The joint venture will be owned in the aggregate — 51 percent by Chase and 49 percent by First Data. Oversight will be provided through a board on which the owners will be equally represented.

    The suit also claims that the practice of setting credit card fees charged to retail merchants is anti-competitive. “In a time when more than 60 percent of our customers prefer to pay by debit or credit card, it is astonishing that interchange rates continue to rise,” said Director of Media and Community Relations, Maria Brous. “In our business, our customers benefit from competition. As a result of Visa and MasterCard’s business practices, there is no competition among banks and ultimately every consumer pays the price when these credit card companies and their member banks impose ‘hidden fees’ on retailers.”  The Publix suit follows on the heals of the antitrust, class-action lawsuit filed at the end of September alleging that Visa, MasterCard, Bank of America, Citibank, Bank One, Chase Manhattan Bank, J.P. Morgan, Chase, Fleet Bank, Capital One, and other banks are engaging in collusive practices by setting credit card interchange fees at excessive levels.

    Known for buying residuals for cash - Calpian has purchased in excess of $1.2 billion in processing volume - Calpian's new products are the answer to tightening payment industry margins. Calpian's WealthBuilder product enables ISOs to sell a portion of their residual base for cash, at attractive multiples, and then, as they acquire new merchants, receive upfront payment for the residuals they would have earned over time, and, in many cases, receive a bonus balloon payment at the end of an agreed upon time period. NorthStar by Calpian appeals to ISO’s who need or want a long-term (between 3-10 years) earnings goal broken down into month to month steps. ISO’s set their own goal and time frame whether it’s $5,000 in one month, or $5 million in 5 years. Calpian structures a formula which shows the ISO how to accomplish their goals. With NorthStar by Calpian, each ISO sets their own long term financial goal, usually in the millions of dollars, which Calpian funds.  

    Pay-By-Touch made its announcement the same day that CyberSource Corp. withdrew its offer to buy CardSystems Solutions, an Atlanta-based card processor at the center of the world's largest breach of card data. CyberSource, a Mountain View, CA, processor of electronic transactions on the Web, said it decided not to buy CardSystems Solutions because the two parties could not reach an agreement in a timely manner to close the deal.
   John Rogers, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Pay-By-Touch, said the company "will look to cross-sell its biometric technology to CardSystems' existing merchant base." CardSystems provides merchant payment processing to about 120,000 companies, CardSystems says. Pay-By-Touch announced the purchase only weeks after it raised $130 million in new financing. In June, CyberSource's Phoenix, AZ, processing facility became the source of compromise affecting 40 million cards worldwide.

   

     Leadpile reports that the recent focus on America’s aging population has blinded many experts from seeing the explosive growth that the “next generation” of “younger, super Internet consumers” will bring to e-commerce.

   

    This latest acquisition brings nearly 70 times the number of portfolios that TNB has bought since it began the agent card issuing program in late 2002.

    Findings from a recent survey of 48 financial institutions of all types and sizes, representing a total of more than 50 million debit cards, provide a factual basis upon which financial institutions can take steps to maximize their debit card business.
   One of the most revealing findings was that the added security of using a personal identification number (PIN) to authorize debit card purchases makes that method of payment approximately 15 times more secure than signature debit transactions, both in terms of losses per transaction and losses per sales volume. Costs associated with PIN debit fraud at the point-of-sale currently amount to $.001 per transaction. By comparison, losses related to signature debit are $.016 per transaction.

    With millions of foreign visitors to California, the revenue potential will be great for ATM companies, including SWIPE USA, the largest manager of ATM and advanced-function financial kiosks in the Bay Area, with hundreds of locations in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and Berkeley, as well as Los Angeles and other areas.

     Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter, pending regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. The purchase is not expected to have a material impact on the financial results of Metavante.

     Bank of America merchant services (BA Merchant Services) is the second largest bankcard merchant acquirer in the United States. The agreement continues the longterm relationship between the two companies, with Vital providing full service transaction processing and related support services. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

     The acquired portfolio, comprising approximately 6,500 U.S.-based merchants processing in excess of $1.5 billion of credit card, debit card and electronic benefits payments, annually, represents a portion of Moneris’ U.S.-based processing business. The acquired sales channel comprises approximately 50 independent sales organizations, expanding Optimal’s existing U.S. distribution network.
   Optimal anticipates that this acquisition will generate in excess of $3.7 million in annual underlying earnings from continuing operations before income taxes and non-controlling interest.

    Though expedited payments initially gained momentum as a collections tool, last-minute convenience or emergency payments by consumers have become the key driver for this market. According to the recent “TowerGroup 2005 Convenience/One-Time Payment Services Survey,” 55 percent of expedited payments in the U.S. are currently ascribed to this “convenience or emergency payments” category. Fully 72 percent of expedited bill payments carry associated fees to the consumer, offsetting service charges incurred by billers and providing another powerful business driver for this market.

    The company’s listing application is subject to review by the American Stock Exchange, which has sole discretion in determining its acceptance. Unless and until the application is accepted, the company’s shares will continue to trade on the OTCBB.

    In a separate announcement, ViVOtech said it had launched industry’s first end-to-end Near Field Communication (NFC) payment solution. The new ViVOnfc solution provides a secure infrastructure that will accelerate the adoption and usage of NFC enabled mobile phones.
    With ViVOnfc, users with NFC phones can “carry their credit and debit cards virtually” and make contactless payments at merchant locations. NFC technology provides short-range wireless connectivity—over a typical distance of just 2-4 inches. Since NFC devices do not operate over a carrier’s radio spectrum, they can be used anywhere.
    Designed specifically to meet the stringent security and encryption requirements of the payments industry, ViVOtech’s end-to-end NFC Contactless solution package includes: an over-the-air provisioning infrastructure for the downloading of “soft cards;” proprietary software to access those cards and software to secure communications between the NFC phone and merchant locations equipped for contactless payments.