NEWSIn an analysis entitled Trickle-down Legislation: Potential Impacts & Unintended Consequences of Interchange Regulation, Mike Strawhecker, Director of Marketing & Strategic Research for The Strawhecker Group, condemned the Durbin Amendment to The Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 as politically motivated and ill conceived.
He writes that, in attempting to regulate debit card interchange, "Congress' self-perceived infinite wisdom has once again blinded them from the complexity of an industry they do not understand; the amendment equates to regulation of one part of a fee, of one form of payment, of one size of bank.
"A single infiltration of the federal government's clumsy hand into this highly competitive and innovative industry, armed with the ill-conceived intention to create 'fairness,' will in fact have the opposite result.
"It will have deeply adverse effects not only on companies in the payments industry and their employees, but it will also create a less competitive marketplace that brings with it long-term negative consequences for consumers and merchants alike."
To read the full analysis, go to www.thestrawgroup.com/tsg-interchange-legislation-analysis.
On July 1, 2010, Ajay Banga stepped into his new role as President and Chief Operating Officer at MasterCard Worldwide. Banga also became a member of MasterCard's board of directors. He succeeds Robert W. Selander, who will serve as Executive Vice Chairman at MasterCard.
Born in Pune, India, and educated at the University of Delhi, Banga began his business career with Nestle SA in 1981 and later joined PepsiCo Inc., where he helped launch its international quick service restaurant franchises in India as the economy liberalized, according to MasterCard.
At an April 12, 2010, news conference reported on by The New York Times, Banga said he would focus on improving MasterCard's revenue growth and market share in the card brand's core businesses of credit, debit and prepaid cards.
He said he would also emphasize innovation in mobile payments and online commerce and diversifying the company's revenue stream globally.
White House cyber security leader Howard Schmidt will present the keynote address at the 5th Annual Online Trust and Cybersecurity Forum, to be held Sept. 22 to 24, 2010, at Georgetown University in Washington. The event will be hosted by the Online Trust Alliance.
Other speakers include Greg Link of Franklin Covey, Mark Bregman, Chief Technology Officer at Symantec Corp., Jessica Rich, Deputy Director at the Federal Trade Commission, Larry Clinton, President of the Internet Security Alliance, Ari Schwartz, Chief Operating Officer of the Center for Democracy & Technology, and Josh Glantz, Vice President and General Manager at Publishers Clearing House. Registration is open to the public. Register at https://otalliance.org/dc.html.
Payments processor Global Electronic Technology Inc., the parent company of OrbitalPay LLC, celebrated its tenth anniversary in June. The privately held ISO/Merchant Service Provider was founded in 2000 by Steven H. Bryson.
"What started out 10 years ago as a one-man operation has grown into a sustainable business that has exceeded everyone's expectations," Bryson said. "We are extremely proud of this milestone and grateful to all of our friends and merchants who made this accomplishment possible."
GET maintains two payment gateways in order to provide a range of payment services and options, including OrbitalPay's online billing capability for web-based retailers.
ANNOUNCEMENTSComodo was ranked as the top Internet security vendor by software-testing firm Matousec.com. Among 18 vendors, Comodo's Internet Security 4.0 was the only software to achieve a perfect score in Matousec's Proactive Security Challenge, which involved 148 tests.
Matousec tested a specific kind of security software that had to meet fixed criteria in order to be included in the challenge. Only products with application-based security models were tested. The challenge tested Internet security suites, host-based intrusion prevention systems, personal firewalls and behavior blockers.
The test results are posted at www.matousec.com/projects/proactive-security-challenge/results.php.
IDG's InfoWorld named Kris Herrin, Chief Technology Officer at Heartland Payment Systems Inc., to its list of the top 25 CTOs for 2010. Herrin joined Heartland in 2008 and was named CTO in August 2009. He has since redesigned Heartland's disaster recovery capabilities and has been active in the development of E3, the company's end-to-end payment card security technology.
NxGen Payment Services reported that one of its merchants, ABC Supply Co. Inc., added 129 recently acquired locations to NxGen's processing service. NxGen said ABC, a wholesale distributor of roofing and siding materials in the United States, brought its 350 stores onto the MerchReport system in 2009. NxGen said its ability to develop custom analytical reporting software was a key factor in the distributor choosing the processor.
NxGen, a merchant service provider for Elavon Inc., said the arrangement enables ABC to lower its card processing fees by identifying and addressing internal factors that lead to downgrades. NxGen added that its MerchReport.com tool allows ABC to quantify downgrades by reason and dollars lost per branch.
Check-capture product manufacturer Panini launched a blog as a discussion forum for industry trends. The blog is written by Chief Marketing Officer Michael Pratt, who invites the industry to participate with comments. The blog is posted at www.panini.com.
Trustwave became a member of the Cloud Security Alliance as a corporate sponsor. The organization promotes best practices for providing cloud computing data security. Cloud computing is software and data storage provided as a third-party, hosted service. Trustwave provides cloud-based fraud detection and security services.
Products and services from UP Solution have received compliance validation with the Payment Application (PA) Data Security Standard (DSS). The validation, performed by Trustwave, covers UP Salon, UP Restaurant and the UCharge payment gateway.
Visa Europe said the number of Visa contactless cards in use in the U.K. will reach 12 million by the end of 2010. The contactless feature can be added to debit, credit and prepaid cards. Visa launched its contactless technology in 2007.
PARTNERSHIPSCoffee Products supplier Bodum Inc. chose Global Collect to provide card processing for its e-commerce platforms around the world.
Using GlobalCollect's Hosted Merchant Link, the automated data exchange between the retailer and the processer is expected to lower Bodum's cost per order.
Cardtronics Inc. won a contract to provide ATM services to Savings Oil Co. Through its high-availability processing platform, Cardtronics will manage Savings Oil-owned ATM machines at 47 Savings Oil convenience stores.
Cathay Bank, based in Los Angeles' Chinatown, chose the hosted software and service provider VSoft Corp. for check processing and reporting. VSoft said Cathay has been a client for five years and will migrate to VSoft's software-as-a-service platform.
Missouri-based Central Bancompany picked Clearent LLC as its merchant services partner. Central Bancom-pany is a holding company serving customers of 13 banks with more than 225 locations. The Nilson Report ranked it the 79th largest U.S. merchant acquirer, with 4,000 merchants in its portfolio.
Central Bancompany will use Compass, Clearent's online reporting tool. Clearent's "easy-to-understand" self-assessment questionnaire for merchant compliance with the Payment Card Industry DSS was a factor in choosing the processor, according to Central Bancompany.
Cold Stone Creamery became the first merchant to use First Data Corp.'s eGift Social gifting service when it teamed with the acquirer to enable consumers to give the gift of ice cream to friends via Facebook accounts or email. Recipients of Cold Stone Creamery e-gifts receive account numbers, which they can redeem for ice cream at any of the 1,300 Cold Stone Creamery stores in the United States.
Discover Financial Services and Serbian-payment network DinaCard partnered to allow DinaCard holders to use the Discover, Diners Club International and Pulse networks for purchases and cash access outside Serbia. DinaCard is operated by the National Payment Card Center, a division of Serbia's central bank - the National Bank of Serbia. Discover said the service will go live by the end of 2010
Failsafe Payments N.A. integrated Moneybookers Ltd.'s online e-wallet capabilities into Failsafe's Certo Payment Gateway. Failsafe, a merchant service provider based in Cleveland, Ohio, and the nation of Cyprus, said its partnership with Moneybookers broadens Failsafe's global network, since Moneybookers has 12 million account holders.
Two state industry associations recently endorsed Heartland Payment Systems Inc. The California Medical Association chose Heartland as its preferred partner. The CMA's 35,000 physicians may utilize Heartland for card processing, payroll and check management services.
In addition, the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association endorsed Heartland as its provider of processing and other services. The association has 1,800 members.
Systems integrators began installing more than 1,000 self-service card payment terminals made by Hypercom Corp. at 293 Metro de Madrid transit stations in Spain's capital. Integrators Indra and Telvent GIT S.A. chose the Artema Modular terminals to speed ticketing for 90 million passengers that use the stations annually, Hypercom said.
Kanoo Travel (UK) Ltd. deployed the UltraPoS automation system from Stanton Consultancy Ltd. at all 26 travel offices in the U.K. The system is being used for Kanoo's currency exchange services, including money transfers and travelers' checks.
To further expand its mobile remote deposit capture (RDC) footprint, Mitek Systems Inc. added new partnerships with software and service providers for the financial services industry in the United States. The latest agreements were signed with Wausau Financial Systems Inc., Skyline's DirectFED Payment Solutions Corp., Secure Payment Systems Inc. and Bluepoint Solutions Inc.
Mitek's technology enables remote mobile deposit of checks by people using camera-equipped smart phones.
NBT Bank of Norwich, N.Y., a division of NBT Bancorp Inc., signed with TransFirst. The payments processor will provide services to merchant customers of NBT Bank and Pennstar Bank divisions in upstate New York, as well as areas of Pennsylvania and Vermont.
An online rent payments provider and two credit unions partnered with Skyline's DirectFED for RDC. PayYourRent.com will use Skyline's RDC technology to allow property manager clients to scan paper checks for direct deposit.
Texas-based Right Choice Credit Union and Pennsylvania Students Federal Credit Union also signed on to use Skyline's RDC system.
TASQ Technology Inc., a First Data company, partnered with Epson America Inc. TASQ joined the Envision partner program, allowing it to resell Epson printers and scanners and provide repair and service fulfillment. TASQ said it will ship replacement hardware overnight to reduce merchant downtime.
U.S. Bankcard Services Inc. partnered with China UnionPay in the United States. Founded in 2002, Shanghai-headquartered CUP is the sole domestic bankcard organization in China, operating under the People's Bank of China.
USBSI said the partnership will allow its merchants to accept CUP debit and credit cards from Chinese tourists. CUP has issued more than 2 billion cards, according to USBSI.
ACQUISITIONSFifth Third Processing Solutions LLC bought the assets of TNB Card Services from Texas-based Town North Bank N.A.
TNB provides electronic payments processing to credit unions nationwide. Town North Bank had serviced 1.4 million credit and debit accounts through TNB.
APPOINTMENTSUnited Merchant Services Inc. appointed Yong C. Cho as Chief Financial Officer. Cho was Senior Manager in the Assurance Division of PricewaterhouseCoopers Korea. Cho will assist the company as it expands in Korea, as well as in the United States.
Payments security specialist ProPay Inc. added Chris Mark and Dr. Heather Mark to its data security and regulatory compliance team. Chris Mark, a Certified Information Security Systems Professional (CISSP), Certified Payment Card Industry Security Manager/Auditor (CPISM/A) and Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), was named Executive Vice President at Propay. He has worked in payments security with card brands and trained Qualified Security Assessors on behalf of the PCI Security Standards Council.
Dr. Mark, PhD, CISSP, CPISM/A and CIPP, is now Senior Vice President for Marketing Strategy. She is experienced in data security and compliance.
MoneyGram International appointed James E. Shields Executive Vice President and CFO. Most recently Shields was Senior Vice President of Finance and Treasurer at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Tracey Straub joined Compliance11 Inc., a provider of regulatory compliance solutions, as Vice President of Strategy. He has 17 years of compliance and risk management expertise, previously with Prudential Securities Inc., Bear Stearns and MF Global Ltd.
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