NEWSVisa Inc., the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau held a press conference to educate consumers about online scams that employ free trials with a negative option feature.
Negative option schemes require consumers to opt out to prevent being automatically enrolled in additional services or programs for which their payment cards are charged. An online Visa survey estimated these scams victimized 29 percent of American consumers.
Visa continually scans its payment network, looking for merchants with large numbers of cardholder disputes, because this often points to deceptive marketing techniques. Perpetrators typically have 20-times more consumer disputes than the average online retailer, according to Visa. When Visa detects excessive consumer disputes, it requires the offending merchant and its bank to correct the problem or risk losing Visa acceptance privileges.
The FTC provided five guidelines for the appropriate use of negative options:
Hypercom Corp. and The McDonnell Group LLC, a technology-focused investment fund, signed a letter of intent to establish a joint venture, Phoenix Managed Networks LLC. The new company will equip payment processors, banks and retailers worldwide with data communication services for transaction-based applications.
PMN will acquire and operate Hypercom's HBNet transaction transport enterprise, and John McDonnell Jr. will serve as the joint venture's Chief Executive Officer.
"We believe that the combination of Hypercom's HBNet business and Jack McDonnell's in-depth knowledge and expertise in data communications will significantly enhance our ability to expand market share and deliver strong returns for Hypercom's shareholders and business partners," said Philippe Tartavull, CEO and President of Hypercom.
PayPal Inc.'s Send Money application is now available for Research in Motion Ltd. BlackBerry smart phones. The application can be downloaded for free at BlackBerry App World (http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/appworld). With this application, BlackBerry users can send money to people listed in their phones' address books. Recent activity and account balances can also be accessed directly from the BlackBerry smart phone. "We're thrilled that BlackBerry smart-phone users now have an easy way to send money to almost anyone with a phone number or e-mail address anywhere in the world, directly from their phones," said Eric Duprat, General Manager of PayPal Mobile. PayPal, an eBay company, boasts more than 78 million active accounts in 190 markets and 24 currencies worldwide.
ANNOUNCEMENTSNaperville, Ill.-based BluePay released a payment processing solution to help nonprofits streamline donations with an online payment solution that accepts credit cards and automated clearing house payments. The solution employs a customized, hosted Web form that matches the appearance of the organization's Web site.
Bottomline Technologies received a UK IT Industry Award for "innovation and strategic value derived from cloud computing deployed to transform its order to cash process." The awards are a joint venture between the British Computing Society and Computing magazine.
In a segment of Comodo's Internet Security Insider video blog series, Comodo CEO Melih Abdulhayoglu responded to an Internet Crime Complaint Center press release that reported "the FBI is aware of an estimated loss to victims in excess of $150 million" from rogue anti-virus attacks.
In another video blog in the Comodo series, Abdulhayoglu offers advice to the newly appointed White House Cybersecurity Coordinator, Howard Schmidt. Both videos can be accessed on Comodo's site at www.comodo.tv.
CRE Secure Payments LLC launched two interfaces to simply and securely integrate Internet-based retailers and Web-based applications with its online payment acceptance and security services. The new developer tools are said to help reduce the burden of Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) compliance by isolating cardholder data from the online store or application.
Federated Payments Systems LLC's U.S. Marines Toys for Tots campaign netted more than 1,000 pounds of toys for underprivileged children. "I'm truly proud of all our employees who share the same sense of community and honorable values that my family and I continue to hold so close," said Federated CEO Jon Levitt.
ILD Teleservices, an alternative payment processing company and division of ILD Telecommunications Inc., is celebrating the rollout of several initiatives, including enhancements to its bill-to-phone merchant platform and a new multifeatured Web site. ILD was also selected this year for the Inc. 5,000 list of fastest growing American companies and processed its one-billionth transaction.
Intrix Technology Inc. released an updated version of its electronic invoice and bill presentment application, TranScend Paper, an Internet-based payment processing system that enables businesses to send links to electronic invoices via email and process payments online. One feature enables buyers to pay for undisputed invoice items while others are in dispute.
Bank Technology News named Larkspur, Calif.-based mFoundry as the top company in its 8th Annual Innovator Awards ranking. MFoundry has made this list for three years running. "While we continue to add new features to our three-mode mobile banking solution, it's our work in payments that will ultimately have the most profound impact for our banking and retail customers," said Drew Sievers, CEO and co-founder of mFoundry.
International mobile banking and payment provider Monitise PLC welcomed two enterprises into its roster of clients using its Mobile Money Network: First Eastern Investment Group, a Hong Kong-based direct investment firm and U.K.-based The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC.
Global online payment provider Neovia Financial PLC signed agreements with eight online, luxury goods merchants for the Neovia Payment Suite. Dan Starr, Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Products at Neovia, said, "The Neovia Payment Suite provides the reassurance of the highest levels of security and makes shopping simple for customers."
The latest upgrades to two ScriptLogic Corp. products, Enterprise Security Reporter 3.7 and File System Auditor 2.5, feature enhancements that the company says will help information technology administrators and their companies with regard to PCI DSS compliance requirements. Both programs are for Microsoft Corp. Windows-based networks.
Leveraging its current and future payment assets, VeriFone intends to enter the payment-enabled media marketplace. The company is kicking off this initiative by adding media advertisements to its payment systems in New York taxicabs in June 2010.
Payment processing and information management services provider Wright Express Corp. ranked 26 in Forbes magazine's America's 200 Best Small Companies for 2009. South Portland, Maine-based Wright specializes in commercial and government fleet solutions.
PARTNERSHIPSThrough a partnership with PaySimple, American Express OPEN, the small business division of American Express Co., rolled out an online invoicing and payment solution called AcceptPay. The solution promises to improve cash flow for small businesses by providing more ways for businesses to get paid and get paid faster, while tracking invoices end to end.
Blaze Mobile Inc. joined mobile marketing applications service provider Tetherball LLC to provide a solution for consumers to redeem mobile rewards and coupons, and pay for their purchases using mobile phones. According to Michelle Fisher, CEO of Blaze, Tetherball's loyalty solution will get consumers in the store, and Blaze will allow them to also pay using their mobile phones, rounding out their mobile experience.
CardinalCommerce Corp. entered into an agreement with NYCE Payments Network LLC to offer NYCE's SafeDebit solution for online purchases to its merchant clients through the Cardinal Centinel platform. With Centinel, merchants can, with a single installation, offer multiple payment brands.
To provide a Level 4 PCI DSS compliance program to its merchants, Element Payment Services Inc. partnered with Trustwave. Element's merchants will now have access to Trustwave's TrustKeeper 3.0 Web portal.
Software development company eProcessing Network LLC certified Global eTelecom Inc.'s Checks-By-Web and Check 21+ solutions. "Expanding our existing relationship with ePN through the addition of these new product lines enhances the offerings for both our companies' sales channels," said Chris Brundage, President of GETI.
Extending a relationship of more than a decade, Fifth Third Bancorp renewed its processing agreement with Total System Services Inc. (TSYS). Fifth Third Bank Director of Bankcard Services Jon Groch said, "The company's TS2 platform has enabled us to consistently deliver the broad range of products with increased flexibility and superior service that our customers have grown to expect from Fifth Third Bank."
Hope, Ark.-based First National Bank selected Jack Henry Banking's CIF 20/20 core processing system. "We are confident that Jack Henry Banking provides the technology we need to better serve our customers, expand our product offering, compete more aggressively and increase our operating efficiency," said Carol Smith, Senior Vice President of Operations for First National Bank. Jack Henry Banking is a division of Jack Henry & Associates Inc.
HSBC Merchant Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Payments Inc., entered into a preferred processor agreement with the newly merged BHF-BSSA Group (formerly the British Hardware Federation Group and the British Shops & Stores Association) which comprises 7,000 small and mid-sized enterprises in the United Kingdom.
Holland, Mich.-based Macatawa Bank elected to outsource its account processing with Fiserv Inc.'s Premier bank platform and chose other value-added solutions from Fiserv, including AML (anti-money-laundering) Manager, Activity Manager, Business Analytics, Customer View and HSA for Premier. The bank's relationship with Fiserv goes back 11 years.
The World Emergency Relief organization chose Tempo Payments Inc. to power its affinity debit solution. "Thanks to Tempo's Web-based platform, our members can now effortlessly generate more funds to support our cause," said Gary Becks, WER Chief Executive Officer.
ACQUISITIONSGemalto NV completed its acquisition of the banking activity of Xiring, a security solutions provider for remote transactions specializing in chip card interoperation authentication solutions.
The price was 20 million euros. Also included in the acquisition were Xiring's technical and commercial team and all associated products, Internet protocols and technologies.
APPOINTMENTSCO-OP Financial Services named Jim Blouin its Regional Sales Manager - Northeast. Blouin has more than 20 years' payments processing sales and relationship management experience. Bruce Fielder joined CO-OP Financial as Regional Sales Manager - Credit Union ATM Services. He has more than 30 years' experience in sales and sales management.
Online payment system provider, ClickandBuy, operated by ClickandBuy International Ltd. promoted Michael Doron to its Vice President of the Americas. He formerly served as the company's Vice President of New Media.
The Merchant Risk Council, a Seattle-based trade association for merchants concerned with the risks of electronic commerce, hired Paul MacKay as Program Manager and Liz Sundquist as Education Manager. MacKay has more than 30 years of retail operations experience. A licensed attorney in the states of Wisconsin and Washington, Liz Sundquist held training and instructional design positions in the software and insurance industries for more than 10 years.
To lead its new payment-enabled media initiative, VeriFone appointed former General Manager of VeriFone's U.S. Wireless Business, Bulent Ozayaz, to General Manager of the new initiative and hired Chris Polos as Vice President, U.S. Media Sales.
Christine Scappa, Senior Vice President of Operations for Sage North America's Sage Payment Solutions division, joined the 2010 board of directors for Women Networking in Electronic Transactions (W.net). The organization, founded in 2005, exists to inspire and empower women in the payments industry.
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