In a statement released March 27, 2008, The Federal Trade Commission agreed to settle charges against TJX Companies Inc. that alleges that a number of TJX's security practices violated provisions of the FTC Act of 1914, and failed to employ reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect sensitive consumer information on its networks.

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First Data Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are in dispute over how to divide the assets of Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, a processing giant in both card-present and card-not-present commerce, according to documents filed by First Data March 13, 2008, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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In a disclosure that may mark the first publicly known breach of a Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) compliant merchant, computer hackers obtained the credit and debit card numbers of approximately 4.2 million customers after cracking the database at Hannaford Brothers Co., an East Coast supermarket chain. Hannaford, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delhaize Group, Delhaize America, maintains that it was compliant with the PCI DSS when cardholder data was illegally accessed from Hannaford's computer systems during the card authorization transmission process.

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On March 17, 2008, The Green Sheet Inc. launched SellingPrepaid.com, a Web site devoted to the prepaid sector of the electronic payments industry. As the name and Web address (www.sellingprepaid.com) signify, the site will be a resource offering information and analysis to benefit ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) in the burgeoning prepaid market. The prepaid industry is not just gift and phone cards anymore. Funds can be loaded on payroll cards, health care cards, government benefit cards, university campus cards, travel cards and more. New markets for prepaid products exist in airports and doctors' offices, in hair salons and convenience stores, at the local laundromat and at the cineplex, too.

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Fraud is a fearsome word in the payments industry. When it hits, card data is compromised, funds get stolen and identities disappear. And after a breach, it can cost millions of dollars to get a company back on the right track. But living in fear might be a thing of the past. The Federal Trade Commission and Canadian consumer protection agencies joined forces to launch the fifth annual Fraud Prevention Month in March. It is an international effort to raise public awareness and put a lid on spurious actions that lead to data theft and financial loss.

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The battle to introduce limitations and regulations on interchange rates set by Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide is heating up on Capitol Hill. On March 6, 2008, Reps. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, and John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced the Credit Card Fair Free Act (HR 5546) to address the "anti-competitive and secretive" aspects of credit card interchange fees. "This bill does not set prices," Cannon said. "Instead, it would require that fees be set in a transparent manner so other companies can compete for business, and consumers would not pay artificially high rates."

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Leading payment processor Total System Services Inc. has thrown its hat into the mobile payments arena. TSYS is developing a suite of integrated mobile solutions for about 100 of its clients in North America, employing mobile phone technology developed by London-based Telrock PLC. Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS has already begun marketing in North America the short message service application from Telrock that enables cardholders to receive fraud alerts on mobile handsets in the form of text messages, as well as account notifications, and to make inquiries and pay credit card bills. That service has reportedly been available to TSYS' European clients for over a year now.

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MasterCard Europe, the entity responsible for managing MasterCard Worldwide's business in Europe, applied to the European Court of First Instance to annul the European Commission's (EC) ruling on the company's cross-border interchange fees. The EC's December 2007 decision requires MasterCard to repeal its intra-European Economic Area fall-back interchange fees by June 21, 2008. The ruling stated that European cross-border transaction fees for MasterCard and Maestro credit and debit cards violate EC treaty rules on restrictive business practices and that MasterCard's multilateral interchange fees inflate the cost of retailer card acceptance and offer no advantage to consumers or retailers.

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Some big gloves came off; the duel has been savage. And now the six-year patent infringement lawsuit filed in 2002 by Data Treasury Corp. against Bank of America Corp., Wachovia Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. is being officiated by Congress. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., introduced into the U.S. Senate the Patent Reform Act of 2007, S. 1145, which contains provisions that would free banks of any liability or potential damages awarded to Data Treasury for patent infringement. An identical bill, H.R. 1908, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in September 2007.

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