Cardline articles from October 2005

Cardline archives from October 2005

INTERCHANGE LAWYERS VIE FOR HOME COURT ADVANTAGE.
October 7, 2005... There are 38 federal lawsuits pending related to the interchange fees set by Visa and MasterCard and their rules against charging consumers for paying with cards, and the first battle in what promises to be a lengthy legal war is over where...

COMPUCREDIT AGREES TO BUY CARDWORKS FOR $270 MILLION.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Subprime issuer CompuCredit Corp. yesterday announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to purchase CardWorks Inc. for $270 million. CardWorks, which is based in Woodbury, NY, is a privately held issuer and third-party servicer of...

POLICE CLOSE CANADIAN BOILER ROOMS.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Four "boiler rooms" in Toronto and Calgary have been closed down for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from 70,000 U.S. citizens through credit card telemarketing scams. According to statements from the Toronto and Calgary police, four...

DISPUTE ENDS MARKETING OF CARD TARGETING GAYS AND LESBIANS.(Do Tell Inc. sued by Martina Navratilova)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Marketing of a 10-year-old affinity credit card targeting gay and lesbian consumers has halted following a battle between its creators and tennis legend Martina Navratilova, CardLine has learned. The Visa Rainbow Card was created and marketed...

EURONET SAYS IT WILL RAISE $155 MILLION.
October 7, 2005... Euronet Worldwide, Inc., the Leawood, KS-based international ATM operator, says it is raising $155 million in capital through a bond issue, $30 million more than originally announced. "The money is intended to be used for general corporate...

CREDIT REFERENCE AGENCIES AGREE ON ENCRYPTION STANDARD.(Equifax Inc., Experian Ltd and TransUnion)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... The three largest U.S. credit reference agencies, Equifax, Inc., Experian Ltd and TransUnion, have agreed to adopt a common encryption standard in order to protect consumer data in transit between data suppliers and credit bureaus. The single,...

OTI READERS TO BE USED AT QWEST FIELD.(National Football League's Seattle Seahawks to accept credit cards, On Track Innovations)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Contactless payment card readers from On Track Innovations Ltd. will be installed at Qwest Field, home of the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks, OTI says. The Seahawks announced in September that MasterCard PayPass cards will be...

CORRECTION.(Correction Notice)
October 7, 2005... A story in today's Cardline stated that Guaranty Bank would issue the American Express Open card to small business clients. In fact, American Express will issue the cards and Guaranty Bank will offer them to its customers. CardLine regrets the...

AS BANKRUPTCY DEADLINE NEARS, ISSUERS WILL RECORD HIGHER CHARGEOFFS.
October 7, 2005... Issuers will see higher chargeoffs through the end of the year due to the change in bankruptcy law and continued interest rate hikes, according to Fitch Rating's newest Credit Card Movers & Shakers report. Fitch notes that there were 155,836...

METAVANTE AGREES TO BUY GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS PROCESSOR LINK2GOV.
October 7, 2005... Metavante Corp., the financial-technology subsidiary of Marshall & Ilsely Corp., has signed an agreement to purchase Link2Gov Corp., a Nashville, TN, company that facilities credit and debit card payments to local, state and federal government...

SALES IN EMERGING MARKETS SEEM TO HAVE ARRIVED FOR VISA.(Visa USA )(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Visa USA today announced that its sales volume in emerging market segments during August increased 27.4% to $18.3 billion compared with the same month last year. Visa reported that bill payment volume was $7.6 billion, up 26.2%;...

IN:LA, THE LATEST CARD TO JOIN THE IN CROWD.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... American Express Co. launched its IN:LA Card last week to join its city-specific cards for New York and Chicago. Like those two, IN:LA is designed to appeal to young consumers with rewards for spending at select restaurants, nightclubs and...

NEXT ESTATE RINGS UP DEAL WITH CINGULAR WIRELESS.(Next Estate Communications for marketing prepaid debit card )(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Next Estate Communications is partnering with Cingular Wireless to offer a new, Cingular-branded prepaid debit card carrying the Visa trademark. The Cingular prepaid card will be available for sale at all Cingular agent locations, says a Next...

WASHINGTON MUTUAL COMPLETES PURCHASE OF PROVIDIAN AT A LOWER PRICE.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Washington Mutual Inc., the Seattle-based thrift, today completed its purchase of card issuer Providian Financial Corp. in a stock and cash deal valued at $6.1 billion, less than its original announced purchase price of $6.45 billion (CardLine,...

GLOBAL PAYMENTS, ALPHA CARD FORM PARTNERSHIP.(Alpha Card Services )(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. has signed an agreement to provide back-office services to Alpha Card Services Inc., a Philadelphia-based company that provides merchants with credit, debit, gift and loyalty card services. Global will...

NETWORK EXECS' VIEWS ON AD SPENDING DIFFER.(executives)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... The nation's leading electronic funds transfer networks, which traditionally have spent little to promote their PIN-debit brands through radio and television advertising in part because their owner financial institutions wanted to encourage...

LIKE A BOOMERANG, MERCHANT PORTFOLIO RETURNS TO HEARTLAND.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Heartland Payment Systems announced last week that it repurchased a merchant portfolio from Certegy Inc., the St. Petersburg, FL, card processor. The portfolio, consisting of about 2,400 merchant accounts, was purchased for $3 million and had...

FAIR ISAAC ADDS MORE DATA SERVICE PROVIDERS.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Fair Isaac Corp. announced last week that it will tap two more data service providers for its Falcon ID identity fraud prevention system. Vienna, VA-based Targusinfo and Portland, OR-based Qsent Inc. will join LexisNexis and three other...

DALLAS BACKUP CENTER SAVES THE DAY FOR PULSE.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... In 2002, a disastrous flood in Houston left the Houston-based Pulse EFT network powerless and without communications to switch ATM transactions for thousands of its financial institution members. Pulse at the time was unable to switch...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.(Visa USA appoints Bruce McElhinney )(SmartClixx LLC appoints Diane Linke )(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Visa USA has named Bruce McElhinney executive vice president of client services. McElhinney, who recently led merchant sales, will report directly to John Philip Coghlan, Visa's CEO, and McElhinney will serve on Visa's executive management...

BILL CALLS FOR ANALYSIS OF INTERCHANGE FEES IN WAKE OF KATRINA.
October 7, 2005... The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to consider a proposal for an analysis of credit card interchange fees to be conducted by the Federal Trade Commission. The proposal is an amendment to a rapidly moving bill encouraging the use of...

IRS DENIES TAX-EXEMPT STATUS TO COUNSELING AGENCIES...
October 7, 2005... While 41 counseling agencies today received a federal stamp of approval, up from 32 posted previously, several credit-counseling agencies did not earn tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, in part because they rely too heavily on...

...WHILE KATRINA VICTIMS ARE EXEMPTED FROM THE CREDIT-COUNSELING REQUIREMENT.
October 7, 2005... Consumers seeking to declare bankruptcy in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina will not have to go through credit counseling, the federal agency overseeing the program reported today. The U.S. Trustees Program, a division of the U.S....

CARD PROCESSORS STOCKS RISE ABOVE IT ALL.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... The mean return of the stocks of 11 large card processors rose 3.73% in September, beating the 1.66% increase of the Standard & Poors 500 Index and the 0.83% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, according to Chicago-based Barrington...

CANADA INTRODUCES NEW DEBIT CARD RULES.(Canadian Code of Practice for Consumer Debit Card Services)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... A new version of Canada's voluntary code of practice for debit cards issuers, the Canadian Code of Practice for Consumer Debit Card Services, was introduced on Friday. The main changes concern claims of fraudulent or unauthorized transactions...

CO-OP NETWORK TRANSMITS ITS FIRST CHECK IMAGE.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... The Co-Op network of credit unions claims to be the first PIN-debit network to switch a check image made at an ATM for deposit into an account. The check image was electronically created at a California Center Credit Union ATM and involved the...

COMDATA OFFERS CUSTOMERS ACCESS TO ALLPOINT SURCHARGE-FREE ATM NETWORK.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Comdata Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ceridian Corp., will offer its payroll card customers access to Allpoint's surcharge-free network of more than 32,000 ATMs, the company announced today. Comchek eCash cardholders can now use Allpoint...

PAY BY TOUCH RAISES $130 MILLION TO PROMOTE ITS BIOMETRIC ALTERNATIVE TO CARDS.
October 7, 2005... Pay By Touch Solutions, which provides merchants with a payment system that authenticates customers using fingerprint biometrics, today announced that it has secured $130 million in new financing. San Francisco-based Pay By Touch will use the...

PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS SUE VISA, MASTERCARD OVER INTERCHANGE.
October 7, 2005... Visa and MasterCard have been hit with another federal lawsuit over their interchange policies. Lakeland FL-based Publix Super Markets announced yesterday that it has filed a suit against Visa and MasterCard, charging the two with deceptive...

VISA COMMERCIAL PAYMENT VOLUME REACHES $255 BILLION.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Visa global commercial payment volume reached $255 billion during the four quarters ended June 30, Visa announced today. This is a 27% increase compared with the same period last year, the payments association says. Visa commercial payments...

DEXIT EXPANDS CONTACTLESS PAYMENT SERVICE TO OTTAWA.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Dexit, Inc. has launched its contactless small-value payment service in Canada's capital, Ottawa, having provided the service in Toronto since 2003. The Toronto-based company has supplied 1,500 radio frequency identification-based payment tags...

HIGH GAS PRICES FUEL CARD'S COMEBACK.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Higher gas prices and customer demand have worked together to bring a Visa-branded, reloadable prepaid gas card back from the dead. JP Morgan Chase & Co. issued the Fuel Prepaid Visa card, which was offered by Ecount, a stored-value card...

NBS GETS MORE MONEY FROM MAJOR SHAREHOLDER.(NBS Technologies Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... NBS Technologies, Inc., a Toronto-based smart card equipment manufacturer, says that a subsidiary of Brascan Corp. has increased the line of credit it provides NBS from C$17 million (U.S.$14 million) to C$30 million. David Nyland, NBS'...

HSBC RENEWS PRIVATE-LABEL CARD PROGRAM WITH GARDNER-WHITE.(HSBC North America Inc., Gardner-White Furniture)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... HSBC-North America's retail services business yesterday announced that it has renewed its alliance with Gardner-White Furniture to manage the retailer's private-label card program. The new agreement extends HSBC Retail Services' six-year...

ICMA AWARDS TWO SCHOLARSHIPS.(International Card Manufacturers Association)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... The International Card Manufacturers Association, the Princeton Junction, NJ, trade association for plastic card manufacturers, today announced that it has awarded two $2,500 scholarships. The scholarships will go to Sarah Ruth Ann Young, a...

FIRST DATA, CHASE AGREE TO INTEGRATE MERCHANT ACQUIRING BUSINESSES.
October 7, 2005... First Data Corp. and JP Morgan Chase & Co. announced late this afternoon they will integrate their companies' jointly owned Chase Merchant Services and Paymentech merchant acquiring businesses. The new firm will operate under the name Chase...

RECORD M&A ACTIVITY IN CREDIT AND COLLECTIONS.
October 7, 2005... Banks are flush with cash. Interest rates are favorable. The economy weathered several storms, figuratively and literally. It's no wonder deal-making in the accounts receivable management industry shattered a record in the third quarter with...

MONERIS SELLS PART OF U.S. MERCHANT PORTFOLIO.(Moneris Solutions Inc., Optimal Group Inc)
October 7, 2005... Moneris Solutions Inc., Canada's largest merchant acquirer, has sold a small part of its U.S. merchant portfolio to Optimal Group Inc., owner of FireOne Group Plc, a processor of online gaming transactions, for $18 million. Moneris says it sold...

AMEX'S ONE CARD ENCOURAGES SPENDING AND SAVING.(American Express Co.)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... The goal of American Express Co.'s new One card is to get cardholders to spend and save at the same time, something consumers want to do, according to the issuer's research. AmEx, which today launched the $35 annual fee credit card, says it...

BANK OF AMERICA TIES DEBIT CARD USE TO SAVINGS.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Bank of America, the nation's largest debit card issuer with 27 million cards, has tied debit card use to a savings program. BofA claims to be the first debit card issuer to tie "loose change" to debit card use. BofA is offering debit...

INNOVUS PROCESSING ARM TAKES BLOW FROM KATRINA.(Columbus Data Services Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2005... Hurricane Katrina uprooted the New Orleans-based ATM company Innovus Inc., forcing employees to pack their bags and relocate to a back-up site in Dallas. But damage to the company's managed machines was minimal compared to that sustained by its...

CASH-FLUSH PAY BY TOUCH STILL FACES HURDLES.
October 7, 2005... Pay By Touch Solutions' announcement yesterday that it had secured $130 million in financing was big news for the biometrics industry (CardLine, 10/7). But some observers say the fact the company plans to use some of the funds to venture into...

VISA USA WILL SPEND $200 MILLION MORE FIGHTING FRAUD.
October 7, 2005... John Philip Coghlan, Visa USA's president and CEO, says Visa USA will spend an extra $200 million on antifraud measures over the next four years. Coghlan, who was appointed to the top job at Visa USA in July, was speaking at the Visa Security...

VITAL RENEWS MERCHANT PROCESSING CONTRACT WITH BANK OF AMERICA.
October 7, 2005... Vital Processing Services this morning announced that it has renewed its merchant processing agreement with Bank of America N.A. Bank of America merchant services is the second-largest bank card merchant acquirer in the United States, Vital...

HUDSON'S BAY MAY SELL CREDIT CARD BUSINESS.
October 14, 2005... Hudson's Bay Co., Canada's largest department store retailer and oldest corporation, says it is reviewing strategic alternatives for its proprietary credit card business, including selling it. Hudson's Bay, which also is known as the Bay, made...

REVOLVING CREDIT GREW AT 3.5% ANNUALIZED RATE IN AUGUST.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Revolving credit, which is mostly credit card debt, grew at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 3.5% in August, the Federal Reserve reported this afternoon. The Fed's G.19 report, which reports on outstanding consumer credit, said...

TRANSACTION SYSTEM ARCHITECT REGROUPS TO FOCUS ON PAYMENTS.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Electronic payment software company Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. is reorganizing its three business divisions to create one operating unit. The Omaha-based company will operate under the ACI Worldwide name, currently the name of the...

SURVEY: CARDS OFFER HEALING EXPERIENCE FOR DOCTORS.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... According to a survey by Open, American Express Co.'s card for small business, 56% of doctors in private practice say they prefer paying for purchases with either a credit or charge card. Among the physicians who use cards, 57% say they enjoy...

THE KATRINA EFFECT HITS CONSUMERS.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... It's being called the "Katrina Effect." A telephone survey released today by the Cambridge Consumer Credit Index in Agawam, MA, reports that consumers expect to carry more credit card debt as a result of Hurricane Katrina pushing up higher...

MERVYNS RELAUNCHES CARD WITH A REWARDS OFFER.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Retailer Mervyns LLC is relaunching its store credit card, mailing a redesigned card to its 3.4 million existing cardholders with a discount offer called 20 for 20, the card's issuer GE Consumer Finance announced this week. The 20 for 20 deal...

IRN SELECTS HYPERCOM TERMINALS.(IRN Payment Services )(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... IRN Payment Services, a provider of payment-processing services sold through independent sales organizations, has selected Hypercom Corp.'s T7Plus credit and debit card terminal, Hypercom says. IRN expects to purchase the terminals over the...

THE U.S. HOUSE PASSES BILL TO EXAMINE INTERCHANGE.
October 14, 2005... The U.S. House of Representatives passed on Friday a bill that included a call for a federal study of interchange and its effect on pump prices at gas stations. The measure had originally required a broader study of interchange's effect of...

PULSE REPORT: PIN DEBIT FRAUD 15 TIMES LESS COSTLY THAN SIGNATURE DEBIT.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... A new survey by the Houston-based Pulse EFT network reveals a significant difference in the cost of fraud between PIN-debit and signature-based debit transactions. A Pulse survey of 48 Pulse financial institution members of varying sizes...

PAYPAL BUYS VERISIGN'S PAYMENT GATEWAY BUSINESS ...(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... VeriSign Inc., the online payment trust company, announced yesterday that it has sold its payment gateway business to PayPal Inc. for $370 million in cash or eBay stock as part of an alliance between the two San Francisco-area companies. An...

... WHILE EBAY AND AXALTO WILL EXPAND TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION.
October 14, 2005... In a deal announced today, eBay Inc., the Internet auction site, will offer two-factor authentication tokens from VeriSign Inc. next year. Meanwhile, Axalto, the French smart card company, has launched an online two-factor authentication...

HYPERCOM ANNOUNCES SALES' SHAKEUP; BLUMENTHAL OUT.(Guilherme Blumenthal)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Hypercom Corp., the Phoenix, AZ, payment terminal manufacturer, today announced a leadership restructuring. The shakeup led to the departure of Guilherme Blumenthal, who was responsible for global sales. Hypercom announced that O.B. Rawls IV...

TSYS PREPAID NAMES NEW COO.(TSYS Prepaid Inc. appoints Cal Holman as chief operating officer)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... TSYS Prepaid Inc. today announced it appointed Cal Holman chief operating officer, effective immediately. As COO, Holman oversees the customer service, information technology, product development, human resources, financial and legal divisions....

MASTERCARD DEBUTS PAYPASS CAMPAIGN.
October 14, 2005... MasterCard International's PayPass contactless scheme is getting some TV time. The card association launched Sunday a new television commercial using its well-known Priceless theme to promote the PayPass payment cards. The ad demonstrates the...

NORDSTROM LAUNCHES PROPRIETARY DEBIT CARD.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Nordstrom Inc. announced last week the launch of Nordstrom MOD, a proprietary debit card issued through Nordstrom Federal Savings Bank. When customers sign up for the card, they provide bank-routing information from a personal check. This...

NEW DIRECT MARKETING FIRM FORMED.(three companies merged to form V12 Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Three direct marketing firms specializing in statement stuffing have combined to create V12 Group, the new firm reported today. Paul Chachko, V12's CEO, tells CardLine the company has about 70% of the domestic credit card insertion market, with...

AXALTO WINS CONTRACTS TO SUPPLY CONTACTLESS CARDS.
October 14, 2005... Smart card manufacturer Axalto is providing more than 2 million MasterCard PayPass contactless debit cards to KeyBank, Francois Lasnier, vice president of Axalto Banking, tells CardLine today. "It's a big number. It shows a strong commitment...

CHASE'S BLINK CARD WINS SMART CARD ALLIANCE AWARD.(J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... JP Morgan Chase, which launched its "blink" contactless payment card earlier this year, received the Financial Issuer Innovation Award this week at the Smart Card Alliance's Fall Annual Conference in Miami. Scott Rau, a senior vice president...

CONSUMER CREDIT RISK HITS 5-YEAR LOW.(TransUnion LLC)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... TransUnion LLC reported Monday that its Trend Database found that consumer credit quality in the third quarter was at its highest level in 18 months and the risk to credit grantors was at its lowest level in five years. The Chicago-based...

VISA PLATFORM VERIFIES PURCHASES.(Visa U.S.A. Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Visa U.S.A. is offering a system to instantly verify the eligibility of items purchased using prepaid debit cards attached to health benefits. Visa today announced that it has created a platform to instantly verify over-the-counter medical...

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI WILL STOP ACCEPTING CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... The University of Missouri in Columbia, the state's flagship university, will stop its direct acceptance of credit cards for the payment of tuition because the school is paying $2 million a year in interchange fees, a university spokesperson...

MARITZ: AMERICANS PREFER CASH AS A REWARD.(Maritz Loyalty Marketing Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Americans redeemed more rewards points for cash than statement credits this year and prefer electronics over home goods when redeeming points for merchandise, according to the latest Maritz Loyalty Marketing's Almanac. The almanac is released...

NCR RAISES THIRD-QUARTER GUIDANCE.
October 14, 2005... NCR Corp., the Dayton, OH, ATM manufacturer, raised its projected third-quarter earnings yesterday. The company now expects third-quarter revenues to range between $1.16 and a $1.18 per share. This includes $0.73 per share from settlement of...

WELLS FARGO WILL REBATE REMITTANCE FEES.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Wells Fargo will rebate remittance fees to customers in the U.S. sending money to friends and family in parts of Central America impacted by floods and mudslides. After a customer opens an account here and the recipient's account information is...

SCOTTRADE SIGNS UP WITH PASSMARK.(Passmark Security Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Scottrade, the online brokerage firm, has signed a deal to deploy the fraud-fighting, two-factor authentication service from Passmark Security Inc., both companies announced yesterday. Scottrade will begin deploying the system to its 1.3...

LAW FIRM IS MAILING VOUCHERS TO MERCHANTS.(Constantine Cannon P.C)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Constantine Cannon P.C., the lead law firm in the $3.383 billion antitrust settlement negotiated with Visa and MasterCard in 2003, is mailing claim forms to merchants involved in the lawsuit. The settlement became final May 31, and the...

CUB FOODS WILL ROLL OUT PAY BY TOUCH IN MIDWEST.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Cub Foods, the discount supermarket chain, announced today that it is rolling out Pay By Touch's biometric payment technology in all 65 Cub Foods stores in Minnesota and Iowa. The chain, which does not accept credit or debit cards, will allow...

HYPERCOM SIGNS DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT.
October 14, 2005... The Phoenix Group, a St. Charles, MO, distributor of Hypercom Corp. payment terminals, has agreed to purchase $8 million worth of Hypercom terminals in order to resell them to independent sales organizations, Hypercom announced today. Under the...

STUDY: MANY USE CARDS TO MAKE ENDS MEET.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Most low- and middle-income families accrue credit card debt by paying for basics like medical expenses and car or home repairs during hard times. That is according to a report released this week by New York-based Demos and the Durham, NC-based...

SAO PAULO WINS SMART CARD TRANSIT AWARD.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... A contactless payment system for the estimated 7 million users of Sao Paulo, Brazil's public transportation system today won the Transportation Innovation Award at the Smart Card Alliance's Fall Conference in Miami. This award comes as more...

CARDS ARE EXPENSIVE, BUT DROPPING THEM IS NOT AN OPTION.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Businesses are unable to refuse to accept payment cards, even though the high cost of accepting credit and debit cards has become a growing concern, according to a survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP). Many financial...

ACIES INTRODUCES CONTACTLESS PAYMENT CARD SYSTEM.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... Acies Corp., a payment processor, has introduced a new contactless card payment system that allows merchants to accept contactless credit or debit cards. The system allows consumers to tap or wave their contactless credit or debit cards on a...

GREENZAP BUILDING OWN PAYMENT GATEWAY.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2005... GreenZap Inc., a San Diego-based provider of online payment services, yesterday announced it is building a proprietary payment gateway. GreenZap says its objective is to reduce cost and to deliver faster transactions than competitors. "A...

DIEBOLD NAMES PRESIDENT AND COO.(Thomas W. Swidarski and Kevin J. Krakora appointed, chief operating officer)
October 14, 2005... The guard has changed again at ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc., which yesterday announced the promotion of two executives, Thomas W. Swidarski and Kevin J. Krakora, to senior-level positions at the North Canton, OH-based company. Swidarski is now...

CORRECTION.(Correction Notice)
October 14, 2005... A CardLine item today incorrectly stated that Visa U.S.A. is offering a system to instantly verify items purchased using prepaid debit cards attached to health savings accounts, or HSAs. The item should have stated that the system will support...

CARD-ISSUING BUSINESS HURTS FIRST DATA.
October 21, 2005... Most of First Data Corp.'s lines of business appear healthy, according to its third-quarter financial report released this morning. But its card-issuing business, which includes its Star ATM and debit network and card processing for issuers,...

CHASE SWITCH CUTS INTO FIRST DATA VOLUME.(JP Morgan Chase, First Data Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 21, 2005... Among the debit card issuers moving business away from First Data Corp.'s Star network is New York-based JP Morgan Chase & Co. Chase began some months ago migrating some of the debit card portfolio of Chase-owned Bank One from Star to Visa...

BANKRUPTCY FILINGS SOAR AS NEW LAW LOOMS.
October 21, 2005... Consumers racing to beat the bankruptcy clock have precious little time. On Monday, the long-awaited new bankruptcy law takes effect, making it more difficult for individuals to file under Chapter 7, which eliminates most debts. A glance at the...

CVS HOPEFUL ABOUT CONTACTLESS PAYMENT CARDS.(Brief Article)
October 21, 2005... Contactless payments could lift spending by 20% to 30% at pharmacy chain CVS, Jonathan Roberts, the company's senior vice president for store operations, said this week at the Smart Card Alliance's Fall Conference in Miami. In part, that's...

SURVEY POINTS TO MORE HOLIDAY SPENDING ON GIFT CARDS.(Brief Article)
October 21, 2005... Consumers will spend more on gift cards this holiday season than in the past, according to a survey released Thursday by Louisville-based Stored Value Systems, a gift card provider. Consumers intend to spend an average of $248 on gift cards, an...