NEWS

The Federal Reserve stated in its latest "beige book" report that economic activity remained slow in September and October 2002 partly because of weak retail sales, a weak job market and a decline in manufacturing activity across most districts, among other reasons. The Fed publishes "Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District" eight times a year in preparation for its Federal Open Market Committee meetings.

In other economic news, The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell in October 2002 to its lowest level in nine years, to 79.4 from 93.7 in September. The index, which is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households and measures the optimism or pessimism of consumers toward the economy, has declined for four straight months.

Bill Me Later on Buy.com

Many consumers avoid making purchases online because of an unwillingness to enter their credit card information on the Web. With hopes of winning over these customers, Buy.com, The Internet Superstore has selected to use I4 Commerce's Bill Me Later technology, an alternative-payment method designed for e-commerce and phone and mail-order transactions.

Bill Me Later offers a new way to pay for items ordered online. At checkout, a qualified customer may select this option and then will receive a bill to be paid in full at a later date with no extra charge, or financed over a period of time with monthly payments. Buy.com says it will have the technology in place in time for the holiday shopping season.

Hashman Resigns from NextCard Board

Former NextCard CEO John Hashman, who resigned from that position in September 2002, recently resigned from NextCard's Board of Directors, the company announced. In a letter to the Board, Hashman said, "Because of certain Company actions regarding my Board membership, I feel that I can no longer exercise my fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders and other constituencies. In particular, I believe that I have been improperly excluded from certain Board matters in recent weeks." Also in dispute are the terms and conditions for repayment of a $120,000 company loan to Hashman. NextCard says the loan was to be repaid immediately after Hashman left the company.

Hypercom Net Loss More Than Expected

Hypercom Corp. announced earnings for third quarter 2002. While the company's revenues generally were consistent with its most recent guidance, Hypercom reported that its Q3 net loss is $1.4 million more than expected. On Oct. 9, 2002, the company said it expected a net loss of $36.9 million. Hypercom instead has posted a $38.3 million loss, mainly because of lower margins on products shipped from China to Brazil to accommodate the closure of the Brazil manufacturing operation.

ANNOUNEMENTS

PayPal announced that it now supports making payments in several international currencies. In addition to U.S. Dollars, PayPal's online payment service now allows users to send, receive and hold funds in euros and pounds sterling. PayPal says it also has plans to support even more currencies, including Japanese yen and Australian and Canadian dollars.

Inc 500 Companies Announced

Included in Inc Magazine's latest ranking of the nation's 500 fastest-growing private companies were Heartland Payment Systems (57th), Cardtronics (66), Security Check (196), Cynergy Data (451), LynkSystems (461) and Western Reserve Group Services (467). To be eligible for the list, companies had to be independent and privately held through their fiscal year 2001, have at least $200,000 in sales in the base year of 1997 and more sales in 2001 than 2000.

Alogent Growth Recognized

Alogent Corp. announced it has been included in the 2002 Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the fastest growing technology companies in North America. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over five years, from 1997-2000. Alogent was ranked number 471.

21 Million Smart Cards by 2003

A Smart Card Alliance white paper and study released recently ("Cards and the Retail Payments Infrastructure: Status, Drivers, and Directions") projects that by first quarter 2003, more than 21 million smart payment cards will be in circulation in the U.S. Several large retailers such as Target already have invested in smart card-ready point-of-sale devices and programs and many smart cards are already in circulation, driven by the release and marketing of the American Express Blue Card in 1999, the Smart Visa card in 2000 and most recently, MasterCard's OneSMART program. You can access the white paper at www.smartcardalliance.org.

ALLIANCES

CrossCheck, Inc. will provide check guarantee services to Irving Materials Inc. (IMI), an employee-owned concrete and aggregate company. IMI will use CrossCheck's COD (Check On Delivery) premium payment guarantee solution to receive payment before delivering goods. The COD premium solution is effective when a check writer is not present at the time of sale or there is no immediate exchange of goods and services. IMI will employ CrossCheck's services at more than 90 locations in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.

Visa Exploring Voice Command

Visa International said it has formed a two-year partnership with Vocent Solutions, Inc. to explore the use of biometric security technology with its credit cards. Vocent develops voice-recognition software and solutions. The companies plan to work together to identify opportunities for Visa to apply the technology to its e-commerce, m-commerce and risk-management applications for secure payment transactions.

NPC, Hypercom Partner for Quick Service

National Processing Co. (NPC) has partnered with Hypercom Corp. to provide Hypercom's ICE5500Plus and T7Plus card payment terminals and HFT quick service payment technology to NPC's merchant customers. HFT is a suite of outdoor card payment terminals embedded in a restaurant's drive through menu board or used as stand-alone devices and connects to the restaurant's cash register system. NPC processes for more than half of the top 10 restaurant chains and petroleum brands in the U.S.

InterCept Wins $Million Processing Deal

Sovereign Bank has signed a letter of intent selecting InterCept, Inc. as its item processor. Sovereign is a $38 billion financial institution with approximately 530 community-banking offices in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. InterCept projects the deal with Sovereign to be worth $120 million over a multiyear term and plans to open four new item-processing centers and add 200 new employees. InterCept said it would begin to provide processing services in late 2003, and conversion of all Sovereign facilities will be complete in early 2004.

Mega Merchant Processing Partnership

Wachovia Bank and NOVA Information Systems have partnered for merchant processing. As part of a five-year agreement, NOVA will provide merchant processing services to future Wachovia merchant customers. NOVA has processed transactions for merchant customers of First Union, which became part of Wachovia in April 2002. Wachovia expects to bring in $4 billion in annual processing volume.

Coinstar to Offer Prepaid Wireless Pilot

In response to a growing prepaid wireless market, Coinstar Inc. and Prizm Technology, Inc. have partnered to offer prepaid wireless users the ability to recharge account balances at Coinstar's network of self-service coin-counting machines. Prizm will provide automated transaction processing technology. The recharge service is part of a pilot program beginning in Q4 2002 and involving 75 supermarkets in Sacramento, Calif., Tampa, Fla., and Providence, R.I. Coinstar has more than 10,000 machines placed throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

NPC, Vital Renew Partnership

Vital Processing Services has renewed a multiyear point-of-sale (POS) merchant processing agreement with National Processing Co. (NPC). Vital will continue to be NPC's foremost provider of dialup POS authorization and capture processing services.

APPOINTMENTS

National Processing Company (NPC) has promoted Timothy L. Munto to General Manager of National Sales. Munto, an 18-year industry veteran, joined NPC in 2000 and previously has held sales-management positions at eFunds Corp. and Bank One. Munto will report to NPC's COO, Mark D. Pyke.

Datawire Adds Veteran Executive

Datawire Communication Networks Inc., provider of an Internet-based transaction delivery network, has appointed Patrick Cummiskey to Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. Cummiskey has more than 30 years of experience in executive sales leadership and extensive experience with payment processing in North America. He previously has served as Senior Vice President, Sales (Transaction Services Division) for Alliance Data Systems and as Vice President, Business Development for Shared Network Services Inc. Toronto-based Datawire also announced it has opened a U.S. office in Atlanta.

Terzian to Serve on ECHO's Board

Electronic Clearing House, Inc. (ECHO) announced that Carl R. Terzian, Chairman of the Board of Carl Terzian Associates, a public relations firm in Los Angeles, will serve on the Board of Directors of ECHO. Terzian, a popular marketing and motivational speaker, serves on more than 36 corporate and non-profit boards, commissions, advisory groups and task forces.

JCB Hires Payment Exec for Smart Cards

JCB, the fourth-largest global payment brand and the largest issuer and acquirer in Japan, has hired Julie Krueger to help further smart card acceptance in the U.S. Krueger, the former executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, has been appointed to Vice President, Smart Cards for JCB. Krueger's job is to secure an infrastructure in North America to accept JCB's smart card-based transactions. JCB says its plans to convert its entire customer base to smart cards by 2007.