Colorado-based Springbok Services, a prepaid MasterCard specialist via Key Bank, has become the 20th company in the U.S. to be certified for personalizing, embossing, encoding and mailing MasterCard, Maestro or Cirrus Cards for members. Springbok is a provider of program management, processing and fulfillment services for prepaid MasterCard card programs issued through KeyCorp.
DetailsA new research report suggest that “Near Field Communications” technology for payments will shift from cards to phones due to the limited functions of cards. ABI Research says that over 40 million cards, mini-cards, and fobs will ship globally in 2006, compared to 10 million contactless payment cards last year. By 2010, ABI predicts more than 50% of cellular handsets, or about 500 million units, will incorporate NFC capabilities that will be used not only for payments at points of sale and remotely, but also to access information from smart objects. Technology vendors, cards issuers and a wide variety of service and product providers will have to think holistically.
DetailsMontana-based Zoot Enterprises has released its “Diakon Automated Test File Builder” to enable users to create and modify test files to accurately and completely evaluate an institution’s decisioning logic and audit the performance of credit scoring applications. Diakon users can easily create and modify test files to accurately and completely evaluate an institution’s decisioning logic and audit the performance of credit scoring applications. Diakon’s browser-based architecture lets users build as many custom test files as necessary to thoroughly test and evaluate decisioning logic by using a range of possible data elements and values. Diakon is a Java-based application accessed through a standard Web browser.
DetailsVeriFone reported that its profits rose 70% to $15.0 million for the three months ending April 30th. Revenues for the quarter were up 21% to $142.2 million compared to one-year ago, driven by a 38% increase in net revenues from its International business. During the quarter the Company announced its upcoming acquisition of Lipman, valued at $793 million. VeriFone also announced U.S. availability of the “Vx 570” countertop payment solution and inked a $7 million contract from RBS Lynk to provide payment solution systems and connectivity services for resale to U.S. merchants. For complete details on VeriFone’s latest performance, visit CardData ([www.carddata.com][1])
REVENUE HISTORICAL
1Q/04: $ 89.5 million
2Q/04: $104.0 million
3Q/04: $108.6 million
4Q/04: $111.3 million
1Q/05: $117.9 million
2Q/05: $125.7 million
3Q/05: $130.5 million
4Q/05: $134.6 million
1Q/06: $142.2 million
Source: CardData (www.carddata.com)
[1]: http://www.carddata.com
DetailsA new competitive intelligence study has found that American Express, U.S. Bank and HSBC as providing customers with the best technical service levels in the credit card industry. The latest Keynote Systems report has found that overall the credit card industry recorded just average reliability, with just 97.9% reliability during peak periods. American Express reported excellent reliability at 99.7% during peak periods. U.S. Bank, Bank of America and HSBC performed atop the Keynote rankings for site responsiveness, an indication of how fast the sites were in downloading pages and executing transactions.
DetailsWA-based New Edge Networks via Chase Paymentech Solutions provides end-to-end compliance with PCI security standards. Direct connections are part of a New Edge Networks strategic initiative called ARNie, short for America’s Retail Network information exchange. The new connections are exclusive for PCI-compliant bankcard data traffic. In 2005, Chase Paymentech processed approximately 15.5 billion transactions and more than $560 billion in annual bankcard volume.New Edge Networks builds and manages networks for businesses and communications providers.
DetailsBofA, BB&T, Chase, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo and First Data have teamed together to fight fraud. The newly formed entity, Early Warning Services LLC, will combine the fraud prevention expertise of the owners with the intellectual property and assets of Primary Payment Systems and IDLogix. PPS and IDLogix are subsidiaries of First Data. The group says fraud costs financial institutions and retailers more than $50 billion each year. “Early Warning” fraud solutions save more than $1 billion in annual loss avoidance.
DetailsNashville-based Brown Investments is now expanding beyond casinos ATMs to deploying ATMs at the Memphis International Airport. Brown Investments is also one of the largest, private owners of ATMs in the country and offers a turnkey investment solution for businesses. The ATM business package includes: a complete, lifetime service contract; site selection and lease negotiations; and cash rental and replenishment options.
DetailsNCR and Novell announced a global agreement to offer Novell “Linux Point of Service” on NCR “RealPOS” retail point-of-sale terminals. NCR’s plans call for offering Novell Linux Point of Service on NCR EasyPoint kiosks and NCR FastLane self-checkout.
DetailsASK has announced that contactless “Navigo” travel cards have replaced the
paper-based “Carte Orange” for weekly and monthly travel as of May 20, 2006.
The new “Navigo” card is a dual interface
(contact/contactless) microprocessor card. The “Navigo” pass is already
used by more than 1.5 million IntÃÂégrale or Imagine’R annual travel card
subscribers, and the new system is welcomed and endorsed by the RATP , the
SNCF and 93 private operators. ASK is a leading supplier of contactless
cards, tickets, RFID tags and readers to the mass transit, access control,
banking, ID, supply chain and logistics markets.
A new analysis concludes that the combination of rising interest rates and declining home price appreciation will significantly impact bank earnings going forward since loans to consumers represent 53% of total U.S. bank loan portfolios. Overall, the annual loan growth rate in the consumer sector slowed from 16.1% in 2004 to 8.3% in 2005, with credit card balances growing by nearly 18% in 2004 but contracting by 1% in 2005. The special report by the A.M. Best Co. says that loan growth in the consumer sector was relatively benign in the fourth quarter at 1.1% and was markedly lower than in the fourth quarter of 2004, during which consumer borrowing grew by 3.8%. A.M Best noted that card balances at year-end 2005 were modestly lower at $395.2 billion compared with $399.2 billion at December 31, 2004.
DetailsHypercom has appointed EFTPOS as the distributor for its point-of-sale
terminals and peripherals in South Africa and Africa in general. The
relationship gives Hypercom a strong regional partner to support new and
underserved channels in the technologically advanced South African market,
as well as to expand Hypercom’s footprint to nearby countries with less
mature electronic card payment systems. Hypercom already has a
significant customer base among retailers, banks, restaurants, hotels and
service professionals in South Africa. EFTPOS will build on that base, as
well as pursue additional opportunities. Hypercom’s portfolio supports
all of those scenarios with products from stand-alone single terminals to
large multilane fully integrated systems. Hypercom products are also
compliant with the global EMV standard for chip-based debit and credit
cards as well as the PCI standard for hardware and software security.