The suit’s plaintiffs -- the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) -- represent hundreds of thousands of drug stores, convenience stores and food stores across the United States that accept Visa and MasterCard as a form of payment.
    In the United States, interchange is the largest component of credit card fees and has a significant impact on American consumers, who are affected by interchange rates that are among the highest in the world.  Interchange rates cost the average American household approximately $232 a year in 2004.
    When consumers purchase goods or services with a credit card, the payment is processed through the merchant’s bank and the bank that issued the consumer the credit card. The issuing bank charges the merchant’s bank a fee to process the transaction. The merchant’s bank then adds its own fee for processing the transaction, and passes on both of these fees – collectively known as interchange – to the merchant.
    “The credit card interchange system serves as a hidden tax, both on merchants and consumers, and raises the costs of all products regardless of the form of tender,” said Hank Armour, CEO of the National Association of Convenience Stores.  “And these credit card interchange fees have rapidly increased over the past several years, despite efforts by individual convenience stores to control these costs or make the competitive market work.” 
    Interchange fees are meant to cover the cost of processing a credit card transaction and the risk taken by the issuing bank that the credit will not be repaid. However, the plaintiffs say that both fraud costs and the cost of processing are steadily decreasing, while U.S. interchange rates continue to increase.  Interchange fees are substantially higher in the United States than almost any other industrialized country.  Other countries have taken action to address the market problem created by these monopolies. Recent changes in Australia and countries in Europe, for example, have decreased rates from about 0.95 percent to about 0.55 percent.
    “Credit card interchange fees are the third-largest expense for many chain drug stores after rent and the cost of labor,” said Craig Fuller, CEO of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.  “These costs have skyrocketed over the past years even though the costs of credit card transactions for the banks have fallen.  
    The suit’s plaintiffs added they would seek damages and injunctive relief to stop the alleged anticompetitive practices of banks and credit card companies.
    “We are not seeking some form of temporary relief; we are looking for long-term reform of the credit card interchange fee system,” said John Rector, General Counsel of the National Community Pharmacists Association.  “The current system discriminates against small, independent businesspersons, and there is no basis for that discrimination.  We ultimately seek a competitive and fair interchange fee system.  Interchange is much higher in the United States than any other country, and there is no legitimate basis for that.”    

    The transaction is subject to further due diligence, execution of a purchase agreement, satisfaction of closing conditions and may also be subject to governmental or other regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2005. The letter of intent provides for an exclusivity period during which CardSystems is not permitted to engage any other entity regarding the sale of its business. Additional terms were not disclosed pending execution of the purchase agreement.
    CyberSource and CardSystems are working with the card associations and banks to provide uninterrupted processing for CardSystems merchants and channel partners. There are no assurances that the parties will be able to negotiate and enter into a definitive agreement concerning the sale of CardSystems' business or consummate the transaction.

    Checkgateway has already started referring clients to Transfirt’s ePayment Services division.

    CardinalCommerce’s authentication platform, Cardinal Centinel, is now integrated into the latest version ProductCart, Early Impact’s e-commerce software. This integration will give ProductCart-powered 3-D Secure authentication initiatives, Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode. Merchants using ProductCart version 2.76 and above can now access these programs by activating Cardinal Centinel via the ProductCart control panel.

    Las Vegas has replaced old parking meters with 15 new meters, covering 150 parking spots, in the city’s downtown business district.
    “As we see many new projects being constructed in downtown, there is an increasing demand for metered parking spaces,” says Doug Selby, City Manager. “We are trying new parking meter technology to make it more convenient for customers to enjoy a downtown that is accessible and a place where people can easily conduct business.”
    The latest technology meters are from Reino Enforcement Technology. The pay by cell phone service is the mPARK service. The cell phone payments are processed by Peppercoin, a payments technology company.

    TNS expects to offer 1 million shares, and selling stockholders expect to offer 6 million shares.
    TNS will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling stockholders. In addition, TNS and the selling stockholders expect to grant the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1,050,000 shares to cover over-allotments. Of these shares, 750,000 would be issued by TNS.
    The Registration Statement on Form S-3 relating to these securities hadn’t become effective by mid-September. So these securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective.

    The financial services research firm says there is a misconception in the marketplace that ATM / debit fraud from phishing is a runaway phenomenon.
    In fact, TowerGroup suggests that the true effect is minimal, with less than 1 percent of fraud losses in the ATM and POS channels actually coming from phishing-based fraud.
    Based on recent discussions with the largest card-issuing U.S. banks, TowerGroup estimates that, on average, one out of 15,600 ATM and POS debit transactions today are fraudulent, almost all of which originates from stolen cards and card skimming. Given an annual ATM and PIN-based POS transaction volume of just over 17 billion in the US last year, this means there were just over 1.1 million fraudulent debit transactions in 2004.
    TowerGroup reports that withdrawal and debit purchase limits on retail accounts helped to restrict total ATM and POS fraud losses to not more than $990 million in the U.S. in 2004.
    In order to successfully create plastic cards, which could be used to retrieve cash at the ATM, criminals need to recreate the Code Verification Value (CVV) or Card Validation Code (CVC), authentication codes created by Visa and MasterCard. TowerGroup estimates that over 90 percent of the top 100 banks in the U.S. check for CVV and CVC today.

    Pipeline paid $200,000 in cash, $525,000 in the form of a promissory note and 900,000 shares of Pipeline Data common stock for Aircharge. An additional one million shares of Pipeline Data common stock will be granted subject to performance incentives.

    The Lipman 8320 will be CBORD-branded and marketed by CBORD as the CBORD “Epic” Card Reader. Lipman supplied its initial order from CBORD after being selected from over 30 POS vendors responding to CBORD’s fall 2004 request for proposal.
    Lipman expects to receive additional orders from CBORD later this year and in the future. The order from CBORD represents an entirely new market segment for Lipman—campus card systems that include customers in the healthcare, corporate and higher education sectors.