Veracity Payment Solutions will offer complete electronic payment processing services and card acceptance consultancy services to small and medium size businesses nationwide.
    The principals of Veracity Payment Solutions are Joseph Cohane, Chief Executive Officer, Grant Putre, Chief Information Officer, and Stephanie Sharp, Chief Financial Officer. Combined, Veracity’s management team has over 75 years of payment industry experience. Edward Grzedzinski, co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of NOVA Information Systems, Inc., is the owner of GRZ Management LLC. GRZ provides advisory services and equity capital to early stage companies, with special emphasis on transaction processing and payments related businesses.

    Dialect has partnered with IP Commerce to leverage its IP Payments Framework™ (IPPF). Dialect will use IPPF to deliver payment solutions to customers in its key markets which include card associations, acquiring banks and merchants.
    Dialect offers predominantly ‘card not present’ (CNP) payment processing services for major financial institutions and also supports the electronic payments needs of their customers.

    TransFirst is a provider of transaction processing services. The company reports that currently it processes approximately $25 billion in annual sales volume for more than 155,000 merchants and 965 financial institutions. Originally founded as ACS Merchant Services in 1995, GTCR partnered with TransFirst to re-capitalize the company in 2000.The transaction is subject to customary regulatory review.

    This transaction will reportedly add over 8,500 ATMs to PAI's base and establish them as the third largest ATM Processor in the United States. PAI now has 315 employees and serves over 40,000 retailers and community banks across the country.

    Surprisingly, 83% say that they rarely or never miss important personal events due to work.

    Ms. Targan is a member of the ETA Executive Committee and has served in various capacities for the ETA, including Chair of the Government Relations Committee from 2004 to 2006 and a member of the ETA Board of Directors since 2002. She concentrates her law practice on payment systems and electronic banking law. She is a frequent lecturer and has published dozens of articles on industry-related topics, including a number for Transaction World Magazine.

    First Data's investment will come in the form of the company's participation as lead investor in ViVOtech's Series C round of financing. Near Field Communication is a new short-range wireless connectivity technology that can simplify the way consumers make payments. A recent report by ABI Research forecasts NFC chips to be embedded in 292 million handsets, or 20% of all phones worldwide, by 2012. NFC technologies will allow consumers to take advantage of new mobile services such as cell phone promotions and loyalty programs, over the air (OTA) provisioning of credit, debit and stored value cards, and contactless redemptions of coupons and offers at the point of purchase.

    The study provides a "window" into the U.S. consumer's wallet, coupled with an examination of their credit risk profiles. It was conducted to help payment providers better understand how consumers prefer paying for goods and services and to provide predictive modeling solutions to improve targeting and profitability across their product portfolio.
    The 2007 study revealed that more consumers prefer debit cards than any other type of payment for point-of-sale purchases. This is the first time in the study's history that debit cards exceeded all other payment devices as the overall preferred payment product. Twenty-nine percent of respondents prefer debit cards versus 26 percent for credit cards.
    Additionally, consumers appear to be conscientiously and actively managing the payment devices they already own and use. This year's study shows fewer consumers are adding payment products to their wallets, and more consumers are eliminating products from their wallets than in prior years' studies. Only 31 percent of respondents added a new payment device to their wallet this past year versus 56 percent in 2004, while 20 percent of consumers said they shed payment products compared to 16 percent in 2004. However, when adding payment options, pricing factors are the primary driver of choice, followed by rewards programs, particularly among the prime and super prime risk segments.

    FundsXpress has more than 500 financial institution customers, consisting primarily of community financial institutions, and First Data currently serves thousands of similar institutions coast-to-coast.

    The decision to merge was recommended by the respective boards of directors in in March 2007.

    As a result of the acquisition, Cynergy Data will process $8.0 Billion annually.