Electronic Payments Week articles from April 2005

Electronic Payments Week archives from April 2005

Metris: Out of the Pit, Onto the ... Auction Block?(Metris Companies Inc)
April 12, 2005... In a world where credit is money, how does a company that prints money for a living lose $147 million in one year? And how--if at all--can it recover? Metris Companies Inc. must be asking itself that question every day. Observers...

Carreker Corp. Trying Hard To Keep Afloat in Tough Times.
April 12, 2005... Things could be looking better for Carreker Corp. Business is way down in its main check-related business. But because it has to support its old products in that segment if it wants to sell any new products to its customers--most of the...

Retailers Complain About Interchange Rates.
April 12, 2005... The National Retail Federation issued a scathing critique of the April 1 interchange rate increases at Visa USA and MasterCard International, opening the door to yet more questions about whether America's banks can continue collecting their...

Computer Crime Wave Slows, But Gets More Dangerous.
April 12, 2005... The latest statistics from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) makes it more obvious than ever that compared with the mobile and inventive minds of thieves, financial institutions are having a difficult time fighting the war. While...

AirNet Takes Some Flack.(AirNet Systems Inc.,)
April 12, 2005... AirNet Systems Inc., the check courier, has attracted some attention from a California real estate finance company that thinks the company's plans to diversify out of check transport is a lousy idea. Instead, Pacific Coast Equity Partners...

Who's Who.(Appointments and resignations)(Rewards Network Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2005... * Chris Alexander resigned abruptly from Hypercom Corp. on March 30, effective March 31. He had been chairman, president, and CEO for 12 years and will continue on the board. The board named William Keiper, a board member since April 2000,...

Remittances Done Right Can Be Start of Something Good.
April 12, 2005... Banks may be thinking about the foreign remittance business as a potential gold mine for acquiring new customers and accounts, but if they don't get their models right, they may come up with more mud than nuggets, according to a recent study...

New To Market.
April 12, 2005... * Alogent Corp., says that Independence Community Bank, based in New York, is using its image and data capture, and check deposit validation and management platform called 2019s Sierra Xpedite. (Contact: Alogent Corp., 777- 752-6400) *...

The Checklist.
April 12, 2005... Bank of Santa Clarita [BSCA] This community bank split its stock five-for-four as of March 31, following approval from the California Department of Financial Institutions. The bank was financed last year by local investors. Corillian...

Meta Bank Sees Outsourcing As Means of Growth.
April 19, 2005... Meta Bank is betting it can build itself into a payments outsourcing resource for community and small regional banks, and use that income to grow its traditional lending business. Plenty of people appear to think it has a good shot at making...

Lawsuit Challenges SAR Confidentiality.(suspicious activity reports, Wuliger v. the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency)
April 19, 2005... A lawsuit now making its way through the Ohio federal courts is challenging the authority of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to maintain the confidentiality of suspicious activity reports (SARs). Experts warn that while...

NACHA Meeting A Blockbuster.(National Automated Clearing House Association)
April 19, 2005... NACHA's annual meeting, held this year in San Antonio, was a record- breaker. Just the number of attendees and exhibitors demonstrates how quickly electronic payments have moved to center stage in the payments industry. To certify the...

Computer Security Glitches Hit Firms.
April 19, 2005... Polo/Ralph Lauren is the latest victim in what's become a long-running computer security soap opera. The breach, reported by the Associated Press, surfaced because HSBC North America advised 180,000 holders of its General Motors branded...

TSYS Sets Up New Trade Association.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2005... TSYS' TSYS Prepaid unit says it's sponsoring a prepaid card trade association to promote and advancements of the prepaid market. No association name has yet been released. The association will focus mainly on branded cards using open...

Who's Who.(RBS National Bank, appointments and resignations)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2005... * Susie Gleeson Buffam was hired by RBS National Bank as vice president of operations. RBS is U.S. credit-card arm of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Buffam will be developing new strategic partnerships and operational platforms. She joins...

DiamondCluster to Banks: Wake Up.(DiamondCluster International study)
April 19, 2005... Merchants are fed up with paying high interchange rates and are about to circumvent them, and banks can either adjust or lose, says a new DiamondCluster International study by Carl Hugener and Larry Lerner. "Because banks are being...

New To Market.(contracts)
April 19, 2005... * Amegy Bank N.A, a Southwest Bancorp. of Texas, Inc. unit, says Andarko Petroleum Inc. is using its Collections Web Delivery product. The product lets customers image payment data and send it online. Customers can then view, return or...

The Checklist.(financial results and mergers)
April 19, 2005... American Banknote Corp. [ABNTQ.OB] This manufacturer of high-security documents and related services, founded in 1795 by Paul Revere, says its plan of reorganization was accepted by the United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Under the...

Is The Discover Spinoff A Mirage?
April 26, 2005... Three weeks ago, the board of Morgan Stanley & Co. issued a public statement that most people understood to mean it was spinning off its Discover Financial credit card operations to shareholders, quoting Phillip J. Purcell, Morgan's...

Juniper Bank Hopes It's Ready For Its Closeup.(UBS Bank)
April 26, 2005... Juniper Bank, the $1.5 billion-asset brainchild of credit card industry veterans Richard Vague and Jim Stewart, seems on the verge of growth. Last week, Juniper said it had a deal with Switzerland's UBS Bank to issue American Express and...

Irony Of Ironies.(outsourcing management report)
April 26, 2005... A new Deloitte Consulting LLP study of the aftermath of recent IT outsourcing decisions by major corporations concludes that not only has it all been a big disappointment, but everything the customers thought outsourcing would improve turned...

Eliot Spitzer Weighs In On Security Breaches.
April 26, 2005... As if damaged reputations and lost customers weren't enough for financial institutions to worry about, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is weighing into the overheated atmosphere, proposing a legislative package designed to strengthen...

Visa's Opening To China.(Visa International)
April 26, 2005... Visa International is reportedly moving aggressively to acquire market share in China, even though Chinese citizens won't be able to use credit cards until that country takes its seat at the World Trade Organization in 2007. Visa...

The Last Story About iBill?(Brief Article)
April 26, 2005... iBill, the online bill whose story this past year rivals, for twists and turns, anything written by Raymond Chandler, seems to have issued its final press release connected to that journey (see Electronic Payments Week, Sept. 28, Oct. 5, and...

Who's Who.(appointments and resignations in TSYS Inc., UnionBanCal Corp. and Union Bank of California N.A.)(Brief Article)
April 26, 2005... Richard W. Ussery is cutting back his involvement at TSYS, which is 80 percent owned by Synovus Inc., effective June 30. He helped found the company, and was its first president. He will continue to serve as a director and chairman of the...

The Checklist.(first quarter results)
April 26, 2005... The Bank of New York Co., Inc. [BK] BoNY reported net income of $379 million, or $0.49 per share, for the first quarter of 2005 on revenues of $1.6 billion, compared with net income of $364 million, or $0.47 per share, on revenues of $1.6...

To Hold Onto Cash Management Business, Banks Must Change Their Business Model.
April 26, 2005... Banks have been trying to hold onto their cash management business because it brings so much along with it--compensating balances, DDA and credit card accounts, lending relationships, and more. Since cash management and related payments...