United Bank Card Inc., recently entered the iPhone-as-a-terminal scene. The company now processes iPhone transactions that are conducted through an Authorize.Net online gateway via the iPhone credit card application. Merchants can download the application through Apple Inc.'s App Store. UBC offers Class B support for the transactions. "We are very excited about this development," UBC Chief Executive Officer Jared Isaacman said in a statement. " United Bank Card has always been at the forefront of innovation, and as new payment technologies emerge, we will continue to embrace such advancements. Being compatible with products such as the iPhone allows us to add another level of service to our merchants."

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In response to a growing number of data security breaches in the hospitality industry, information and security compliance firm Trustwave issued an alert to help hotels and restaurants identify and address security weaknesses. Colin Sheppard, Forensic Practice Manager for Trustwave, said much of the problem involves the multi-channel acceptance of payments. Channels of acceptance include MO/TO, card-present, point-of-service transactions and card-not-present payments done via the Internet.

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On May 19, 2009, The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation that would curb fees and interest rate hikes, as well as other practices associated with credit card issuance. The vote was 90 to 5. In passing SB 414, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (The Credit CARD Act), lawmakers declined to monkey around with interchange.

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While private-label, closed-loop gift cards will remain a staple of retailers' product offerings, Aite Group LLC Senior Analyst Adil Moussa believes they have reached the limit of their popularity. Moussa expects open-loop, network-branded gift cards and other prepaid instruments to erode closed-loop gift cards' market share in the coming years. Moussa said private-label cards are "slightly on the decline." Even though Aite expects the total amount of money loaded onto private-label gift cards to reach $39 billion annually by 2011 (up from $38 billion in 2008), "it's still losing market share in comparison with other form payments," Moussa said.

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The U.S. Senate is slated to take up SB 414, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (The Credit CARD Act) Tues., May 18, 2009. This follows a recent presidential plea for a final bill by Memorial Day. The Credit CARD Act, drafted by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and cosponsored by 21 other members of the Senate, takes aim at sudden and seemingly unexplained increases in interest charges, misleading advertising, the allocation of remittance payments, and unsolicited card offerings targeted at minors.

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The inaugural meeting of the Payments Processor Information Sharing Council was attended by 30 industry veterans representing 20 merchant acquirers and third-party payment processors. The council is dedicated to sharing information about data breaches and preventing attacks on payment networks. As the PPISC's organizer, Robert O. Carr, who is also founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Heartland Payment Systems Inc., felt the May 5, 2009, meeting in St. Pete Beach, Fla., was a success.

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In response to cyber criminals' increasing attempts to steal business identities, fraud and risk management specialists NXG Strategies LLC and identity theft protection and recovery solutions provider Merchants Information Solutions Inc. teamed up to launch IDSafeBiz. "We work strictly in the area of ID theft and breach mitigation for businesses, and we've seen a growing trend of business ID theft becoming more and more of a problem these days," said Sally King, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner of NXG. "So we challenged MIS to develop a solution for those businesses who find themselves victims of fraud and theft."

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The Federal Trade Commission has once again postponed enforcement of the Identity Theft Red Flag Rules of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003. The May 1, 2009, deadline was extended to Aug. 1, 2009. The FTC stated the further delay is intended "to give creditors and financial institutions more time to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs." FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said the extra time will "allow industries and associations to share guidance with their members, provide low-risk entities an opportunity to use the template in developing their programs, and give Congress time to consider the issue further."

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On April 15, 2009, United Bank Card Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer, Jared Isaacman, broke the record for circumnavigating the globe in a Cessna Citation CJ2. And that's not all. His flight raised funds and awareness for the Make-a-Wish Foundation of New Jersey; it also broke 14 more world records. Isaacman sped around the world in 61 hours, 51 minutes and 15 seconds, traveling 22,893 miles.

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Andrew R. Cochran, founder and Co-Editor of the Counterterrorism Blog, delivered a statement dated March 31, 2009, to the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology Hearing, United States House Committee on Homeland Security. The statement entitled "Do the Payment Card Industry Data Standards Reduce Cybercrime?" outlined a number of instances in which stolen U.S. credit cards were used to fund terrorist attacks.

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Efforts by the Merchants Payments Coalition to force a congressional debate over interchange were shot down this week when a proposed amendment to the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act (HR 627) was ruled nongermane. The bill, which mirrors legislation that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last year but not in the Senate, was approved in the House on April 30, 2009, by an overwhelming majority: 357 to 70.

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