Electronic Payments Week articles from September 2005

Electronic Payments Week archives from September 2005

Katrina Hit Hard, But Payments Pros Hit Back.
September 13, 2005... Hurricane Katrina crippled a great city. The government fumbled its response to the disaster. The world gaped as officials pointed fingers. But in the payments system, Katrina was the story of dedicated professionals who saw their duty, and...

MasterCard Draws The IPO Card.
September 13, 2005... MasterCard Inc. at the end of August said that it was making its long- expected move to go public in a planned initial public offering (IPO), specific details of which won't become public until it makes the necessary filings with the...

SIBOS 2005.(Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication)
September 13, 2005... This year's SIBOS meeting, held in Copenhagen, was mainly focused on European-related matters--no surprise, considering that SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transfers), while a global institution, is based in Europe. ...

Card Use In UK Going Debit: MasterCard UK Under Investigation Over Interchange.(Association for Payment Clearing Services)(Office of Fair Trading)
September 13, 2005... Last week, Great Britain's payments association, the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), issued a report, "The Way We Pay," that must have been disturbing for some of its readers here in the "colonies." Its main thrust:...

Interchange Financial In The Crosshairs.
September 13, 2005... Interchange Financial Corp., the $1.5 billion Saddle Brook, N.J. parent of 29-branch Interchange Bank, is under fire from Lawrence B. Seidman for what the investor says is an "unsatisfactory" financial performance. Seidman's prescription:...

Who's Who.
September 13, 2005... * G. Walter Christopherson joined the board of Encore Bank following the bank's acquisition of Linscomb & Williams, where Christopherson had been executive vice president and director. (Contact: Encore Bank, 713-787-3103) * Charles J....

New to Market.
September 13, 2005... * American Bank Note Holographics, Inc. says MasterCard International will be using its HoloMag security hologram as well as the standard MasterCard hologram American Bank Note already supplies the association. MasterCard will be offering...

The Checklist.
September 13, 2005... Advanta Corp. [ADVNB; ADVNA] This credit card issuer for small and mid-sized businesses says its Advanta Business Receivables Corp. unit priced a $100 million, three-year note issue backed by receivables in revolving business purpose...

Card Associations Wary Of Federal Regulation.
September 20, 2005... NEW YORK -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York held the third in a series of conferences on credit cards and interchange last week, but the atmosphere was not nearly as charged as it was during the first conference in May, sponsored by the...

Prepaid Cards Set To Take Significant Market Share.
September 20, 2005... Gwenn Bezard has seen the future, and it's prepaid cards. The cards, traditionally a payments card stepchild, are set for substantial growth, the Aite Group partner says. In fact, open-loop prepaid cards are the future payment card of...

Is The Stock Market A Free Market?
September 20, 2005... Capitalism's most prominent home is the American stock market. But a recent study by Sprott Asset Management Inc., a Canadian company, makes a strong case that at least since 1989, the federal government has intervened in those markets so...

Fidelity National Makes Its Move.
September 20, 2005... Last week, Fidelity National Financial Inc. took two steps that, when taken together, are intriguing, to say the least: It merged its Fidelity Information Services Inc. unit with Certegy Inc. in a stock deal, and it also cut a deal with...

Bisys Sells Its Info Services Group.
September 20, 2005... Bisys Group Inc., which has had a long string of accounting and SEC problems but is expected to pull out of them eventually (see Electronic Payments Week, August 23), has sold its well-regarded Information Services Group to Open Solutions...

Who's Who.
September 20, 2005... * Tony Abruzzio joined Global Payments Inc. as vice president of U.S. merchant product solutions. He was last senior vice president and general manager at VeriFone, Inc. (Contact: Global Payments Inc., 770 829-8245) * Lou Buglioli joined...

Sec Filings Offer A Look At MasterCard's Proposed New Structure.(investor relations of MasterCard International Inc.)
September 20, 2005... Editor's Note: Electronic Payments Week has decided to look at the MasterCard preliminary proxy statement to give our readers some idea of what the new company will look like, assuming the IPO goes through. The paragraphs below are lifted...

New to Market.
September 20, 2005... * No Borders Inc. says it will be using and reselling Security Bank's EmpaSys services through that bank's distributor, Transaction Management, LLC, including prepaid debit card loading and electronic bill payment. Security Bank, based in...

The Checklist.(Advance America Cash Advance Centers)(BISYS Group Inc)(Frontier Financial Corp)
September 20, 2005... Advance America, Inc. [AEA] This payday cash advance company says the lending bank for which it markets loans in its 117 North Carolina locations suspended its company- connected operations on Sept. 15 because of an investigation by the...

Open Solutions' Purchase May Make It a Major Player.(Open Solutions Inc.'s future)
September 27, 2005... In one stroke, Open Solutions Inc. (OSI) more or less doubled in size and put itself in position to become a major player in the banking and payments solution arena, if it plays its cards right. In buying Bisys Group Inc.'s information...

Visa, MasterCard Gird For A Showdown.
September 27, 2005... To observers handicapping the war brewing between merchants and the issuing banks of Visa and MasterCard, it seems as though the card associations are prepared to fight to the death, rendering the whole thing a waste of time and money. ...

CardSystems Bows Out.
September 27, 2005... CyberSource Corp. signed a non-binding letter of intent to buy most of the assets of CardSystems Inc. The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, brings to an apparent close one of the sorrier episodes in recent payments industry...

Diebold Reorganizes.
September 27, 2005... Diebold Inc., which has seen its financial performance suffer because of poor ATM sales (see Electronic Payments Week, July 12) said last week that President and Chief Operating Officer Eric C. Evans is leaving and had resigned from its...

Debitman Gets New Investment.
September 27, 2005... Debitman Inc., which has been building a merchant-based debit card network, picked up $3.6 million in fresh investment money from a group led by Cardinal Venture Capital. Eric Dunn, Cardinal's general partner, will be taking the job of...

Who's Who.(Ben Cukier was promoted to partner at FTVentures)(James V. DeRentis was named chief business officer at Bank Rhode Island)(Linda Elliott joined Glenbrook Partners)(Brief Article)
September 27, 2005... * Ben Cukier was promoted to partner at FTVentures, a private equity firm. He is on the boards of Cloudmark, Mavent, Nexxar Group, and PowerShares, all FTVentures investments. (Contact: FTVentures, 415-229-3000) * James V. DeRentis was...

Non-Bank Payment Vendors Pose Real Threat To Banks.
September 27, 2005... Banks often consider their payment processing operations as their last redoubt--some studies estimate those operations comprise as much as 40 percent of a typical bank's revenues, and U.S. Bank's payments-related operations, for one, total...

New To Market.
September 27, 2005... * Alogent Corp. says that KeyCorp will be using its Sierra Xpedite branch deposit automation check truncation product throughout its branch network. (Contact: Alogent Corp., 770-752-6488) * Axalto, which makes microprocessor cards and...

The Checklist.
September 27, 2005... Doral Financial Corp. [DRL] This San Juan, Puerto Rico-based bank holding company, which has not filed its SEC 10-K for the previous fiscal year, nor its 10-Qs for the first three quarters of 2005, says it expects to file its amended...