Cardline articles from September 2003

Cardline archives from September 2003

TELEMARKETERS PUT ON HOLD.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Telemarketers will not have access to the government's national do-not-call registry until Tuesday, one day later than originally planned. The delay is due to the Labor Day holiday, which regulators failed to take into account when setting up...

SHARED NETWORKS' ATMS VOLUMES ARE SMALL COMPARED WITH POS DEBIT.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... The results of a new survey by CardLine's sister publication, ATM&Debit News, that captures pure network PIN-based debit transactions and eliminates duplicative gateway volumes, show that shared networks' ATM volumes are small relative to their...

LOWER COSTS SPARK INCREASED USAGE OF MASTERCARD SMART CARD IN ASIA.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... There were 12 million MasterCard International-branded smart cards in the Asia-Pacific region at the end of June, a 50% increase from the beginning of the year, MasterCard reported today. MasterCard attributes the growth to lower card costs and...

FIFTH THIRD COMES IN FIRST WITH INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY BANK.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Independence Community Bank selected Fifth Third Bancorp as its merchant processor, Fifth Third announced this week. Fifth Third was already processing ATM and debit card transactions for Independence, Terence Mitchell, executive vice president...

GE KEEPS BROOKS BROTHERS IN ITS CLOSET.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... General Electric Co.'s private-label card unit, GE Consumer Finance, reported this week that it has signed a three-year extension of its card program with upscale clothing retailer Brooks Brothers. GE and 185-year-old Brooks Brothers first...

TNB CARD SERVICES SIGNS FOUR CARD-PROCESSING AGREEMENTS.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... TNB Card Services has signed card-processing agreements with four credit unions, Dallas-based TNB announced today. They are - Tempe Schools Credit Union in Tempe, AZ, Mendo Lake Credit Union in California, Nizari Progressive Federal Credit...

CERTEGY CHARTS NEW COURSE WITH CHARTWAY FCU.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Certegy Inc., the Alpharetta, GA, card processor, has signed a new five-year agreement with Chartway Federal Credit Union that expands Certegy's relationship with the financial institution. Certegy will provide credit, debit and ATM card...

RESPONSE RATE IMPROVES AS CARD MAILINGS DROP.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... U.S. households received 1.07 billion credit card offers in the mail during the second quarter, a 17% drop from the 1.30 billion in the same period last year, according to Mail Monitor, the direct-mail tracking service from Tarrytown, NY-based...

U.S. BANK EXPANDS SIGNATURE-BASED DEBIT PROGRAM.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... U.S. Bank today announced that it is expanding its "Checking That Pays" program by offering more incentives for its signature-based debit cards. The announcement comes a few days after U.S. Bank disclosed that it cut its check card's annual...

U.S. BANK WILL ISSUE CARD FOR MALIBU.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... U.S. Bank last week announced that it has partnered with the city of Malibu, CA, to issue the Malibu card, a Visa-branded product. Malibu will receive $20 for every new card issued and 0.1% of the all purchases made with the card, Peter...

THE NAVY THINKS ITS CHECK-CASHING PROGRAM IS SHIP SHAPE.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... The U.S Navy's Naval Supply Systems Command today announced that it has launched a one-year prototype of its electronic-check conversion program. The program, which is called Military Paper Check Conversion, converts paper checks into...

CAPITAL CARD GOES DIRECT WITH FIRST DATA.(Capital Card Services Inc.)(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Capital Card Services Inc., a Sioux Falls, SD, privately held servicer of Visa and MasterCard accounts, has signed a direct card-processing agreement with First Data Corp., Jeff Aegerter, Capital's president and CEO, tells CardLine today. The...

CREDIT UNION 24, ATM AMERICA SIGN AGREEMENT.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Credit Union 24, the Tallahassee, FL, credit-union network, will use ATM America Inc., a distributor of ATMs, as its preferred, low-cost provider of ATMs, ATM parts and supplies for Credit Union 24 participants. ATM America's agreement calls...

FIRST HORIZON DECIDES TO FLY WITH CARDINALCOMMERCE.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... First Horizon Merchant Services Inc. and CardinalCommerce Corp. today announced that they have formed an alliance. First Horizon, a unit of First Tennessee National Corp., will offer CardinalCommerce's Centinel authentication software to First...

CIBC SAYS ITS NEW CARD IS A TICKET TO ADVENTURE.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Canada's largest Visa issuer, this afternoon launched Aventura Gold, a Visa rewards card that's targeted to Baby Boomers and Generation Xers seeking adventure. Cardholders will be able to redeem a lot of...

INTUIT WILL BUY MERCHANT PROCESSOR.(Innovative Merchant Solutions)(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Intuit Inc. yesterday announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Innovative Merchant Solutions, a Calabasas, CA, merchant processor that targets small businesses, for an undisclosed price. Mountain View, CA-based Intuit,...

STAR COMPLETES INSURANCE PILOT.(Star Systems )(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Star Systems today said that it has completed a nine-month pilot in which consumers made last-minute insurance payments either on the telephone or over the Internet with their Star-branded debit cards. The payments were treated like...

BOSTON-AREA BANK WILL PUT CUSTOMER PHOTOS ON DEBIT CARDS.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Cambridge, MA-based Cambridge Bancorp will put cardholder photos on its ATM and signature-based MasterCard Debit cards, Marketing Director Robert Siegrist tells CardLine today. Cambridge, which has nine branches and 25 ATMs in the Boston area,...

MAIL VOLUME DROPS IN MAY AND JUNE.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Card issuers' mail volume dropped in May and June because Citibank and Bank One Corp. slashed their acquisition letter mailings by more than 50%, Mintel's Comperemedia said today. Issuers sent 25% fewer letters in May than in April, and June...

SRI LANKAN BANK TO ISSUE AMEX CARDS.(Nations Trust Bank)(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... American Express Co. and Nations Trust Bank, a Sri Lankan bank, have formed an alliance to issue credit cards in Sri Lanka ations Trust Bank will issue the American Express Green and Gold credit cards, which will be denominated in Sri Lankan...

CYOTA SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH LARGEST CZECH PROCESSOR.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Cyota today announced that it has signed an agreement with MUZO a.s., the Czech Republic's largest card processor. Under the terms of the agreement, MUZO, which processes more than 3 million cards, will offer Cyota's 3D Secure to MUZO'S issuing...

VISA WILL SIMPLIFY CHARGEBACK PROGRAM AFTER COMPLAINTS.
September 5, 2003... In response to feedback from acquirers that too many merchants were being flagged for high chargebacks, Visa USA on Oct. 1 will modify its monitoring program aimed at reducing disputed transactions, CardLine has learned. Under the new...

14 TO COMMENT ON IDENTITY THEFT.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Card issuers and other interested parties have until Oct. 14 to comment on proposed federal guidelines requiring financial institutions to develop programs to protect against identity theft. The guidelines include procedures for notifying...

BANK ONE INTRODUCES NEW REWARDS FOR ITS DEBIT CARD.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Bank One Corp.'s signature-based debit card has a new rewards program for small businesses, a Bank One spokesperson tells CardLine today. The Chicago-based bank began promoting THE ONE Business Card during the last couple of weeks to its...

DMA LOBBIES AGAINST CALIFORNIA LEGISLATION.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... The Direct Marketing Association is calling on members to help stop passage of a bill pending in the California Legislature. The legislation, if enacted, would force companies to record and provide to consumers any information they have shared...

PROCESSORS CONTINUE ON THEIR WALL STREET ROLL.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Eleven transaction processors posted a mean return of 6.22% in August compared with respective returns of 2.13% for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and 1.97% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Chicago-based Barrington Research reports....

CITICORP PAYROLL CARD HOLDERS GET SURCHARGE-FREE ATM ACCESS.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... Citicorp Electronic Financial Services and Allpoint, the Bethesda, MD-based surcharge-free ATM network operator, today announced that Allpoint will provide surcharge-free access for Citicorp's payroll debit card holders. In an announcement,...

NPC TAKES ITS AGREEMENT WITH STARBUCKS NORTH OF THE BORDER.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2003... National Processing Co. today announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement to process credit card transactions for Starbucks Corp. in Canada PC, a subsidiary of Louisville, KY-based National Processing Inc., will process and settle...

FTC REPORT BLURS LINES BETWEEN CARD THEFT AND IDENTITY THEFT.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... The Federal Trade Commission's recent survey report on identity theft blurred the lines between credit card theft and identity theft, Avivah Litan, vice president and research director of financial services for Gartner Inc., tells CardLine...

DO-NOT-CALL REGISTRY MEANS DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT MARKETERS.
September 12, 2003... The Federal Trade Commission's announcement that 48.4 million people had enrolled in its do-not-call registry by Tuesday's deadline elicited mixed reactions from card-marketing experts. Marc Sacher, director at Auriemma Consulting Group Inc.,...

METRIS SHARES RISE.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Metris Companies Inc.'s shares rose 16% to $4.28 in mid-afternoon trading today after an analyst reported that recent negative news about the subprime card issuer's funding problems is overblown. In a report called "Metris - To the Moon,"...

CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES CARD TAKES FLIGHT.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... China Southern Airlines, China's largest, yesterday announced that it has launched a Visa-branded rewards credit card. China's Guangdong Development Bank will issue the card called the Sky Pearl Club. Sky Pearl is offering three cards, Jeff...

PROVIDENTIAL CREATES DIVISION TO ISSUE PRIVATE-LABEL CARDS.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Providential Holdings Inc., a Fountain Valley, CA, company, has opened a new division, Touchlink Communications, to issue prepaid calling cards and prepaid general cards, Henry Fahman, Providential's chairman and CEO, tells CardLine today....

NPC'S NEW CONTRACT GIVES IT VISION.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... National Processing Co. LLC yesterday announced that it has signed a multi-year card-processing contract with Luxottica Retail, the North American retail segment of Luxottica Group S.p.A. of Milan, Italy PC, a subsidiary of Louisville, KY-based...

GLOBAL PAYMENTS ELECTS TWO NEW BOARD MEMBERS.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Global Payments Inc. Wednesday announced that it has elected two members to its board of directors. The new board members are Alan M. Silberstein and Raymond L. Killian Jr. Killian is chairman of Investment Technology Group Inc., a developer of...

MERRILL LYNCH IS BULLISH ON MBNA.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Merrill Lynch & Co. and MBNA Corp. have signed an agreement in which MBNA will issue a credit card to Merrill Lynch's clients, a Merrill Lynch spokesperson tells CardLine today. "Our clients have been asking for a credit card; it is our first...

FIRST DATA, CONCORD SUPPLY JUSTICE WITH MORE ABOUT MERGER.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... First Data Corp. and Concord EFS Inc. reported late Friday that they had complied with the U.S. Department of Justice's second request for additional information concerning First Data's proposed purchase of Concord. The DOJ is investigating the...

CANADIAN CREDIT QUALITY SLIPS SLIGHTLY.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... The quality of Canadian credit card portfolios slipped during the second quarter, with chargeoffs rising to 3.15% of receivables from 3.07% in 2002's second quarter, according to Moody's Investors Services' Canadian Credit Card Index. The...

WARM WEATHER FAILS TO WARM UP REVOLVING CREDIT.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Growth in consumer revolving credit moved into positive territory in July, but otherwise was lackluster, according to data released this afternoon by the Federal Reserve. The Fed says revolving credit grew at a seasonally adjusted annualized...

AMERICANS BACK ON TRACK TO USE MORE CREDIT.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Americans said they will use more credit this month and in the next six months, according to a survey released today by Cambridge Consumer Credit Index. The index, which climbed six points to 61, was led by women and African Americans, Allen...

MONERIS EXTENDS ITS AGREEMENT WITH ILLINOIS.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Merchant acquirer, Moneris Solutions, today announced that it has extended its contract to process credit and debit card and electronic check transactions for the Illinois Secretary of State's Office. Terms of the multi-year agreement were not...

PROVIDENT BANK SELECTS CARDINAL COMMERCE.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Provident Bank and CardinalCommerce Corp. today said that Provident will offer Cardinal Centinel, CardinalCommerce's payment authentication software, to its online merchants, according to a news release. Cardinal Centinel provides merchants...

HYPERCOM TERMINALS TO SUPPORT CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Hypercom Corp., a Phoenix-based point-of-sale terminal maker, today announced that its ICE 5500Plus and ICE 6000Plus terminals will incorporate antennae and readers so they can accept transactions initiated with MasterCard International's...

VISA DISCLOSES ORGANIZATIONAL REALIGNMENT.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Visa USA yesterday announced an organizational realignment in which the card association is cutting jobs in some areas while preparing to hire people elsewhere. A Visa spokesperson says the San Francisco-based company notified approximately 65...

MOVIETICKETS.COM ADDS A BRITISH ACCENT.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... MovieTickets.com, the Boca Raton, FL, service that enables moviegoers to purchase their tickets online with a credit card from their home or office, has expanded its service to the United Kingdom, Stuart Halperin, the company's executive vice...

MASTERCARD CANADA OFFERS FREE ONLINE CREDIT REPORTS.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... MasterCard Canada Inc. yesterday launched "Credit Report Week" in which the Toronto-based association will provide free online credit reports to the first 10,000 Canadians who request them, Walt Macnee, president of MasterCard Canada, tells...

HARRIS INTRODUCES TWO SMALL-BUSINESS CARDS.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Harris Bank is issuing two MasterCard-branded credit cards for small businesses in addition to launching a Web-based account-management tool, a Harris spokesperson tells CardLine today. The cards are a business rewards card and a no-annual-fee...

ALLIANCE WILL PROVIDE BILL PROCESSING FOR ORLANDO UTILITY.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Processor, Alliance Data Systems Corp., announced today that it will provide bill processing and customer-information services for the Orlando, FL, Utilities Commission. Terms of the seven-year deal weren't disclosed. The city-owned Utilities...

KEYCORP SIGNS AGREEMENT.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... KeyCorp today announced that it has signed its first-agent bank ATM reselling agreement with Member Access Pacific, a Federal Way, WA, card and ATM processor. Member Access, an affiliate of the Washington Credit Union League, will market Key's...

MASTERCARD REDESIGNS HOLOGRAM TO IDENTIFY ITS DEBIT CARDS.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... MasterCard International today introduced a card that identifies it as a debit product. The word "Debit" is written on the card's hologram, which was designed by American Bank Note Holographics Inc. of Elmsford, NY. The Purchase, NY-based card...

VISA REPORTS STRONGER CHECK CARD USE ON THE INTERNET.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Visa USA today announced that consumers during the first six months of this year used their Visa check cards to spend more than $8.9 billion shopping on the Internet. This is the second time the San Francisco-based card association has provided...

CERTEGY'S E-CHECK ACCEPTANCE GIVES GODADDY.COM A FINANCIAL PUSH.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Certegy Inc. will provide electronic-check acceptance for GoDaddy.com, a domain registrar, Jan Whitfield, Certegy's vice president for e-commerce in San Antonio, TX, tells CardLine today. The agreement with GoDaddy allows the company's...

METAVANTE WILL PROVIDE PROCESSING FOR LAS VEGAS TRANSPORTATION PROJECT.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Metavante Corp. has signed a contract to provide card-settlement and processing services for a transit project that will be administered by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. The project, called the Metropolitan Express...

EURONET SELLS CREDIT CARD SOFTWARE TO CROATIAN BANK.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Euronet Worldwide Inc. today announced that Splitska Banka, Croatia's third-largest bank and a Visa issuer, will implement Euronet's integrated credit card software with Euronet's debit card and merchant-management system. Splitska Banka is one...

AMERICAN EXPRESS DONATES $500,000 TO CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... American Express Co. today announced that it will donate $500,000 to the development of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, NC. The donation will be spent on the museum's design, development and installation of...

ICMA EXPANDS WEB SITE.(International Card Manufacturers Association)(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... The International Card Manufacturers Association recently announced that it has expanded its Web site to include online versions of the ICMA Member Directory and Product-Service Buyer's Guide. The ICMA is headquartered in Princeton Junction,...

CREDIT-RATING AGENCIES REPORT INCREASES IN BAD DEBT.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Two credit-rating agencies today reported increases in bad debt for July. Moody's Investor's Service says chargeoff rates on securitized pools of card receivables rose to 6.87% of receivables, up from 6.26% in July 2002. Moody's attributed the...

HOUSE VOTES TO REAUTHORIZE FCRA.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly last night on a bill to reauthorize the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but the bill is in for a tougher ride as it moves over to the Senate. The FCRA is the federal law governing the use of...

GSA ISSUES 2,600 SMART CARD IDS.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... The United States General Services Administration has issued 2,600 smart card IDs to workers in two federal buildings in New York, Peter Han, information technology manager for the GSA, told attendees at Thomson Media's CardTech SecurTech ID...

FLEETBOSTON STAYS WITH NYCE.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... FleetBoston Financial Corp. and NYCE Corp. today announced that Fleet will use the NYCE electronic funds transfer network as its sole switch for all of Fleet customers' PIN-based point-of-sale debit transactions. Fleet, a co-owner of NYCE, also...

INFICORP'S INTEREST LEADS TO A PURCHASE OF PRINCIPAL'S CARD PORTFOLIO.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... InfiCorp Holdings Inc. today announced that it has purchased Principal Bank's $23 million credit card portfolio in a sale arranged by AssetExchange, a credit card brokerage and consulting group based in Portland, OR. InfiCorp and Des Moines,...

VISA BUSINESS ELECTRON IS GROWING.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... Visa Business Electron, a combination credit and debit card for small businesses outside the United States, is growing dramatically after being introduced in 2002. In Visa's Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) Region,...

JCB AND HERTZ WANT TO DRIVE JAPANESE TOURISM.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2003... JCB Co. Ltd., Japan's largest card issuer, and Hertz Asia Pacific (Japan), today announced that they will work together to boost Japanese tourism. Beginning Monday and ending April 30, the companies will attempt to stimulate demand among JCB's...

LAWSUIT CHARGES MBNA CANADA'S INTEREST RATE VIOLATES CANADA'S LAWS.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... A lawsuit that seeks class-action status against MBNA Canada, one of the country's fastest-growing issuers, has been filed in Ontario Superior Court, the plaintiff's attorney, Marty Doane, tells CardLine today. The lawsuit, which was filed...

JUDGE ISSUES TENATIVE RULINGS IN CURRENCY-FEE CASE.
September 19, 2003... California Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw yesterday issued two tentative rulings and took another one under advisement in a class-action lawsuit in which Visa and MasterCard allegedly collected more than $800 million in currency fees from...

MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL SUES AMERIDEBT.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Missouri Attorney General, Jay Nixon, has sued AmeriDebt, the credit-counseling firm, a spokesperson for the Attorney General's office tells CardLine today. The lawsuit, which was filed in St. Louis Circuit Court on Thursday, seeks to void...

NOVA WILL BUY NATIONAL COMMERCE FINANCIAL'S MERCHANT PORTFOLIO.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Atlanta-based merchant acquirer Nova Information Systems today said it would buy the merchant unit of National Commerce Financial Corp. According to a Nova release, the unit has nearly 10,000 active merchants and provides credit card, debit...

PRINCIPAL BANK SIGNS FIVE-YEAR AGREEMENT WITH INFICORP.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Principal Bank, which sold its $23 million Visa credit card portfolio to InfiCorp Holdings Inc., signed a five-year, agent-bank agreement with InfiCorp, Principal Bank says. InfiCorp, which is based in Atlanta, will begin converting the cards...

GLOBAL CARD-READER MARKET EXPECTED TO REACH $1.66 BILLION.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... The global market for card readers will reach $1.66 billion in sales in 2009, up from $1.17 billion last year, according to the World Card Reader Markets report. This represents a 42% growth rate over seven years and a 5.1% compound annual...

CREDIT UNION 24 SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH MOSAIC SOFTWARE.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Credit Union 24 today announced that it has signed a referral agreement with Mosaic Software. According to the agreement, Credit Union 24 will provide its network participants use of Mosiac's Postilion software. Terms of the deal were not...

CREDIT CARDS DON'T INCREASE HOME-EQUITY LOAN USAGE.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... The overwhelming majority customers who have home equity lines of credit don't use their credit cards to access them, according to a study released today by The Tower Group Inc., a Needham, MA-based consultancy. TowerGroup research shows that...

AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD LOOKS WILD IN MILD CANADA.(new card design by Roberto Cavalli)(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Amex Bank of Canada's latest credit card has the wild look of high fashion. The zebra-striped card, with the blue American Express Co. logo in the lower right-hand corner, was unveiled last week by its designer, Roberto Cavalli. The zebra card...

JUDGE ISSUES TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST TRANSUNION.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... A Wayne County, MI, judge has issued a temporary restraining order against TransUnion LLC for failing to process customer letters disputing TransUnion's credit reports filed by National Credit Education and Review ational Credit, of Livonia,...

VISA REPORTS SURGE IN DEBIT CARD GROWTH IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Visa International for the Latin American and Caribbean Region today reported that its signature-based debit card is growing remarkably. The Miami-based issuer says its debit card registered an annual growth rate of 20% in purchase volume...

MASTERCARD CUTS 40 JOBS AT MISSOURI PROCESSING CENTER.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... MasterCard International has eliminated 40 managerial jobs and has created 120 new technical positions at its Global Technology and Operations Center in O'Fallon, MO, near St. Louis, a spokesperson tells CardLine today. "The 40 employees who...

U.S. BANCORP LAUNCHES NATIONAL IMAGE CAMPAIGN.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... U.S. Bancorp, a leading issuer of debit cards and bank commercial cards, today announced it has begun a national print and cable-television advertising campaign. Bank officials say the campaign is the largest ever conducted by the company,...

FIRST AMERICAN HIRES SENIOR EXECUTIVE VP.(First American Payment Systems L.P.)(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Merchant card acquirer First American Payment Systems L.P. today announced that it has hired Stephen D. Kane as senior executive vice president of business development. Kane also becomes a director of the Fort Worth, TX-based company. He will...

GOVERNMENT WILL DETAIL DO-NOT-CALL PENALTIES NEXT WEEK.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... The Federal Communications Commission next week will unveil details of how telemarketers will be penalized for violating the do-not-call rule that takes effect Oct. 1. The FCC and the Federal Trade Commission will jointly handle the enforcement...

TELEMARKETERS BELIEVE DO-NOT-CALL LIST WILL COST THEM MONEY, THEIR LIVELIHOOD.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Telemarketers aren't buying the Federal Communications Commission's argument that the do-not-call list will make their lives easier. "Telemarketers will be more confident in reaching those people who still wish to be called," K. Dane Snowden,...

NYCE ENTERS CANADA.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... NYCE Corp., the Montvale, NJ-based owner of the NYCE electronic funds transfer network, today announced the formation of a Canadian company that will switch ATM and point-of-sale debit transactions in Canada. The company, Everlink Payment...

PAYMENTECH TO PROCESS FOR FORD DEALERS.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Ford Motor Co. today named Dallas-based merchant acquirer, Paymentech L.P., as the processor for the Fordstar Charge and Check Services Program serving nearly 5,000 U.S. dealerships. Under the program, consumers can use cards to pay for auto...

VISA PUTS THE WORD "DEBIT" ON ITS CHECK CARD.(Visa USA)(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Visa USA has redesigned its check card to comply with terms of the card association's debit card settlement (CardLine 5-1). The word "DEBIT" is written in capital letters and appears below the words "VISA CHECK CARD," which also are written in...

EXAMINER'S REPORT DOCUMENTS SPIEGEL'S FINANCIAL COLLAPSE.
September 19, 2003... Though retailer Spiegel Inc.'s credit card woes and its descent into bankruptcy have been widely reported, an independent examiner's report released Friday documents just how serious the credit problems were. According to the report, investors...

INDUSTRY GIANTS GAIN SHARE.(Brief Article)
September 19, 2003... Eight of the 10 largest general-purpose credit card issuers grew faster in the first quarter than overall consumer revolving credit, according to Thomson Media's new Quarterly Data Report. Capital One Financial Corp. was the growth leader, with...