credit Index)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Individuals did not pay off as much debt last month as they had hoped to, according to the Cambridge Consumer Credit Index, a monthly economic gauge that looks at consumer spending and debt. Also, in October, 83% of Americans polled by the...

79% OF CANADIANS OWN A CREDIT CARD.(MasterCard Canada)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Electronic payments have become a regular part of daily Canadian life, according to a study released today by MasterCard Canada. Some 79% of adult Canadians own a credit card, according to the research conducted by the Toronto-based survey and...

BRIEFS.(Parkeon)
November 11, 2005... Payment cards have been used for nearly half of the 5 million transactions at the multi-space parking terminals in Seattle that accept cards since April 2004, according to Parkeon, the manufacturer of the terminals. Card transactions make up...

CLARIFICATION.
November 11, 2005... An item in Friday's CardLine about S1 Corp.'s financial results did not mean to imply that management's disappointment with the company's third-quarter results stemmed from poor performance in the Mosaic Software unit that produces Postilion...

DETROIT UTILITY IS ACCEPTING VISA FOR RECURRING PAYMENTS.(DTE Energy Co.)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... DTE Energy Co., parent of Detroit Edison and Michigan Consolidated Gas, has become the largest utility in terms of customers to accept Visa for recurring automatic bill payments, Jim Eitler, vice president of Visa USA's merchant relations,...

TEXAS WILL ROLL OUT SMART CARD-BASED WIC PROGRAM IN 2007.(Women's, Infants and Children's)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Texas is planning a statewide rollout of its smart card-based Women's, Infants and Children's, or WIC, program by 2007. Michael Montgomery, section director for the state's Nutrition Services, on Monday told participants at the EBT: The Next...

SMART CARD ALLIANCE SEES MEMBERSHIP GROWTH.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... The Smart Card Alliance, a not-for-profit, smart card industry association, says its membership has grown by more than 45% in the past year, with the addition of 54 organizations. In the payment sector, new members include American Express,...

CREDIT UNION 24 AND FIFTH THIRD WILL SIGN AGREEMENT.(Fifth Third Processing Solutions Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Credit Union 24 and Fifth Third Processing Solutions have announced plans to sign a contract establishing Fifth Third as the credit union network's switch processing provider by mid-2006. The credit union currently uses Fiserv Inc. for switch...

FISERV APPOINTS NEW CEO.(Jeffery W. Yabuki)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Fiserv Inc., the Brookfield, WI, transaction processor, yesterday named Jeffery W. Yabuki, president and CEO, succeeding Leslie M. Muma, who is retiring but will remain a consultant and a member of the company's board of directors. The...

DRUG BUSTS JUST AN ATM AWAY.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Major drug busts require major money, and, officials in Sweetwater County, WY, say they need access to funds fast when an opportunity arises to catch crooks. Last week, the Sweetwater sheriff's office was given the go-ahead to open a bank...

ANALYST SPECULATION: WACHOVIA MAY BUY CAPITAL ONE.(Wachovia Bank N.A.)(Capital One Financial Corp.)
November 11, 2005... Could Wachovia Bank purchase Capital One Financial Corp. to super-size its plans to re-enter the credit card business? CIBC World Markets analyst Meredith Whitney theorizes Wachovia may want to expand beyond last week's announcement it would...

BRIEFS.
November 11, 2005... Linens 'N Things agreed today to be bought by Apollo Management L.P. for $1.3 billion. GE Consumer Finance issues the credit card for the Clifton, NJ-based housewares retailer. In the third quarter, total sales for the chain that has 500 stores...

FIRST DATA HIRES ADVISOR TO EVALUATE CARD BUSINESS.(Card Issuing Services)
November 11, 2005... First Data Corp. today announced that it has hired Morgan Stanley to evaluate its troubled Card Issuing Services unit. Companies often hire investment banks like Morgan Stanley when they are considering selling off a business unit, but a First...

SOME INTERNET RETAILERS SEE AN INCREASE IN FRAUD.(CyberSource Corp. Annual Fraud survey)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Fraud rates are not rising at all online merchants, but mid-sized to large merchants are seeing an increase, a reversal of a downward trend, according to CyberSource Corp.'s 7th Annual Fraud survey. Online merchants selling $5 million to $25...

HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA BLOW AWAY NCO'S EARNINGS.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... The price of NCO Group's shares dropped sharply yesterday after the nation's largest debt-collection firm announced third-quarter earnings late Monday night. The Horsham, PA-based company reported earnings of 24 cents per share on revenues of...

HYPERCOM REVENUE UP 11.2%.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Hypercom today reported $69.8 million in revenue for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up 11.2% from $62.8 million during the same period in 2004. Net income for the quarter was $3.5 million, up from $300,000. During a conference call with...

LIPMAN WINS CONTRACTS IN INDIA.(Lipman Electronic Engineering Ltd.)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Lipman Electronic Engineering Ltd., a payment terminal maker based in Rosh Haayin, Israel, today announced that it has received more than $6 million worth of orders from two Indian banks. A Lipman spokesperson refused to name the banks, but...

CANADIAN WIRELESS OPERATORS PLAN MOBILE-PAYMENTS SERVICE.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Canada's three largest cell phone operators, Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility and Rogers Wireless, have formed an alliance to introduce mobile payment services. The Toronto, Ontario-based companies have set up a joint venture, Wireless Payment...

BRIEFS.
November 11, 2005... J.P. Morgan Chase reported today it expects to charge off as much as $2.3 billion in credit card debt in the fourth quarter. Bankrupcty filings caused the increase from chargeoffs of $1.6 billion in the third quarter, Chase said....Catherine...

VISA ANNOUNCES WHAT IT CONSIDERS TO BE A TRUE CONTACTLESS CARD.
November 11, 2005... A new type of contactless payment card will start shipping to U.S. financial institutions in 2006, Visa USA announced today. The cards will have smaller embedded antennas, which will make it easier to produce cards with different shapes that...

MASTERCARD CUTS SECURECODE RATES FOR ONLINE MERCHANTS.(MasterCard International Inc.)
November 11, 2005... MasterCard International in October lowered its interchange rate from 22-to-32 basis points for online merchants that use its SecureCode cardholder authentication program. A MasterCard memo indicates that a merchant would pay an interchange...

CONGRESS IS UNLIKELY TO PASS DATA SECURITY BILL THIS YEAR..
November 11, 2005... With several often-overlapping data-security bills swirling through Congress, spurred by many high-profile security breaches this year, it's unlikely anything will be passed this year. At the heart of the bills, and six congressional committees...

...MEANWHILE, COMPUTER THEFT MAY COMPROMISE TRANSUNION DATA.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Last month, TransUnion LLC informed some 3,600 consumers that their Social Security numbers and other credit-related information may have been compromised. The Chicago-based credit-reporting agency did not provide a spokesperson to be...

WILL VISA OFFER A LOWER PRICED CONTACTLESS PAYMENT CARD.(Visa International)
November 11, 2005... The new contactless payment card announced by Visa today could lower costs and give issuers more choices about card shapes and embossing, according to those involved in the program. The cards will have embedded antennas that are half the size...

TARGET LAUDS ITS VISA CARD PERFORMANCE.(sales and earnings)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... During a conference call with analysts this morning, Doug Scovanner, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Target Corp., the Minneapolis-based retailer, noted that the contribution to earnings before interest and taxes from...

WAMU WILL CHARGE NON-CUSTOMERS FOR ATM USE.(Washington Mutual)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Washington Mutual has joined the ranks of its banking competitors by surcharging non-customers to use its ATMs. Non-customers using the bank's machines will be charged either $1.50 or $2 per transaction beginning Nov. 17, a WAMU spokesperson...

EBT CARDS CAN BE USED TO PROVIDE OTHER GOVERNMENT BENEFITS.(electronic benefits transfer cards)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Clarence Carter, deputy administrator for the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service, in a keynote address on Tuesday at the EBT: The Next Generation conference in Reno, NV, suggested that electronic benefits transfer cards that carry food stamp...

MASTERCARD SAYS PAYPASS-ENABLED CARDS WILL BE ACCEPTED AT ALL WAWA STORES.(MasterCard International Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... MasterCard International Inc. today announced that Wawa Inc., the Wawa, PA, convenience store chain, will accept PayPass-enabled tap n' go cards from any MasterCard issuer. Wawa now is accepting PayPass at all Wawa stores in New Jersey,...

IRS WANTS PAYPAL CUSTOMER ACCOUNT INFORMATION.
November 11, 2005... The Internal Revenue Service has asked a federal judge in San Jose, CA, to grant it the right to access customer records held by PayPal, the online person-to-person payments arm of eBay, Inc. "PayPal has not been served with a summons yet, as...