The company completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets of CardSystems Solutions, Inc., a payment processing provider with approximately 120,000 merchants.
    Under the terms of the deal, Pay By Touch will assume responsibility for all CardSystems Solutions, Inc. assets and for payment relationships with it’s merchants. The deal was completed primarily for stock and some cash.
    Pay By Touch also acquired Capture Resource, a supplier of integrated reward programs and business process outsourcing solutions.
    With this acquisition, Pay By Touch will be able to offer customers interactive gift and reward programs, customized reporting, design, production, and Web access services. In addition, retailers will enjoy advanced information capture technology, database management and more.
    Pay By Touch will assume responsibility for all of Capture Resource, Inc. assets and will manage the company’s 120 million-plus consumer loyalty enrollment profiles, including more than 12,000 supermarkets and retail institutions. In addition to increasing the Pay By Touch customer base, the acquisition brings integrated rewards solutions and business processing solutions to Pay By Touch customers – especially in its core growth areas: grocery store chains, credit card issuers, healthcare providers and financial transaction processing companies.
    Additionally, Pay By Touch and NCR Corp. have teamed up to give merchants a single point of contact for supporting their entire merchant and consumer biometric needs.
    Using NCR’s biometric-enabled POS solutions, retailers everywhere can readily use the Pay By Touch authentication and payment service with the touch of a finger. Retailers using NCR’s Advanced Checkout Solution POS software and the WinEPS solution from MTXEPS, Inc. can readily implement the Pay By Touch services. The companies’ first joint implementation is being rolled out in select grocery stores throughout the Midwest.

    Atlanta-based S.P.I. Dynamics develops and markets Web application security technologies that meet Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards. These solutions will help ensure that electronic commerce interactions are secure by identifying any Web application security issues and enabling quicker and more cost-efficient risk management.

    Findings in the 26 largest economy states surveyed found that more than one in three small-business respondents (37 percent) stated business conditions in their market areas are good, while nearly half (42 percent) reported that sales are good, while 57 percent cited their sales prospects for the next three months as a reason for being optimistic when looking ahead.
    Strong consumer spending continued throughout the United States, with spending on Visa cards totaling $758 billion for the period from Jan. 1, 2005 to Oct. 31, 2005. This total represents a 12.7 percent increase over the same period last year.
    Non-payroll spending by U.S. business and government agencies will continue a pattern of solid growth, increasing an estimated 6 percent in 2005 to $16.2 trillion and expanding further to reach $17.2 trillion by 2007, according to Visa’s CCE analysis. Small business spending continues to outpace the growth of larger companies with the retail trade, wholesale trade and manufacturing sectors reflecting the largest share of small-business spending by industry segment.

    Located outside of San Diego, Barona is one of largest employers in San Diego County. The casino will utilize LightSpeed’s VIP Preferred check-cashing services, PlayerCash @dvantage credit and debit card cash advance services, and the recently-launched ATM Cash @dvantage product, which enables gaming patrons to initiate electronic check transactions at the ATM without casino cage assistance.

    This agreement represents growth of the STAR Network within Johnson Bank, which previously provided STAR Network access to its Arizona cardholders.
    Additionally, Madison, Wis.-based Wind River Financial, which is the merchant services provider for Johnson Bank, now provides STAR Network access for thousands of merchants.

Debitman is the only provider of a shared network, retailer-issued card. RBS Lynk recognizes it as a debit network utilizing the national ACH system. As with traditional debit networks, once the authorization is received the funds are guaranteed by Debitman.    

Merchants within the Q Comm network can now sell any of more than twenty prepaid products for wireless and long distance telecommunications from STi Prepaid Distributors and STi Mobile. STi Mobile is a pay-as-you-go prepaid wireless phone service that requires no contracts, credit checks, monthly bills or deposits. STi Mobile offers nationwide coverage through its arrangement with Sprint, which allows STi Mobile to reach more than 250 million people nationwide.
    STi Prepaid Distributors offers prepaid phone cards.    

This financing brings the company’s total capital raised to date to over $12 million. Commerciant will use the new capital to expand its marketing, sales and operations to meet growing demand for wireless payment processing solutions.    

Avantel TNS, the new solution, will merge Avantel’s telecommunications infrastructure with TNS’ POS technology in secure network transactions.
    Transaction Network Services also will handle the transport of payments for Findomestic, an Italian provider of consumer credit.
    In a two-year deal, TNS will migrate Findomestic’s credit card transactions from a dedicated in-house Itapac system to TNS’ IP Dial solution. Using an IP connection, TNS may annually transport up to 15 million payment transactions made using Findomestic’s credit card, Carte Aura. The network will transport these payments from bank-owned point-of-sale terminals and direct them to Findomestic’s central server in Florence. Where agreements with banks to receive payments by Carta Aura do not exist, TNS will collect the transactions and forward them to Mastercard and Visa’s international gateways.
    To safeguard Findomestic’s customers against the risk of disruption to business, TNS has installed a secondary disaster recovery route to the company’s back-up site in Milan.    

PC Universe is an authorized reseller of more than 200,000 products from vendors such as Compaq, IBM, HP, Toshiba, Cisco and Epson. With Bill Me Later, enterprise customers and consumers who do not have a credit card on hand or, for security reasons, prefer not to give out credit card information online or over the phone, simply provide some basic information to make a purchase. Qualified customers receive instant credit, followed by a bill from I4 Commerce within 14 days. Customers then have the option to pay in full or, for higher-ticket items, finance their purchase over time and pay in installments, making investments in technology more accessible to individuals and small and growing businesses than ever before.    

Seen as an emerging industry trend, instant-issue gift cards are expected to grow nearly 1000 percent by 2007, according to Pelorus Group. In 2004, nearly 75 percent of consumers purchased a gift card during the holidays, accounting for at least 10 percent and perhaps as much as 15 percent of overall holiday spending last year, according to the National Retail Federation.    

   

This certification enables restaurant operators and other merchants to connect existing dial and serial point-of-sale equipment to IP networks for faster transactions. Certified on a wide variety of payment terminals, the POSLynx220 is now also certified on the synchronous T7P, delivering transactions to the high-volume Quick Service Restaurant sector.
    The POSLynx220 with NetVu connects two dial and two serial devices simultaneously to a broadband frame, DSL or satellite IP network, with no changes to the existing equipment. Featuring SSL encryption and dial back up for enhanced reliability, the POSLynx220 can simultaneously connect payment terminals, ATMs, PC Cash registers and serial peripherals such as check readers and fuel monitors, to broadband IP networks. This alternative to equipment replacement delivers a dramatic reduction in transaction times, while eliminating dedicated dial lines for significant cost savings.    

Through this relationship, ACS will have access to TransFirst’s customized credit card processing programs, 24/7 in-house customer support, and the ability to offer business customers multiple payment processing methods including Internet, ACH, batch, wireless and recurring payments. ACS will also use TransFirst’s proprietary Web-based centralized payment processing system, TransAction Central.    

The EZCSR is a customer service help desk and ticketing system. EZCSR enables agents to track and monitor problems from merchants and ISOs while providing resolutions.
    It enables agents to record a merchant or ISO issue at point-of-call, thereby completely eliminating the use of the traditional paper system. The system is Web-based, allowing anyone, including merchants and agents, to view the status of an issue from any computer. Automatic escalation, tracking the history of a ticket, and managerial escalations when service levels are about to be missed are among the product’s features.    

Poni PIN Cards enable international remitters living in the United States to purchase and instantly transfer money to Mexico. The recipient uses a Poni Cash Card to withdraw Peso transfers from over 26,000 ATM machines in Mexico, any day and any time of the week. No bank account is required to transfer the funds. The Poni PIN Card also includes a free call to Mexico to communicate the secret PIN number found under a scratch-off. Currently, 1 million Poni Cash Cards are in migrant communities throughout every state in Mexico, and because American Cash Exchange, Inc. is the only non-bank, non-credit card company authorizing withdrawals from the Mexican ATM network, cardholders have direct access to the Mexican ATM network to withdraw their money. The Poni PIN Card is currently sold in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson and Chicago, and will soon be available in California, New Jersey, New York and Texas.    

LINK2GOV is a provider of comprehensive, customized online phone and point-of-sale payment processing services, including credit and debit solutions, to many federal, state and local governments and financial intermediaries servicing government entities, including the Internal Revenue Service.    

The new USIP Professional IC incorporates a 32-bit 100Mhz RISC processor (MIPS32 4KSd) from MIPS Technologies, internal memories (128KB ROM, 128KB SRAM, and 256KB FLASH), and a full panel of controllers and analogue/digital interfaces. The IC also provides a large set of patented security and cryptographic features.    

PDS will retain all assets of bills.com exclusive of the bills.com domain and bills.com trademark. PDS and FFN will agree that PDS build and run a private labeled bill payment site for FFN. FFN will pay to PDS a recurring fee for each subscriber they acquire into the new bills.com program, and guarantee $72,000 in minimum subscriber fees to PDS.
    FTR, a wholly owned affiliate of Alivio Holdings, LLC, will engage PDS for additional services not directly related to the bills.com transaction. This includes ACH processing, Returned Check processing, and credit card processing.    

    This solution will enable financial institutions, POS companies, convenience stores and others the opportunity to offer bill payment or PIN-based via an API.
    E-Time System has also established a memorandum of understanding with a large point-of-sale distribution company to be the first development company for the ETS-API. The availability of the ETS-API provides developers for web-based, terminal, client, kiosk and cash register software to access E-Time functionality and capabilities.

    The collaborative program seeks to create greater awareness of fraud issues among consumers, thereby preventing fraudulently induced money transfer transactions before they occur.
    As part of the program, Western Union will enhance many of its current consumer education efforts including expanded fraud warnings in English and Spanish on its “To Send Money” forms; reimbursement of principal and transfer fees in cases where a consumer requests that a transfer be stopped prior to pick up; and increased Western Union agent education regarding consumer fraud; increased notification of fraudulent transactions to law enforcement.

    This contract renewal enables New York City residents to continue to make their property tax payments with an American Express, Discover, MasterCard or VISA debit or credit card via the City’s website at www.nyc.gov/finance.