NEWSAn amendment to Regulation E, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, dictates that merchants are no longer required to provide receipts for debit card purchases of $15 or less.
"The rule is intended to facilitate the ability of consumers to use debit cards in retail environments where making receipts available may not be practical or cost effective," the Federal Reserve stated.
Visa U.S.A., a driver of the rule change, noted the decision "will make it easier for merchants to accept cards at vending machines, parking lots and a range of other locations."
Reg E requires that receipts be made available to consumers for transactions initiated at an electronic terminal.
Visa Inc. filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for the planned combination of Visa Canada, Visa International and Visa U.S.A. into a single private stock company. The restructuring will result in an initial public offering of shares in Visa Inc. The IPO is expected to occur by early next year.
Visa Europe will remain a membership association and will become a licensee of, and own a minority interest in, Visa Inc.
Hans Morris was appointed President of Visa Inc., effective Sept. 1, 2007. He will be based in San Francisco and report directly to Visa Inc.'s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Joseph W. Saunders. Morris is currently Chief Financial Officer of Citi Markets & Banking, a post he assumed in November 2002.
John Philip Coghlan, Visa U.S.A.'s President and CEO, resigned. Coghlan had led the U.S. region of Visa since July 2005. John Partridge, President of Inovant LLC, will serve as interim President.
Barclay Square Leasing Inc. has partnered with the National Association of Payment Professionals to provide NAOPP members a $25 cash rebate for every lease funded.
American Express Co. reorganized into two global lines of business: consumer and business to business. Alfred F. Kelly Jr., was promoted to President of the company; he will head the Global Consumer Group. Edward P. Gilligan was promoted to Vice Chairman; he will oversee the Global Business-to-Business Group. Both will report to AmEx Chairman and CEO Kenneth Chenault.
ANNOUNCEMENTSAdvanceMe Inc., a provider of merchant cash advances, received a Stevie award in the Best MIS & IT Organization category at the 2007 American Business Awards.
The company credited the win to its Data, Systems and Technology division and its development of an enterprise information system.
Credomatic announced a new partner program providing ISOs and merchant level salespeople a suite of payment solutions, 24/7 bilingual customer service and same-day funding on transactions settled by 1:00 a.m. Eastern time.
The company's compensation program includes a combination of upfront activation, placement and conversion bonuses, equipment sales and lease commissions, and 50/60/70% profit sharing of merchant processing revenue on all services.
First National Merchant Solutions has expanded its offerings in the business-to-business market with the addition of a prepaid solutions team. The company is providing prepaid card issuing and prepaid program management solutions that allow merchants to brand and manage a variety of program needs.
Bob Carr, Chairman and CEO of Heartland Payment Systems Inc., was named a 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. The award recognizes and celebrates outstanding entrepreneurs and business leaders in New Jersey.
VeriFone announced its product portfolio now includes 25 that are compliant with the Payment Card Industry PIN Entry Device standard. The products are among the Vx Solutions and MX Solutions families, as well as the QX 720 and offerings in the Nurit, Secura, OpenPAY and Xplorer families.
PARTNERSHIPSApriva Class A certified Hypercom Corp.'s Optimum 32-bit mobile M4100 Blade for credit, debit, gift, loyalty and check transactions on Apriva's Intelligent Gateway.
First Data Commercial Services will provide acquiring merchant processing solutions to all of CoCard Marketing Group LLC's 60-plus sales offices.
International Merchant Solutions is offering New Jersey Hotel & Lodging Association members low credit card processing rates, as well as other benefits. IMS will also provide a no cost/no obligation rate analysis to interested nonmembers and out-of-state lodging entities.
Newtek Business Services Inc. will offer its small and mid-sized customers an integrated payment card processing package that includes Discover Network card acceptance. The package provides consolidated statements, combined settlement and customer service. Newtek will oversee pricing, processing, settlement, risk management and customer service.
Pipeline Data Inc. renewed its merchant processing agreement with CTS Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of First Data Corp. First Data will continue to provide card processing services to Pipeline's merchant account base.
Wells Fargo & Co. and Visa U.S.A. have launched a three-phase program to test consumer mobile payments and services.
The first phase was completed in April in a Wells Fargo lab. The second, occurring this summer, will involve 30 to 50 Wells Fargo employees testing Visa payWave-enabled products at participating merchant locations.
The third phase, expected to launch in the fourth quarter, will include 300 to 500 Wells Fargo Visa cardholders and additional partners.
ACQUISITIONSPayment processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. plans to acquire EFD/eFunds Corp. for $1.8 billion.
EFD provides risk management, electronic funds transfer, prepaid card processing and global outsourcing solutions to financial services companies, as well as POS fraud prevention solutions to retailers and electronic benefit processing services to government entities.
APPOINTMENTSEuronet Worldwide Inc. appointed Kevin Caponecchi President of Euronet. Caponecchi has 17 years of domestic and international management experience. He began his career as a member of the Manufacturing Management Program at GE Power in 1990. Most recently, he served as President of GE Transportation's Global Signaling business.
Credomatic appointed Joe Creegan U.S. National Sales Manager. His background includes eight years as National Sales Manager at Charge Card Systems. He was also with Cardpayment Services, an independent sales agency for Retriever Payment Systems and Chase Merchant Services.
Creegan is a POS system sales management veteran with over two decades of experience. He was Vice President and General Manager of Micros Systems in South Florida and National Dealer Sales Manager for Aloha Restaurant Systems.
Preferred Health Technology Inc. appointed Mary Dees Griffith President and Chief Operating Officer. The new company provides electronic payment and transaction processing services for the health care industry.
Dees Griffith has over 25 years of experience. Most recently, she was President and CEO of Creditranz. She has also held executive positions at Paymentech, First USA, First Bank System Inc. and Citicorp. A Past President of the Electronic Transactions Association, Dees Griffith currently chairs the ETA's Government Relations committee and serves on the board of trustees of W.net.
John Hughes joined Teledraft Inc. as Director of Sales and Marketing. Hughes has over 15 years of experience in the electronic payments industry and has identified, initiated and managed numerous channel marketing programs resulting in over $1 billion in annual processing volume.
U.S. Merchant Systems announced four new appointments to its executive team. Matt Nern was promoted to President. Nern, who joined the company in 2006, was its Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing.
Ted Lasch was promoted to Senior Vice President of Sales. Soltan Nayabkhil was promoted to Vice President of Operations and Ernesto Mancia was promoted to Vice President of Finance.
Michael Petitti was promoted to Chief Marketing Officer of AmbironTrustWave. He has more than 15 years' experience with Fortune 500 companies such as Exelon, Occidental Petroleum and VeriSign and leading integrated marketing firms such as J. Walter Thompson. Petitti is a member of the Merchant Risk Council Board of Advisors and also serves on The Green Sheet Advisory Board.
After 12 years at the helm of TransFirst, Chairman and CEO Thomas Rouse retired in June. Industry veteran and Rouse-appointee John Shlonsky will serve as President and CEO.
Shlonsky joined TransFirst as President and COO in October 2006 from First Data Corp., where he was President of First Data Merchant Services. Rouse will remain active as a member of TransFirst's board of directors and will serve as a Senior Adviser to the board.
NFinanSe Inc. hired Karen P. Sobie to serve as Vice President of Retail Sales. Sobie was most recently a Sales Director for Ingenico's Financial Systems Group. She has also held sales and management positions with VeriFone and Sun Microsystems.
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