NEWSCertegy Check Services Inc., a subsidiary of Fidelity National Information Services Inc., has accused a former employee of misappropriating and selling consumer information to a data broker. The broker then allegedly sold a subset of that data to a number of direct marketing organizations.
The company estimated July 3 that 2.3 million records were compromised; about 99,000 of those contained credit card information. The incident did not involve "any outside intrusion into, or compromise of, Certegy's technology systems," Certegy stated in a news release.
"As a result of this apparent theft, the consumers affected received marketing solicitations from the companies that bought the data," said Renz Nichols, President of Certegy Check Services.
"We have no reason to believe that the theft resulted in any subsequent fraudulent activity or financial damage to the consumer, and we are taking the necessary steps to see that any further use of the data stops."
The National Association of Payment Professionals has partnered with The Marketing Moguls Inc. to provide NAOPP members free marketing consultation services.
Members may submit an ad, brochure, press release or direct mail piece to NAOPP. PIMPS (Processing Industry Marketing and Promotion Services), a division of The Marketing Moguls, will recommend changes and make suggestions for improving the material.
Every current NAOPP member is entitled to submit one piece for review. Nancy Drexler, President of The Marketing Moguls, will review each submission personally. NAOPP members may e-mail their marketing items to naopp@netdoor.com.
The Federal Trade Commission issued an alert in June reminding merchants that federal law requires businesses to shorten, or truncate, credit card account information on all electronically printed receipts.
Truncation means merchants may include no more than the last five digits of the card number, and merchants must delete the card's expiration date.
Not only are credit card numbers on sales receipts a "golden ticket" for fraudsters, the FTC stated in its guidance, but "noncompliance could open a company up to an FTC law enforcement action, including civil penalties and injunctive relief.
"In addition, the law allows consumers to sue businesses that don't comply and to collect damages and attorney's fees." Congress passed the provision in December 2003. The requirement has been phased in gradually. Merchants with newer electronic terminals should have been in compliance by December 2004. Merchants with older machines were given until Dec. 1, 2006.
The law falls under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act. To download a copy of the alert to share with your merchants, visit http:www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/alerts/alt007.shtm
ANNOUNCEMENTSAlpha Card Services Inc. has launched the AlphaCard Gateway for e-commerce, MO/TO and retail gateway processing.
The product offers ISpyFraud protection, Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode support, batch uploading and recurring billing. Alpha Card Services can also brand the gateway for its ISO/MSP partners and agent bank relationships.
Checkgateway.com, a provider of automated clearing house and credit card payment processing services, now offers its solutions to Canadian merchants, financial institutions and resellers. Electronic payments made either to Canadian businesses or from Canadian consumers may be processed through Checkgateway.com.
Co-Op Financial Services has released two white papers: 1) Evaluating the ATM Insourcing/Outsourcing Decision was produced in conjunction with Dove Consulting, and 2) Analysis of the Incidence of Consolidated Credit and Debit Processing was produced in cooperation with First Annapolis Consulting. For copies of the reports, e-mail Jenni Oberan at jenni.oberan@co-opfs.org.
ExaDigm Inc. closed $12 million in Series B funding led by Dunrath Capital and Valhalla Partners, and joined by McDonnell & Associates LP, the investment fund of industry veteran Jack McDonnell. The round also included funding from Meruelo Capital and Sunrise Investments.
ExaDigm will use the investment to expand product development, operations, and domestic and international sales.
Brian Gannon, a Partner at Dunrath Capital, and Gene Riechers, General Partner at Valhalla Partners joined ExaDigm's board of directors. McDonnell has been a board member since early 2007.
International Merchant Solutions LLC, through a partnership with an electronic payment services provider, is offering online billing and payment solutions to banks, municipalities and all businesses interested in electronic or recurring billing.
The technology will allow IMS' customers to make payments online or by phone using credit cards without paying discount rates, set-up costs or other associated fees.
The National Clearing House (NCHA) announced an image exchange milestone. In May, the association settled 206.6 million image-exchange items totaling $194 billion.
That is 10% higher than the previous month's image item volume and 625% more than the same period last year. Dollar volumes rose from $13 billion last May to $194 billion this May, representing an increase of more than 1,490%.
Participants in United Bank Card Inc.'s Texas Hold 'Em tournaments have helped raise over $60,000 for charity to date, according to the company.
The tournaments have been held at most of the regional acquirer association meetings over the last three years.
The Western States Acquirers Association's fourth annual meeting will take place Oct. 17 to 18, 2007, at the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort across from Disneyland.
Attendees who register before Oct. 1 will be charged a discounted fee of $75; those who register after that date will be charged full price of $125. Registration includes the Field Guide Seminar. For more information, visit www.westernstatesacquirers.com
PARTNERSHIPSElectronic Payments Inc. (EPI) is now a full-service Discover Network card transaction acquirer. Merchants of EPI can accept Discover Network cards without having to fill out additional paperwork. And, EPI will include Discover card processing as an add-on to its current suite of processing products.
EPI will have full responsibility for pricing, processing, settlement, risk management and customer service for the Discover Network merchant accounts it maintains.
Heartland Payment Systems Inc. will provide contactless payments by cell phone to students and faculty of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.
Beginning in July, the university's 8,500 students, faculty and staff will receive a new campus ID card and a separate contactless token designed for use with their mobile phones. Using either the card or the phone, they will be able to make payments on campus and at participating local merchants.
Merchant Warehouse now offers the Blue Bamboo H50 wireless terminal. The product is powered by Charge Anywhere, Comstar Interactive's Payment Application Best Practices-compliant POS software. It also uses Comstar's Payment Card Industry level 1 compliant ComsGate Payment Gateway.
Via One Corp.'s Via One Technologies will distribute nFinanSe Inc.'s Discover Network-branded prepaid cards to Via One's network of retail merchants, including its Prepay Point locations.
The prepaid cards will be sold, activated and loaded across the Via One POS network of more than 10,000 locations. Via One is a POS processor of electronic prepaid products and services.
ACQUISITIONSAmbironTrustWave, a provider of data security and compliance management solutions, is now directly issuing secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates as a result of its acquisition of SecureTrust Corp.
AmbironTrustWave SSL certificates all use 256-bit encryption, which is the strongest commercially available encryption standard. SecureTrust was the first certificate authority to offer 256-bit SSL certificates, according to the company. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
CentralBancard plans to acquire back-end processor Nobel Electronic Transfer LLC. Nobel is a registered third-party processor and card Association settlement end point. Nobel and CentralBancard will become divisions of TriSource Solutions LLC.
Tom Dunn will join the combined companies to serve as President. Dunn, a 29-year veteran of the merchant processing industry, has held senior positions with Citicorp, First Interstate, National Data Corp. (now Global Payments Inc.) and, most recently, TNS.
CentralBancard will continue to operate as an ISO, offering merchant acquiring services through its agent channels. Nobel will offer full processing services to select ISO partners and banks, including BIN services, back-end clearing and settlement services, and authorization services through TSYS Acquiring Solutions.
Heartland Payment Systems Inc. acquired the assets of eSecure Peripherals, which develops and manufactures technology enabling cashless vending machines. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In a management buyout, AXA Private Equity acquired the majority of the shares of Welcome Real-Time, a global provider of payment software for financial institutions and payment networks. The current management team purchased the remaining shares.
APPOINTMENTSMichael D. Capellas will become Chief Executive Officer of First Data Corp. following its acquisition by an affiliate of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Capellas will succeed Henry C. "Ric" Duques, who has served as Chairman and CEO since November 2005, and previously served as Chairman from 1989 to 2003 and CEO from 1989 to 2002. Duques announced his intention to retire within two years when he returned to the Chairman and CEO roles in late 2005.
Capellas most recently served as CEO of MCI Inc. (formerly Worldcom) from 2002 until its acquisition by Verizon in 2006, and Chairman from 2002 to 2004. He also served as CEO of Compaq Computer Corp. from 1999 to 2002, and Chairman from 2000 to 2002.
He subsequently served as President of Hewlett-Packard Co. following the acquisition of Compaq by Hewlett-Packard. Since 2006, Mr. Capellas has served as a Senior Advisor to the investment firm Silver Lake Partners.
PaySimple added Eric Dunn to its board of directors. Dunn, a General Partner with Cardinal Venture Capital, has an extensive background in business management and financial software solutions.
He also serves on other boards of directors, including PayCycle Inc., Adaptive Planning Inc., SuccessFactors Inc. and Tibco Software Inc., and is Chairman for Tempo Payments Inc. Before joining Cardinal Venture Capital, Dunn was a member of Intuit Inc.'s senior management team.
Heartland Payment Systems named Ron Farmer Executive Director of its new micro-payments division, formed in line with the acquisition of eSecure Peripherals.
Farmer, a 25-year veteran of the technology and payments space, is the former CEO of Revenue Technologies Corp. During the late 1990s, he was President and CEO of Debitek.
Allan Brown, the former President and founder of eSecure Peripherals, will join Farmer in the micro-payments division, serving as Director of Micro-Payments Products.
NationalCard Processing Systems appointed Rafael J. Garcia Senior Vice President of its Agent Bank Group. Garcia's most recent executive position was Senior Vice President and Divisional Manager for all indirect lending at North Fork Bank, which Capital One recently acquired.
Kim Lee and Michael Cruz have joined Assurz Inc. as Vice President of Business Development and Manager of Relationship Management, respectively. They bring over 25 years of combined payment and e-commerce experience.
Most recently, Lee worked in The Royal Bank of Scotland's international merchant processing division. Prior to that, she was with Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC.
Before joining Assurz, Cruz spent three years at Digital Financial Group as Director of Business Development. Previously, he was Director of Product Development for Inovant, a Visa subsidiary. He has also held senior project management, relationship management and implementation positions at Trintech and Visa U.S.A.
Timothy C. Oliver will join Metavante Corp. as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer on July 23, 2007. Metavante is a subsidiary of Marshall & Ilsley Corp.
Oliver is currently Vice President and Treasurer of Rockwell Automation Inc. Prior to joining Rockwell, Oliver was Vice President for Investor Relations and Financial Planning at Raytheon Co.
He also worked with Honeywell (formerly AlliedSignal) for five years and served as Director of Finance. He held bond trading and investment banking positions at Bear Stearns & Co. and at Kidder Peabody & Co., New York City.
Ingenico appointed Jacques Stern Chairman of the board of directors. Stern, an expert in security and cryptology, has served on Ingenico's board since April 2005.
He is a graduate of the Ecole Normale SupŽrieure, where he is a Professor and the Director of the Computer Science Laboratory. Stern is a Chevalier (Knight) of the LŽgion d'Honneur and was awarded the CNRS Gold Medal, France's highest distinction for scientific research, in 2006.
The Green Sheet Inc. promoted Wolf Stiles to Director, Information Technology. Stiles, who joined the company in 2004, contributed significantly to the creation and launch of several of our new Web sites, including RodsandWheels.com and GSTravelAdvice.com.
He was also instrumental in revamping GS Online. Stiles will oversee the engineering of several new Internet product launches.
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