Iron Triangle Payment Systems renamed NPC

Iron Triangle Payment Systems has been renamed National Processing Co. The announcement accompanied news that Iron Triangle and GTCR Golder Rauner LLC closed their acquisition of BA Merchant Services' ISO businesses, which include NPC and Best Payment Solutions. BA Merchant Services is the card processing division of Bank of America Corp.

NPC will now represent the combined operations of those acquired assets, as well as the assets of Retriever Payment Systems, which was Iron Triangle's sole subsidiary. NPC will continue to support multiple brands in the market, including Retriever and the registered marks of its ISO clients, according to the company.

Prepaid market survey released

Mercator Advisory Group Inc. released the first of three reports of its "3rd Annual Survey of the Prepaid Market." The first report reveals that open networks, including American Express Co., Discover Financial Services LLC, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa U.S.A, have established themselves in the in-store gift card market, once exclusively controlled by closed systems.

The report found the total volume on all prepaid segments in 2005 was $165 billion, an increase of $18.46 billion over 2004. Also, the average growth rate in all segments was 31%.

Financial professionals' salaries increase

The average salary of financial professionals is more than 30% higher than the national average, according to the Association for Financial Professionals' 2006 compensation survey.

Of the 27 job titles included in the study, 25 garnered more than the national average salary increase of 3.3%. Managers realized the greatest increase in base salary: 5.3%. Executive-level financial professionals received the largest average bonuses, valued at 34% of base salary, or $46,500. More information is available at www.afponline.org

American workers prefer health benefits and want paychecks processed in U.S.

More than half of U.S. workers, 54%, believe health benefits are more important than higher wages, according to the American Payroll Association's 2006 "Getting Paid in America" survey.

Additionally, more than two-thirds of respondents indicated they would be unhappy if their company processed paychecks overseas; 84% are not confident their private data would be properly protected. For survey results visit www.nationalpayrollweek.com

Debitman receives patent

Debitman Card Inc. has been granted U.S. Patent No. 7,104,443, "Method and System for Facilitating Electronic Funds Transactions." The patent covers Debitman's business model for enabling the use of interoperable merchant-branded consumer debit cards.

Reserve Bank newsletter, paper available

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released a new discussion paper and the latest edition of its Update newsletter. The paper summarizes key highlights from a Payment Cards Center conference, "The Role of Electronic Payments in Disaster Recovery: Providing More Than Convenience." The publications are available at www.philadelphiafed.org/pcc/index.html

PrivaCash receives patent

PrivaCash Inc. received a U.S. patent for instant-issue debit cards. Its solution enables consumers to receive their cards instantly and have instant access to the funds they load to make PIN or signature purchases at more than 30 million retailers and through a network of over 900,000 ATM locations.

White paper examines rent payment

PropertyBridge Inc., a provider of automated payment processing services to real estate owners and managers, released "The True Cost of Processing Resident Payments Using Traditional Methodologies." The white paper examined the costs of traditional rent payment processing and the opportunity presented by automated and centralized initiatives. The paper can be viewed at www.propertybridge.com/white_papers.aspx

Contactless payments not well known

Contactless payment is a success with consumers who have tried it, but the method is still not well known, according to research conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research for the Smart Card Alliance. Of the consumers surveyed, 13% have already used contactless payment; of those who have used it 95% say it is easy and fast, and 84% say it is as safe or safer than using credit cards. However, 62% of respondents rated themselves as not familiar with the technology.

Mobile contactless payments studied

Research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics released a report analyzing payment for goods or services using phones instead of cash or credit and debit cards. The report, "Mobile Contactless Payments - Growth on the Horizon," projects that mobile contactless payment will be used to drive sales of $36 billion by 2011.

TowerGroup examines rewards programs

A new report from research and consulting firm TowerGroup analyzes how rewards have an impact on U.S. banks' profitability and card programs. The report, "Card Rewards: Profits, Pitfalls and Promises," found that although credit cards remain the most profitable product for banks, an overall decline in bankcards is signaling the need for banks to evolve their rewards strategies.

In 2005, only 0.3% of target consumers responded to issuers' mailed solicitations, the industry's lowest historic response rate. As customer acquisition costs continue to rise, the industry's dependence on rewards features will increase. TowerGroup expects that within five years, 90% of consumers with a general-purpose card will have some form of rewards.

Debit paper released

Jonathan Zinman, Assistant Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College, published a paper entitled "Debit or Credit?" It explores consumer response to the costs of debit versus credit card transactions. He found that debit use is "significantly higher among consumers facing a relatively high cost on marginal credit card charges: those who revolve debt, those who face a binding credit limit constraint and those who lack a credit card."

Zinman also revealed consumers do not use debit as a means of self-control; many use debit to save time. And many debit users lacking a credit card do so by constraint, not by choice. The paper is on the Web at www.dartmouth.edu/~jzinman/Papers/Zinman_Debit%20or%20Credit_aug06.pdf

ANNOUNCEMENTS

AdvanceMe opens new office

AdvanceMe Inc. opened a new office in Las Colinas, Texas. Luke Schmille, Regional Vice President, and Louis Rubin, Regional Sales Manager-MidSouth, are charged with serving customers while developing partnerships within the local communities.

Schmille brings more than 18 years of experience in merchant services from his work with First Data Corp. and Equifax Inc. Rubin has 12 years of experience in payment processing after working with Equifax, First Data/TeleCheck and Global Payments Inc.

CFSI announces roundtable members

Citigroup, eFunds, Experian, H&R Block and Wells Fargo & Co. are the five inaugural members of the Center for Financial Services Innovation Innovators Roundtable. Each company made a two-year commitment, including a financial contribution, to participate. The goal is to work together to identify and optimize the business models, products, channels and processes to make the underbanked market segment profitable.

Helgeson recognized as rising leader

Merchant Warehouse President Henry Helgeson was selected as a recipient of The Boston Business Journal's 40 Under 40 honorees for 2006. The award recognizes Greater Boston's 40 top emerging business leaders under the age of 40.

Regulus opens new remittance operation

Regulus Group LLC opened a new remittance processing facility in Atlanta. The 36,000-square-foot facility is located near a major U.S. Postal Service hub as well as the Atlanta airport. The facility is large enough to accommodate substantial future expansion.

Retail Broadband Alliance membership rises

Retail Broadband Alliance membership now exceeds 200 companies. Membership is open to firms that rely on broadband connections in retail locations and whose core products and services target the retail industry.

Smart Card Alliance presents awards

The Smart Card Alliance announced the 2006 awards for "Outstanding Smart Card Achievement" in the North American smart card industry. The U.S. Department of State was named Outstanding Issuer Organization; Gemalto was named Outstanding Supplier Organization and Neville Pattinson, Director, Technology and Government Affairs for Gemalto North America, received the Outstanding Individual Leadership Award.

UBC adds multilingual support

United Bank Card Inc. now provides customer service and technical support in more than 150 languages. The free service is available to UBC's merchants 24 hours a day.

Visa reaches technology milestones

Visa U.S.A. recently achieved major technology milestones. It completed a five-year initiative to re-engineer its global authorization engine, the Visa Integrated Payment platform. Additionally, Visa accomplished the migration of applications to its new data center in the central United States. For the first time since launching VisaNet, its global payment processing network, more than 35 years ago, Visa is running multiple au-thorization engines under one roof.

PARTNERSHIPS

Apollo Hosting, ScanAlert provide free compliance services

Apollo Hosting Inc. and ScanAlert Inc. formed a partnership to provide a complete Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard compliance validation service. The service will be offered at no cost for one year to Apollo's e-commerce hosting customers. The partnership includes quarterly vulnerability scanning, an interactive self-assessment questionnaire and technical support.

Chase Paymentech signs license agreement with IP Commerce

Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC signed a license agreement to use the Internet-protocol (IP) payments framework of IP Commerce Inc. Chase Paymentech will use IP Commerce's open payments network to provide a spectrum of payment processing choices to its merchants.

Qualtex becomes VAR; partners with Dash ATM

Qualtex Corp. joined the Value-Added-Reseller program of Triton Systems. This program enables Qualtex to provide Triton's financial-institution-based ATMs to banks and credit unions. Additionally, Dash ATM, a manufacturer of high security ATM enclosures, entered into a partnership with Qualtex to provide ATM and kiosk solutions for banks and credit unions in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Gordmans extends agreement with First National Merchant Solutions

First National Merchant Solutions extended its 18-year relationship with Midwest retailer Gordmans. The retailer will continue to use First National Merchant Solutions' credit and debit card processing services to accept consumer payments at more than 60 stores in 15 states.

SLIM CD recertified with Global Payments

SLIM CD Inc. recertified with Global Payments Inc. for its Slim CD software and gateway services. It now supports Global's secure sockets layer gateway.

Valutec certified on Optimum T4100

Valutec Card Solutions' gift and loyalty card products received Class A certification on Hypercom Corp.'s Optimum T4100 payment terminal. The certification will enable merchant acquirers and ISOs to offer Valutec applications on the T4100.

National Bankcard Systems selects WAY Systems

National Bankcard Systems selected WAY Systems' Mobile Transaction Terminal as its preferred wireless solution for prospective mobile merchants.

NOVA certifies RDM Synergy platform

NOVA Information Systems granted Class A certification to RDM Corp.'s RDM Synergy payment and check-imaging device.

Vormetric and TruComply update free PCI information

Vormetric Inc. and TruComply updated their free PCI information service to reflect the recently released PCI Version 1.1. The free service includes a combination of quarterly newsletters, blogs by leading PCI experts and PCI-related news and updates.

ACQUISITIONS

Keycorp acquires Optimal Services Group

Keycorp Limited acquired Optimal Services Group from Optimal Group Inc. for a total investment of $3 million. OSG is Canada's largest service provider to the payments and POS industry, according to Keycorp.

APPOINTMENTS

Equifax names CFO

Lee Adrean is the new Chief Financial Officer of Equifax. Adrean brings 30 years of senior financial management experience to the company. Most recently, he served as Executive Vice President and CFO for NDCHealth Corp. Previously he held senior level positions at EarthLink Inc. and First Data.

EFTA elects officers

The board of directors of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association elected executive officers for 2007. Ronald V. Congemi, Senior Vice President of Strategic Industry Relationships for First Data, is the new Chairman.

Elected to serve as Vice Chairman was Raymond T. Crosier, President and Chief Operating Officer of Online Resources Corp. Sandra Hartfield, President and Chief Executive Officer of Palm Desert National Bank, and Lynne Barr, a partner in the law firm of Goodwin Procter LLP, were elected Treasurer and Secretary of the Board, respectively.

Moneris names Cohen President

Moneris Solutions Corp. named Gregory C. Cohen President of its U.S. business, Moneris Solutions Inc. Cohen previously served as Senior Vice President of Third Party Services for Global Payments Inc. Previously Cohen held senior leadership roles at Vital Merchant Services and BankServ Check Services.

Global Electronic Technology hires Daniels

J. Larry Daniels is the new Executive Vice President of Global Electronic Technology Inc. Over the past 23 years, Daniels has held a number of management and executive management positions on the merchant acquiring side of the electronic funds transfer business. He has worked for First Data, BancTec Payment Systems, Card Systems and Concord, among others.

BOTTOM LINES

• Nonstore retail sales continued to show year-on-year gains in September, rising 12.9% over September 2005 figures, the Department of Commerce reported. Total retail and food service sales (excluding autos) rose 5.5% over the same period a year ago. Clothing and accessories stores sales showed an increase of 10.7% over September 2005. A steep drop in gasoline prices led to an overall decline in retail sales figures over the previous month.

• Since Oct. 17, 2005, when bankruptcy reforms took effect, bankruptcy filing rates have fallen to an average of 14,521 per month, according to the American Bankers Association, based on figures from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Bankruptcy filings had averaged 137,000 per month for several years (not including the three months before reforms took effect, when citizens rushed to beat the deadline).

• The U.S. Consumer Sentiment Index rose to 92.3 in October, from 85.4 in September, according to University of Michigan researchers.