NEWS Fleet One LLC, a provider of fuel cards and fleet-related payment solutions to businesses and government agencies, signed a four-year contract with the Commonwealth of Kentucky that allows government entities to contract for the use of the Fleet One local fuel card at more than 1,000 retail locations throughout Kentucky.
Following the initial four-year term, the contract offers six one-year renewal options. The agreement represents an annual consumption of 13 million gallons of fuel, including fleets employed by law enforcement, emergency services, regulatory inspections and other services. County and city government offices are also part of the contract.
NFinanSe Inc. signed an agreement with Food Lion LLC and Hannaford Bros., subsidiaries of Delhaize Group America, on Jan. 22, 2008, to be the exclusive pay card program provider for participating employees. NFinanSe, headquartered in Tampa, Fla., provides stored value and prepaid card solutions.
Under the agreement, nFinanSe will provide nFinanSe Discover Network Pay Cards to participating employees and manage the execution of the program. This includes the application of payroll payments to cards and ongoing cardholder service and support.
NFinanSe Network has developed a POS and PC-based software platform that connects retail merchants with multiple stored value prepaid card processors and issuing banks. NFinanSe owns and operates the network as a standardized, national network of stored value and prepaid card cash load stations located throughout the United States.
NACHA - The Electronics Payments Associaton's Payments 2008 annual conference will be held May 18 to 21, 2008, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. This event will include new practices that will provide benefits for attendees, including "green" tips.
"Payments 2008 provides premium educational opportunities, and incorporating environmentally friendly meeting practices into the event is the right thing to do," said Danne L. Buchanan, Executive Vice President of Zions Bancorp. and Chairman of Payments 2008.
"The rapid depletion of our natural resources is a business issue with real impact; our forums can serve to inform as well as to lead change."
NACHA is committed to minimizing the environmental impact of Payments 2008 by decreasing the amount of garbage produced by the event, reducing energy and water consumption, and disposing of garbage in an environmentally responsible manner.
According to Visa Inc., 62% of mid-sized U.S. merchants have now validated their compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS), up from 15% in December 2006. These merchants account for approximately two-thirds of Visa's U.S. transaction volume.
Visa's multi-tiered strategy of financial incentives, education and noncompliance fines has had direct impact on increasing compliance among the largest U.S. merchants, from about 12% in March 2006 to 77% by Dec. 31, 2007.
Additionally, Visa has actively encouraged smaller merchants to become compliant with PCI DSS and reduce their account data storage.
Since Visa announced the requirement, 100% of active U.S. acquirers have submitted plans to Visa and are in the process of implementing security programs.
ANNOUNCEMENTSAmerican Express Co. and Heartland Payment Systems Inc. will offer an updated process that enables merchants to accept AmEx cards on Heartland's merchant processing platform.
The platform gives merchants a single source for statements, settlement and customer service. Heartland will provide these merchants with payment processing services on behalf of AmEx.
"Our agreement with American Express simplifies card processing for these business owners," said Bob Carr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Heartland.
"We look forward to helping ease the complexity of card processing for our customers with one unified statement and one place to call for live customer support."
Cellucom Group Inc., a source of prepaid wireless products in North America, has selected HBNet Inc., a subsidiary of Hypercom, for POS activation services.
The use of HBNet's high security transaction transport service is intended to help Cellucom POSA, a division of Cellucom Group Inc., quickly activate its prepaid wireless and long distance cards at the POS.
Cellucom POSA markets and activates prepaid wireless airtime along with the distribution of prepaid cellular phone handsets. With this new POSA service, Cellucom intends to go nationwide.
CO-OP Financial Services, an automated teller machine (ATM) processor that provides end-to-end check imaging technology to credit unions, is now offering a full suite of digital tools to capture, proof and clear checks.
The products include ATM check imaging, fast branch (kiosks) and home deposit. Branch and retail deposits are set to debut later this year.
"Check imaging has rapidly matured and is now capable of supporting all electronic consumer and business checking," said Stan Hollen, CO-OP President and CEO. The benefits of check imaging include a reduction in fraud and transaction errors, as well as processing, courier, postage and back-office costs, and an increase in funds available for credit unions and their members.
Indigo Payments opened its new ISO headquarters in Atlanta. Founded by Erik Hendricks and Linda Kelley, Indigo is operating a nationwide sales force. Prior to forming Indigo, Hendricks was the CEO of RBS Lynk, where Kelley led regional sales.
First Data Corp., VIVOtech Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. have teamed up with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Jack in the Box Inc. to launch a technology trial that will allow participants to pay for their rides and meals using specially-equipped Sprint wireless phones.
Jack in the Box and Sprint advertisements, powered by a VIVOtech chip and posted on BART station walls, will download directions to the nearest Jack in the Box restaurant or content from Sprint.
Sprint's trial phones are embedded with First Data's near field communication (NFC) enabled smart chip. Participants can pay for their fares or fries by waving the phone in front of a reader. Additionally, participants can check their balances at any time.
"It has the potential to allow [consumers] to quickly manage their daily commute and make payments using the one device they carry with them throughout the day," said Thad Langford, Vice President, Sprint.
Mitek Systems Inc., an image analytics and pattern recognition software company, has unveiled ImageNet Mobile Deposit, allowing banks to accept paper check deposits and bill payments via camera-equipped mobile phones.
Mitek will demonstrate the new software at the Bank Administration Institute TransPay Conference and Expo Show Feb. 5, 2008, in Dallas at the Gaylord Grapevine Resort.
Mitek's ImageNet Mobile Deposit supports the payments industry standards for remote check deposit and extends mobile payments and deposit capabilities to millions of consumers who use camera-equipped mobile phones.
PARTNERSHIPSCitizens and Farmers Bank has selected Goldleaf Financial Solutions Inc. to launch C&F Remote Deposit, a remote capture solution that will enable customers to scan, submit and deposit checks electronically.
Additionally, Goldleaf's remote capture SmartScan functionality allows eligible checks to be converted to automated check handling items for collection.
"Today's banks need to promote their products to extend their market reach, gain new customers and enhance existing relationships," said Lynn Boggs, CEO of Goldleaf.
"C&F Bank can now reach out to both current and previously untouched markets with useful solutions, in addition to promoting the institution and its values."
Fair Isaac Corp. and IBM Corp. expanded their alliance to create and deliver end-to-end financial services solutions powered by IBM's open technology.
As part of the alliance, Fair Isaac will optimize a new generation of decision management software and lead with IBM's global business services on systems integration for clients as part of its shared services delivery model.
This expanded alliance tightens the integration between the two companies across all areas, including software, hardware, services, marketing and joint product development.
It also represents a significant commitment to providing clients open standards-based solutions that will allow them to leverage existing information technology assets, lower costs and increase flexibility.
Kagi has integrated TrialPay Inc.'s payment option into its e-commerce platform, providing its merchant base the opportunity to improve conversion rates and increase online sales by 15% to 100%.
According to TrialPay, Kagi merchants can win back customers whose subscriptions have lapsed, convert trial users into paying customers, reduce Internet shopping cart abandonment, prevent software uninstalls, entice customers to upgrade from basic to premium product levels and increase the effectiveness of e-mail campaigns.
Safeway Inc. and Cardtronics Inc. have entered into a multiyear agreement, under which Cardtronics will provide comprehensive ATMs to approximately 650 Safeway locations. The program is expected to be operational during the first quarter of 2008.
Cardtronics will provide a complete cash management, maintenance, customer service, monitoring and processing solution.
"As a Cardtronics customer, Safeway can fully leverage the economies of scale and operational expertise Cardtronics has developed," said Brian Archer, Cardtronics' Executive Vice President of Sales.
Innovative Card Technologies Inc., developer of the ICT display card for e-banking, e-commerce and data access authentication, and battery manufacturer Solicore Inc. entered into a multiyear purchase agreement.
Under the agreement, ICT will purchase several million of Solicore's patented Flexion batteries to be used in the display card.
"Solicore's ability to create flexible and ultra-thin - half a millimeter thick - batteries has helped us to be at the forefront of demand for secure OTP [one-time password] cards," said David Corey, CEO of Solicore.
The paper thin battery is capable of flexing and bending, making it ideal to fit inside standard credit, debit and enterprise cards. Silicore's paper thin batteries have enabled ICT to create breakthrough security devices in payment card form.
Silicore's batteries can be configured to additional smart card platforms via a variety of sizes and capacities to meet the demands of different physical and power requirements. The Flexion battery has a shelf life of three years and enough capacity to power tens of thousands of OTP card transactions.
Sybase 365, a division of Sybase Inc., has joined C-SAM Inc., the makers of mobile phone-based transaction technology, to extend its mobile banking platform to include a downloadable Java and NFC compatible client.
Mobile banking, bill payments, money transfers, person-to-person payments, ticketing, coupons, loyalty, stored value, advertising and NFC-based proximity transactions are some of the services offered with C-SAM's mobile transaction platform.
USA Technologies Inc.'s ePort cashless system for vending now supports Discover Network Zip contactless technology. Discover Network is a business unit of Discover Financial Services.
In addition to USA Technologies' integration of Zip technology into its readers, Discover also has purchased 1,000 ePort cashless systems for vending. Discover expects to deploy the systems by the end of this month.
The terminals are expected to be deployed in vending machines in major cities nationwide and accept all major credit cards, both traditional magnetic swipe credit cards and contactless cards and other NFC devices.
ACQUISITIONSNOVA Information Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Southern DataComm Inc., a payment software and gateway services provider based in Largo, Fla. The deal is expected to close in early February.
"Southern DataComm's experience in the hospitality and multilane retail markets, combined with NOVA's recent completion of an International Processing Platform, will allow us to more quickly develop and deliver a best-in-class hosted global gateway platform," said Stuart C. Harvey Jr., president of NOVA.
PayPal has agreed to acquire Fraud Sciences Ltd., a privately-held Israeli company with expertise in online risk tools, in a cash transaction with an aggregate transaction value of approximately $169 million.
Fraud Sciences' risk tools and analytics are expected to enhance eBay Inc.'s and PayPal's proprietary fraud management systems and accelerate the development of next generation fraud detection tools.
Key personnel from Fraud Sciences including Yossi Barak, Fraud Sciences' Chief Operating Officer, and founders Shvat Shaked and Saar Wilf, will join the company's technology and fraud management teams.
Gadi Maier, Fraud Sciences' President and CEO, will provide strategic and operational support to the company during the integration period.
The acquisition, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, is expected to close within the next 30 days.
EBay does not expect this agreement to have a material impact on its 2008 financial guidance issued in conjunction with its fourth quarter earnings released on Jan. 23, 2008.
APPOINTMENTSDave Holman has joined Fast Transact as National Sales Director and Director of Operations.
He will oversee all sales related activities from the company's corporate headquarters in Olympia, Wash., and be responsible for the day-to-day operations. He will emphasize the coordination of people and processes company-wide.
José Octavio Reyes Lagunes and Silvio Barzi were elected to the MasterCard Worldwide board of directors. Lagunes was previously President of the Latin American Group for The Coca-Cola Co.; Barzi formerly served on the MasterCard board from April 2003 to May 2006.
I2c inc., a transaction processing and stored value card management solutions company, welcomed Wendy Mejia as an Account Advocate.
Mejia worked in client relations within the retail industry before joining i2c; she managed high profile clients such as Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
Mejia will develop relationships with senior decision makers within i2c's client organization and maintain an understanding of their businesses in terms of current performance and future strategies.
Denis O'Leary has been appointed to the Fiserv Inc. board of directors' audit committee.
He brings more than two decades of experience to the committee. He has expertise in executive leadership, technology, finance and retail banking.
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