Cardline articles from October 2007

Cardline archives from October 2007

U.S. COMPTROLLER PROMOTES INTEREST RATE OPT-OUT RULE.
October 5, 2007... Consumers should have the chance to avoid credit card rate increases and deserve to pay off the balance at the old rate, says Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan. "There is plainly a state of disequilibrium when it comes to consumer...

GLOBAL PAYMENTS SEES DOUBLE-DIGIT REVENUE GROWTH.(Financial report)
October 5, 2007... Global Payments Inc., an Atlanta-based payments processor, brought in fiscal first-quarter revenue of nearly $310 million, a 19.5% increase from the $260.3 million from the same quarter a year ago, the company says. Global Payments' quarter...

STUDY FINDS AFRICAN-AMERICANS OVERLOOKED BY CARD MARKETS.
October 5, 2007... The card industry largely has overlooked African-American customers as a focus for marketing resources and product development despite opportunities for growth, says a Packaged Facts report released this month. African-Americans have the lowest...

FINANCIAL SERVICES CENTERS COOPERATIVE ANNOUNCES VCOM ACCESS FOR MEMBERS.
October 5, 2007... Financial Services Centers Cooperative Inc., a credit union shared-branch network, announced today that members of Financial Services Centers Cooperative and Co-op Financial Services have access to 7-Eleven's 2,000 multifunction Vcoms through a...

MERCHANTS LEARN MORE ABOUT ALTERNATIVE PAYMENTS AT PAYMENTECH ROUNDTABLE.(Discussion)
October 5, 2007... About 100 merchant customers of Dallas-based Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC met this week in San Francisco for a roundtable discussion of the future of alternative payments in e-commerce. Mike Duffy, president and CEO of Chase Paymentech says...

CITI LAUNCHES CARD WITH EXPEDIA.
October 5, 2007... New York-based CitiGroup Inc. and Expedia.com of Bellevue, Wash., announced today that they have launched the Citi Premier Pass / Expedia.com card. Cardholders earn points for each purchase made with the card and receive bonus points for...

GE MONEY TEAMS WITH LORD & TAYLOR FOR PRIVATE LABEL CARD.
October 5, 2007... GE Money has signed a deal to issue the Lord & Taylor private label credit card, the companies have announced. GE Money will issue the card to Lord & Taylor's existing 1.5 million cardholders and also plans to market the card to new customers....

BRIEFS.
October 5, 2007... Transaction Network Services has signed an agreement with Co-op Financial Services to provide ATM and network telecommunication services, including dial-up, DSL and wireless connections....Fundtech Ltd. of Jersey City, N.J., announced today...

CITI WARNS OF 60% DROP IN THIRD QUARTER PROFITS...(Financial report)
October 5, 2007... Citigroup Inc. warned this morning that the third-quarter income it will report on Oct. 15 will be some 60% lower than in the same period of 2006, due to instability in worldwide credit markets this summer. In a statement, Citi lists $5.9...

...AND SENDS NEW MASTERCARD TO REPLACE MACY'S CARD.
October 5, 2007... Citibank has started sending new Citibank MasterCards to 3.5 million inactive Macy's credit card accounts. Citi says the customers were inactive for more than two years. The new card differs from the Macy's card, but recipients of the new card...

CARD DEBT SALES TOP $2 BILLION IN Q3.(Financial report)
October 5, 2007... The volume of credit card debt portfolios posted on public Web sites last week dropped 65% to $18.1 million from $52.1 million a week earlier. Credit card portfolios listed on the Web throughout the third quarter had a combined face value of...

VALID SYSTEMS PROVIDES TRANAX ATM RETAIL LOCATIONS WITH CHECK-CASHING SERVICE.
October 5, 2007... Valid Systems, a Fort Worth, Texas-based check verification company, today announced it has formed a partnership with ATM manufacturer Tranax Technologies Inc. that calls for Valid to cash payroll, government and tax-refund checks presented to...

CARD ISSUERS DROP BALANCE-TRANSFER FEE CAPS:.
October 5, 2007... Some credit card issuers are eliminating caps on balance-transfer fees or are pushing the cap rate from an average of $50 to $75 to up to $150, according to Westbury, N.Y.-based Auriemma Consulting Group Inc. and CardRatings.com, a consumer Web...

FUNDTECH OFFERS CITIGROUP INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS PRODUCT.
October 5, 2007... FundTech Ltd. of Jersey City, N.J., a software company that focuses on financial institutions, announced today that it will offer Citigroup Inc.'s international payments processing system to its clients. The product will let financial...

HEARTLAND CREATES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR POSITION.(appointment of Conan Lane at Heartland Payment Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
October 5, 2007... Conan Lane, a former executive at PNC Bank's Merchant Services division, has joined Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a Princeton, N.J.-based payment processor, in the newly created position of executive director. In a statement, Heartland...

BRIEFS.
October 5, 2007... Barclays and US Airways have introduced the new US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard BusinessCard for small business customers that allows cardholders to earn miles from business expenses and track and manage spending....The PCI Security...

MERCHANTS GROUP REBUTTS QUESTIONS ABOUT INTERCHANGE FEE IMPACT.
October 5, 2007... The Merchants Payments Coalition this week submitted a response to questions about interchange fees that may help take the next step toward resolving the problems between payment associations and retailers, Mallory Duncan, MPC chairman and...

DIEBOLD CHANGES REVENUE REPORTING IN RESPONSE TO SEC SCRUTINY.(Brief article)
October 5, 2007... Diebold Inc., which delayed release of its second-quarter earnings in July pending a government decision on how Diebold should account for revenue, today announced it is dropping the practice in question. The North Canton, Ohio, ATM...

BUY.COM OWNER'S COMPANY TO ENTER HIGH-END CREDIT CARD BIZ.
October 5, 2007... Jackson, Wy.-based ThinkTank Holdings LLC said today it will enter the high-end credit card business with a new patent-pending "NextCard" credit card. The card, which will be available to individuals and businesses "soon," will have an annual...

TREASURY'S APPLICATION DEADLINE TODAY FOR NATIONAL PREPAID DEBIT CARD PAYMENT SERVICES.
October 5, 2007... Today marks the application deadline for financial institutions interested in providing nationwide debit card services to unbanked check recipients of social security and other federal benefits, such as veteran or railroad retirement benefits....

CMI INCHES LOWER IN SEPTEMBER, LESS CREDIT EXTENDED.
October 5, 2007... The Credit Manager's Index, a gauge of economic factors affecting the credit and collections industry, fell 0.3 points in September to 54.8, from August's 55.1, according to the National Association of Credit Management. Any score above 50...

PULSE ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF DEBIT FRAUD DETECTION SYSTEM.
October 5, 2007... Pulse EFT Association today announced the launch of DebitProtect, a new fraud detection and notification system, across Pulse's network of more than 4,400 financial institutions. DebitProtect evaluates risk for all PIN, signature and PINless...

MEXICO BANK BUYS MORE THAN 13,000 HYPERCOM TERMINALS.
October 5, 2007... Phoenix-based point-of-sale terminal maker Hypercom Corp. today announced that Mexico-based bank BBVA Bancomer has purchased more than 13,000 Optimum payment terminals. BBVA Bancomer will roll out T2100 countertop terminals and M2100 wireless...

BRIEFS.
October 5, 2007... Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group will acquire Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Commerce Bancorp Inc. in a deal valued at $8.5 billion.... Payments processor First National Merchant Solutions of Omaha, Neb., has hired Betty Gray and John Henderson...

VISA COMPLETES RESTRUCTURING, CLEARS WAY FOR IPO.
October 5, 2007... Visa Inc. this afternoon announced that it has completed its restructuring after receiving broad member approval for the series of transactions by which Visa Canada, Visa U.S.A. and Visa International have become subsidiaries of Visa Inc. Visa...

TAXI DRIVERS WILL STRIKE AGAIN OVER CARD READERS.
October 5, 2007... The New York Taxi Workers Alliance - which represents more than 8,000 drivers of the 44,000 licensed cabbies in the city - announced today that it will hold a 24-hour strike beginning at 5 a.m. Monday, Oct. 22, according to local news reports....

NEW CARD FEE CONTROLS WOULD HURT MOST CONSUMERS, AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION SAYS.
October 5, 2007... New regulations on fees and interest rates banks charge credit cardholders are likely to harm most consumers, argues a report released this week by the American Bankers Association. The ABA sponsored the report authored by economists Jonathan...

MASTERCARD TOUTS NEW RELATIONSHIP-BASED REWARDS PROGRAM.
October 5, 2007... MasterCard Worldwide is in discussions with approximately six undisclosed banks about using a new rewards program that allows bank customers to earn points on credit, debit and other bank products, Mark Shipley, global practice leader of...

BILL ME LATER RELEASES ONLINE SHOPPING SURVEY.
October 5, 2007... Some 12 million Americans shopped online during work-related conference calls at least once in the past year, according to estimates based on a new survey. Survey firm Ipsos Insight and online payment provider Bill Me Later conducted the...

EUROPEAN REGULATORS FINE VISA OVER MORGAN STANLEY DENIAL.
October 5, 2007... The European Commission today said it had fined Visa 10.2 million euros [US$14.4 million] for excluding from its UK payment network Morgan Stanley, a move the commission says "restricted competition in the provision of credit card acceptance...

OBERTHUR REPORTS HIGHER PROFITS.(Financial report)
October 5, 2007... Oberthur Card Systems reported higher first-half profits, thanks to cost-cutting measures and a recovery in its banking-card unit. The France-based vendor, one of the largest suppliers of banking smart cards worldwide, on Tuesday reported net...

BRIEFS.
October 5, 2007... IP Commerce Inc., a Denver-based software company, recently released a white paper discussing ways retailers can safeguard cardholder data....New York-based merchant cash advance company AmeriMerchant announced this week that David Goldin, its...

RETAIL GROUP: IT'S TIME TO RETHINK DATA SECURITY INITIATIVE.
October 5, 2007... Retailers have been forced to "jump through extraordinary hoops" in an effort to meet data security standards set by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, according to an open letter written by David Hogan, senior vice president...

BILL PAYMENT NEXT UP TO BOOST DEBIT CARD GROWTH.
October 5, 2007... The next growth opportunity for debit cards will be getting consumers to use them to pay bills, Ann J. Camarillo, MasterCard Worldwide's executive vice president of U.S. Market Development, said Tuesday during SourceMedia's ATM, Debit & Prepaid...

NYCE MOBILE BANKING AND PAYMENTS SERVICE READY TO ROLL.
October 5, 2007... NYCE Payments Network will offer financial institutions a mobile payments and banking service that operates over NYCE's debit network, it announced today. NYCE will offer the service through Monitise Americas, a joint venture between Monitise...

JETBLUE GOING CASHLESS IN CABIN.
October 5, 2007... Travelers flying on JetBlue Airways Corp. planes will need a credit or debit card to make in-flight purchases beginning Nov. 1. The New York-based airline announced Wednesday that it will no longer accept cash for onboard alcohol purchases....

TARGETED KIOSK DEPLOYMENTS CAN ATTRACT UNDERSERVED CONSUMERS.
October 5, 2007... Multifunctional kiosks can work as a customer-acquiring tool for all populations, including unbanked and underbanked segments, according to Janet Estep, president of ATM and Debit services at U.S. Bank-owned Elan Financial Services. Cash-based...

ONTARIO PROHIBITS GIFT CARD EXPIRATION DATES.
October 5, 2007... The Ontario, Canada, provincial government this week enacted regulations that prohibit expiration dates on gift cards and gift certificates sold in the province. The new rules also restrict fees to customize gift cards and fees for replacing...

BILLERS EXPECT, BUT ARE UNPREPARED FOR, RISING DEMAND FOR MULTIPLE PAYMENT OPTIONS.(Survey)(Brief article)
October 5, 2007... Recurring billers such as utilities, telecom providers, insurers and property management firms expect that customer use of electronic bill payment options will increase significantly over the next two years, according to a report released this...

BRIEFS.
October 5, 2007... StillSecure, a security software company in Superior, Colo., announced Monday that Power2Process, a prepaid card program manager and processor based in Pembroke Pines, Fla., is using its software to protect data and prevent identity theft....

RETAIL GROUP'S LETTER SPARKS WAR OF WORDS OVER CARD DATA...
October 12, 2007... Retailers opposed to credit card data storage requirements should air their grievances with the credit card companies and not the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, says the Wakefield, Mass.-based council, which oversees the data...

...AND PAYMENT GROUPS RESPOND TO MERCHANT COALITION'S CLAIMS ON INTERCHANGE.
October 12, 2007... The Merchants Payments Coalition's "continued attack on the payment system" regarding the interchange fee merchants must pay to accept credit cards "is simply an attempt to improve merchant profits by shifting their cost of doing business onto...

PNC BANK SEES SUPERMARKETS, GROCERY STORES AS LOWER-MARGIN ATM LOCATIONS.
October 12, 2007... Supermarkets and grocery stores have moved down the food chain, so to speak, as locations where PNC Bank, the nation's seventh-largest bank owner of ATMs, wants to place its off-premise machines, Jim Walker, senior vice president and general...

BANK OF AMERICA HOPES TO INCREASE NEW ACCOUNTS WITH HIGHER ATM FEE.
October 12, 2007... Bank of America Corp.'s latest ATM surcharge increase to $3 from $2 is intended to increase the number of new accounts opened at BofA branches, according to Christopher Deville, finance executive for checking and debit with the Charlotte,...

GIFT CARDS ARE THE LATEST FLU PREVENTION TOOL.
October 12, 2007... Novartis AG, Basel, Switzerland, is offering FluGram gift cards for flu vaccines that people can buy for themselves or others, the pharmaceuticals manufacturer announced Wednesday. Cardholders can visit designated pharmacies to purchase and use...

KABIRA TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCES GROWTH STRATEGIES.
October 12, 2007... Kabira Technologies Inc., San Mateo, Calif., has signed agreements to provide its processing software to companies in North America, Japan, and Europe. This development came one day after Kabira signed a marketing agreement with Bull, a French...

CO-OP FINANCIAL SERVICES HAS PREPAID CARD FOR CREDIT UNIONS.
October 12, 2007... Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based Co-op Financial Services, a credit union service organization, announced this week that it intends to offer reloadable prepaid cards to its roughly 2,000 credit union members beginning in the fourth quarter,...

BRIEFS.
October 12, 2007... ProfitPoint Inc., a Franklin, Tenn.-based independent sales organization, says it will supply gift and loyalty card services to Wireless Zone, a subsidiary of Middletown, Conn.-based Automotive Technologies Inc., which has more than 260 stores...

OFFERS TO SELL CREDIT CARD DEBT PORTFOLIOS REBOUND 530%.
October 12, 2007... The number of credit card debt portfolios for sale on public Web sites soared 530% last week, climbing back up the roller coaster from $18.1 million to $114.5 million. One of the portfolios carries a $59 million face-value offer from Encore...

REPORT PREDICTS CONTINUED DEBIT CARD GROWTH DESPITE SHAKY ECONOMY.
October 12, 2007... The debit card market will continue to grow through 2009 despite tighter credit availability and increased bankruptcies, says a TowerGroup research report released Monday. The weakened economy has moved everyday consumer purchases, such as...

HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS AIMS TO DOMINATE REMOTE-DEPOSIT CHECKING.(Brief article)
October 12, 2007... A new service from Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a Princeton, N.J.-based processor, will let businesses electronically deposit checks into bank accounts. Dubbed Heartland Express Funds, the remote-deposit capture service means businesses...

CHICAGO TESTS INSIDE-THE-CAR PARKING METERS.(Brief article)
October 12, 2007... Moving the parking meter inside the car? That could keep drivers out of inclement weather for a few moments, so what better place to test the innovation than in Chicago, home of winter winds harsh enough to earn the nickname "The Hawk." The...

MASTERCARD SAYS NEW PLATFORM WILL STREAMLINE B-TO-B PAYMENTS.
October 12, 2007... MasterCard Worldwide has unveiled an automated business-to-business payments processing platform, the MasterCard Payment Gateway, that the card brand says will streamline payments among buyers, suppliers and financial institutions. The goal is...

TSYS TO PROCESS CARD TRANSACTIONS ON THE DISCOVER NETWORK.
October 12, 2007... Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover Financial Services today announced it has signed an issuer-processor agreement with Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS, which will process prepaid and credit card transactions on the Discover Network, a division of...

FUNDSTECH ROLLS OUT FIRST PAYROLL CARD IN U.S.(Brief article)
October 12, 2007... Fundstech Corp. of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., announced today it has signed an agreement to provide prepaid gift and general-spend cards for a national religious organization based in the United States. It also announced earlier this month that...

BRIEFS.
October 12, 2007... American Express Co. has named executive vice president and CFO.... Tony Hayes, chairman of SourceMedia's ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum, has left Dove Consulting, his employer for the past 13 1/2 years, to join Oliver Wyman, a New York-based...

ATLANTA BANK TESTS CASH-RECYCLING ATM.
October 12, 2007... ATM manufacturer Wincor Nixdorf USA is testing cash-recycling ATMs with an unnamed Atlanta bank, Alan Walsh, vice president of banking, told CardLine sister publication ATM&Debit News last week at SourceMedia's ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in...

CERIDIAN MOVES A STEP CLOSER TO GOING PRIVATE.
October 12, 2007... Two firms planning to take Ceridian Corp. private in a $5.3 billion deal have cleared some regulatory hurdles, Ceridian, the Minneapolis-based parent of Comdata Corp., announced today. Ceridian shareholders will receive $36 per share when...

FIRST DATA STUDY SHOWS COMBINED DEBIT USE LEADS DEBIT PAYMENT OPTIONS.
October 12, 2007... Denver-based payment processor First Data Corp. has released a study that shows consumers who use both PIN and signature debit tend to make more transactions than those who use just one or the other method. The "Star Network 2006/07 Consumer...

NOTRE DAME TO ACCEPT CHASE CONTACTLESS CARDS.(University of Notre Dame)(Notre Dame Stadium)(Chase Card Services)(Brief article)
October 12, 2007... The University of Notre Dame's Joyce Center and Notre Dame Stadium will accept Chase Card Services' blink contactless credit cards at the more than 60 concession stands located in the two athletic venues. Notre Dame is the second college, in...

MERCHANTS WILLING TO TRY PAYMENT ALTERNATIVES, ANALYST SAYS.(Brief article)
October 12, 2007... At least one-third of the top 50 Internet retailers and top 30 Internet travel companies accept at least one alternative payment product, says First Annapolis, a consulting and research firm based in Linthicum, Md. Bill Me Later Inc. a...

TAMPA COMPANY WILL SUPPLY INCOMM WITH DISCOVER RELOADABLE PREPAID CARDS.
October 12, 2007... NFinanSe Inc. of Tampa, Fla., announced today it has agreed to provide Atlanta-based InComm with Discover network prepaid gift and reloadable cards. Stores around the country will sell the cards in denominations of $25 and $50, and the...

PROCESSOR SIGNS DEAL WITH SUNOCO IN CANADA.
October 12, 2007... Toronto-based processor Emergis Inc. announced that it has a $2.96 million five-year agreement with Calgary, Alberta-based Suncor Energy Inc.'s Sunoco brand to provide stored-value card processing. (Sunoco in Canada is unrelated to Sunoco in...

BRIEFS.
October 12, 2007... American Express Co. has named Daniel T. Henry executive vice president and CFO.... ProfitPoint Inc., a Franklin, Tenn.-based independent sales organization, says it will supply gift and loyalty card services to Wireless Zone, a subsidiary of...

MEIJER BENEFITS BY MAKING JUST 1% OF TRANSACTIONS CONTACTLESS.
October 12, 2007... Two years after Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer Stores became the first major merchant to roll out contactless payments in all of its stores, only 1% of its transactions are contactless. But 1% of 1 million transactions per day is significant,...

INDUSTRY SEEKS END TO BAN ON E-MAIL AND CELL-PHONE COLLECTIONS.
October 12, 2007... The debt-collection industry wants Congress to lift a decades-old ban against using e-mail accounts or cell phone numbers to contact debtors. Debt collectors and consumer advocates agreed during a Federal Trade Commission workshop Wednesday in...

PREPAID CLOSED-LOOP CARDS GREW 13.9% LAST YEAR, MERCATOR SAYS.(Mercator Advisory Group Inc.)(Brief article)
October 12, 2007... Waltham, Mass.-based Mercator Advisory Group Inc. says in its fourth annual "Prepaid Closed-Loop Market Assessment" that $171.18 billion was loaded onto closed-loop prepaid products in 2006 across 23 different business segments, up 13.9% from...

CO-OP FINANCIAL SERVICES RUNS AD IN RESPONSE TO B OF A'S HIGHER ATM FEE.
October 12, 2007... Co-op Financial Services ran an advertisement in Wednesday's USA Today in response to the ATM surcharge increase from $2 to $3 by Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. The half-page advertisement was intended to "reinforce the value of...

WESTERN UNION TEAMS WITH YODLEE FOR EXPEDITED BILL PAYMENT.
October 12, 2007... Englewood, Colo.-based Western Union Co. and Redwood City, Calif.-based Yodlee Inc. a company that provides Web-site software for financial institutions, this week announced a partnership to provide expedited online bill-payment services to...

TABLESIDE TERMINALS COMING TO RESTAURANT POS SYSTEM.
October 12, 2007... Mobile terminals that diners can use to pay their tabs while sitting at their tables are coming to hospitality point-of-sale equipment made by POSitouch, of Warwick, R.I., says VeriFone Holdings Inc. San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone also says it...

REPORT: HELPING UNBANKED CONSUMERS IS THE "KILLER APP" FOR PREPAID CARDS.
October 12, 2007... Helping consumers without bank accounts enter the financial mainstream is the "killer app" for prepaid cards, says a report from the Atlanta-based consulting firm Edgar, Dunn & Co. Common traits of a successful prepaid card program include...

BRIEFS.(MobiClear Inc.)(Paymentech Solutions LLC)(MainStream Merchant Services Inc.)(Brief article)
October 12, 2007... Shane Miller has joined CrossCheck Inc., a Rohnert Park, Calif.-based check-approval company, as vice president of information services....Simoun Ung has been appointed director of Dove Canyon, Calif.-based e-commerce security provider...

CHARLIE CARD USE REACHES 60% AT BOSTON TRANSIT STATIONS.(Conference notes)
October 19, 2007... Promote early and often when converting public transit payments to smart card systems. That is the advice Jonathan Davis, deputy general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, gave attendees of the Smart Card Alliance 2007...

METAVANTE BUYING 1,800-MERCHANT PORTFOLIO.(First Financial Bank N.A.)(Brief article)
October 19, 2007... Metavante Corp., a Milwaukee-based transaction-processing company, says it is buying the 1,800-merchant portfolio of Hamilton, Ohio-based First Financial Bank N.A. and that the two companies have signed a merchant-referral agreement. Metavante...

AMEX IS LATEST TO OFFER CUSTOMIZED INCENTIVE GIFT CARDS.
October 19, 2007... New York-based American Express Co. announced a new line of customizable open-loop cards this week for companies to use as incentive gifts for employees and clients. The businesses can emboss a message of up to 21 characters on the front of the...

SMALL BUSINESS SURVEY SHOWS APPETITE FOR USING ONLINE BANKING TO PAY FOR ONLINE PURCHASES.
October 19, 2007... A new survey reveals that small businesses are concerned about sharing credit card information for online purchases and that they prefer payment alternatives linked to checking products. The study of 721 small businesses was commissioned by...

STEAKHOUSE TESTING TABLESIDE PAYMENT TERMINALS.(VeriFone Holdings Inc.)(Brief article)
October 19, 2007... Diners at the Austin, Texas, Ruth's Chris Steak House will be among the latest to test tableside payment terminals. San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone Holdings Inc. announced today that the restaurant will use VeriFone's Vx670 mobile terminals,...

CO-OP LAUNCHES FAST BRANCH.
October 19, 2007... Co-op Shared Branching, a division of Rancho, Cucamonga, Calif-based Co-op Financial Services, has developed a self-service kiosk members can use to make withdrawals, pay loans, receive cash advances and make envelope-free deposits. Co-op calls...

ACH ISO LAUNCHES MERCHANT WEB PAYMENT SERVICE.
October 19, 2007... ACH Direct, an Allen, Texas-based independent sales organization, says it has launched Secure Web Pay, a Web-based payment service for merchants. Online merchants using the service insert a "Pay Now" button on the checkout page, which moves the...

BRIEFS.
October 19, 2007... Gifts.com, a subsidiary of New York-based IAC/Interactive Corp. that provides online gift certificates for more than 100 merchants and restaurants, has acquired GiveFun.com, an online gift certificate provider, for an undisclosed price....J.D....

CITI REPORTS INCOME DECLINE FOR THIRD QUARTER:.(Citigroup Inc.)(Financial report)(Brief article)
October 19, 2007... Citigroup Inc. reported net income for third quarter 2007 of $2.38 billion, a 57% decline from $5.50 billion in the third quarter 2006. Citi warned analysts earlier this month that it would have a significant decline in income because of...

DIRECT-MAIL CARD OFFERS TO FALL SLIGHTLY TO 5.3 BILLION IN 2007.
October 19, 2007... Synovate Mail Monitor, which tracks credit card direct-mail offers, reports that U.S. households will receive approximately 5.3 billion credit card offers in 2007. The projection shows a slight decrease from 5.76 billion offers in 2006 and a...

MASTERCARD INTRODUCES MERCHANT PCI PROGRAM.(Brief article)
October 19, 2007... MasterCard Worldwide has launched a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Merchant Education Program for acquiring banks and merchants, the card organization announced today. The card brand is basing the free educational effort on the...

CHASE PAYMENTECH ALLOWS MERCHANTS TO ACCEPT GREEN DOT'S MONEYPAK.(Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC)(Green Dot Corp.)(Brief article)
October 19, 2007... Dallas-based Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC announced today that merchants using its payment platform can accept Green Dot Corp.'s MoneyPak for online and phone payments. Chase says allowing merchants to accept MoneyPak would help reach...