NEWS

ollowing months of turmoil within the company, Philip J. Purcell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of investment banking firm Morgan Stanley, announced his retirement on June 13, 2005. Earlier in the year, eight former executives formed a coalition calling for Purcell's immediate departure.

In early June, nine stock traders defected to Wachovia. Purcell's retirement isn't expected to take place for at least a year. The company said its spin-off of Discover Financial Services will go ahead as planned.

GenXers Spend More Than Baby Boomers, Survey Finds

American Express Co. (AmEx)'s Platinum Card announced the results of The Second Annual American Express Platinum Luxury Survey, which found that the wealthy are spending lavishly on luxury goods and services. Households surveyed had an average annual income of $235,900, and they spend more than 20% of their income on luxury goods and services.

The survey showed that the wealthy members of GenX spend 18% more than Baby Boomers on luxury goods. They spend 37% more on clothing, 33% more on entertainment and 11% more on sporting events.

Financial Cards Report Released

Market and research firm Research and Markets released "The World Market for Financial Cards" report. The report includes retail sales data for 1998 through 2003 and forecasts to 2008. The report identifies the leading companies and offers analysis of the factors influencing the market. Product coverage includes ATM cards, charge cards, credit cards, debit cards, e-purse cards, store cards and smart cards. For more information visit www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c18298.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

EFMARK Premium Armored Reaches Milestone

EFMARK Premium Armored, the nation's largest independent ATM-only service provider, now services more than 50,000 ATMs for 1,600 customers in 43 states. EFMARK expects to reach 200,000 ATMs in 2010. The growth has increased the company's need for experienced ATM professionals; it is recruiting skilled field technicians, specifically those who are Windows-certified software engineers.

MasterCard Advisors Launch Rewards Solution

MasterCard Advisors LLC launched MasterCard Rewards Services (MRS) in Europe. MasterCard designed MRS to enable card issuers to integrate their global rewards into one system. It built the system on a platform that supports multiple languages and translation, currency conversion, and country-specific reporting requirements.

Merchant Services Inc. Relocates

Credit card processor Merchant Services Inc. recently relocated. The company's corporate offices are now located in a 15,000 square foot facility in New Providence, N.J.

Retail Broadband Alliance Gaining Momentum

New Edge Networks' Retail Broadband Alliance has produced more than $1 million in contracts from the sale of broadband networks to merchant businesses. Through the Alliance, New Edge Networks has established direct interconnections with four national credit card payment processors. Membership in the Retail Broadband Alliance is open to companies whose core products and services target the retail industry.

Global Payments Certifies Paradata Paradata Systems Inc. has been certified with Global Payments Inc.'s East platform. This certification will provide card-present and card-not-present POS transactions to a broader range of Paradata's Canadian and U.S. partners and their merchants.

PARTNERSHIPS

7-Eleven to Accept AmEx, MasterCard Contactless Payments

AmEx has begun issuing its Blue card with the ExpressPay feature, a contactless payment chip. The card company will embed the chip in all new Blue consumer and small business credit cards. 7-Eleven Inc. is the latest national merchant partner to accept ExpressPay.

7-Eleven will also accept MasterCard PayPass, a new contactless payment option. 7-Eleven expects to rollout the program in its 5,300 U.S. locations by early 2006 and has installed radio frequency readers in 170 test market 7-Eleven stores.

AmEx Signs Agreement With OTP Bank OTP Bank and AmEx formed a partnership that results in OTP Bank becoming the exclusive issuer of AmEx cards in Hungary. OTP Bank, Hungary's largest consumer bank, will issue the AmEx Gold Card and Blue card. OTP Bank will be responsible for issuing the cards, managing the customer relationships, providing customer service and billing and credit management.

Bank of the West Chooses Princeton eCom

Bank of the West selected Princeton eCom's PayAnyone solution to provide payment processing for online retail banking. PayAnyone offers transaction-based pricing and provides access to Princeton eCom's extensive direct biller connections and electronic biller directory.

CO-OP Signs Gateway Agreement

CO-OP Network and Alaska Option, Alaska's leading EFT provider, agreed to open a gateway link between the two organizations. Under the agreement, credit unions that use Alaska Option's EFT services can sign with CO-OP Network for surcharge-free access to 20,000 ATMs nationwide.

ComCity and CardinalCommerce Join Forces CardinalCommerce and ComCity joined forces to provide merchants the 3-D Secure payment authentication initiatives. The companies integrated Cardinal software into ComCity's SalesCart.Net platform in order to comply with the Visa and MasterCard authentication payment initiatives.

Global Payments Adds Three Casinos Global Payments announced that three Las Vegas casinos signed agreements for various offerings in the VIP LightSpeed suite of products. Global Payments is providing The Golden Nugget, Monte Carlo, and the Tropicana with cash access service including traditional and electronic check cashing, credit and debit card cash advances, player history and credit reports, and ATM cash availability.

Hosting Spot Inc. Chooses e-onlinedata

Hosting Spot Inc. recently formed an alliance with Internet merchant account provider e-onlinedata. Hosting Spot selected e-onlinedata as its preferred provider of real time credit card processing for its valued Web hosting clients.

Iowa Banks to Contract NCHA Services

Eleven more financial institutions, members of the Des Moines Clearing House Association, plan to convert to The National Clearing House (NCHA) National Settlement System this summer. Des Moines will become the 22nd clearing house to choose NCHA settlement services, the industry's only private sector check settlement system with national usage of this scale.

Pay By Touch Selects Hypercom

HBNet Inc., a Hypercom Corp. subsidiary, will provide high-speed transaction transport services for Pay By Touch. HBNet will enhance Pay By Touch's ability to speed the checkout process for both the dial transactions handled by its iPAY payment processing services and the Internet protocol-based transactions processed through its Pay By Touch biometric payment service.

Payment Data Systems, Next Estate Communications Partner

Payment Data Systems Inc. (PDS) signed an agreement with Next Estate Communications Inc. to provide payment services for debit card loading and risk management. The PDS solution will provide payment origination for debit card loading that comes from a Next Estate Customer Service Representative or a Next Estate Web site.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Business Financial and Merchant Processing Merge

Business Financial Resources and Merchant Processing Group have merged to create International Merchant Solutions LLC. The high-risk, high-volume placement consultant and the sales and customer service company have partnered with domestic and offshore processors to provide credit card processing and revenue programs for merchant accounts.

TNB Buys Four Card Portfolios TNB Card Services purchased the credit card portfolios of four credit unions in Delaware, Missouri and Texas, and will operate those card programs through its agent issuer organization. TNB has bought more than 60 portfolios since it began the agent issuer program in late 2002.

APPOINTMENTS

Dees Joins TPI Software Board of Managers

Mary Dees, President, CEO, and Founder of Creditranz Inc. and former 2003 - 2004 ETA President, joined TPI Software LLC's Board of Managers. Dees has more than 25 years' experience in the payments industry. Previously she served as the Receiver and General Manager for Certified Merchant Services. She also served as Paymentech's Group Executive of Third Party Processing.

Velocita Strengthens Senior Management Team Velocita Wireless LP appointed three senior executives to its corporate management team: Craig Gosselin is Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, Christopher A. Holt is Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, and Bruce Forsyth is Vice President of Marketing.

Gosselin comes to Velocita from Virgin Mobile USA. Previously he was a Senior Vice President at AmEx. Prior to that, he served as a Managing Director with Deutsche Bank and held multiple leadership positions with AT&T. Holt comes to Velocita Wireless from ATX Communications. Previously, he served as a member of the corporate legal team of NTL Inc., a United Kingdom and European provider of broadband cable, telephony and Internet services.

Forsyth comes to Velocita from REO Consulting Group LLC, which he co-founded. As part of REO, he performed due diligence on Velocita and subsequently played a key role in the acquisition of Velocita from Cingular Wireless.

Welcome Welcomes New Regional Director Welcome appointed Daniel Lecuona Latin America Regional Director. Lecuona has 20 years' experience developing and implementing payment software solutions and managing marketing, sales and technical teams in Latin America. More recently, he led the banking division for Bull CP8 and Axalto in the region.

Harland Appoints Two

John H. Harland Co. made two appointments to its executive management team. The company named Jeff Heggedahl President of Harland Printed Products; it also hired Kevin Lee to serve as President of Harland Fraud and Payment Solutions, a newly created business unit.

Heggedahl joined Harland in 1987 as a Sales Associate and has held a variety of sales and management positions before assuming his current position. Most recently he was Executive Vice President of Harland Printed Products.

Lee previously served as General Manager and Vice President of Internet Banking for Certegy. He brings more than 14 years of experience in technology management for financial institutions, including Internet banking and bill payment.

CO-OP Network Announces New Board Members

David Maus, President/CEO of Colorado's Public Service Credit Union, has been elected CO-OP Network Chairman of the Board. Maus is past Chairman of both the Credit Union National Association and the Governmental Affairs Committee. He's the current Chairman of CU Direct Connect, the Colorado Credit Union Indirect Lending Association.

TransFirst Names Vice President Independent Sales TransFirst appointed Paul Oswald Vice President of Business Development for the company's Independent Sales Services division. He will help lead TransFirst's business growth and development with ISOs and agents. Oswald has 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has held executive sales management positions with CardSystems, NOVA Information Systems, Cardservice International, Unified Merchant Services, Brown Foreman Enterprises and AmEx.

Rutt Named Chief Human Resources Officer

Diebold Inc. appointed Sheila M. Rutt Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer. Rutt will also serve as a Diebold Corporate Officer. Rutt joined Diebold in October 2000 She has served as Director of Organizational Development, Vice President, Human Resources, Diebold North America and Vice President, Global Human Resources.

BOTTOM LINES

• The Home Depot Inc. reported in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing a $43 million profit from gift card "breakage" between 1998 and 2001 (the first four years of its gift card program). Although the retailer does not set card expiration dates or charge dormancy or non-use fees, it reported the money as profit rather than a liability, the "Atlanta Business Chronicle" reported.
• The Department of Commerce reported the amount of money spent on cars and clothes in the United States fell during May 2005, contributing to an overall drop in retail sales of 0.5% for the month.
• Lowe's Companies Inc. announced in June 2005 that it plans to expand into Canada. Lowe's will open six to 10 stores in Toronto by 2007. The new locations will create an estimated 1,700 jobs, the Canadian Gift & Tableware Association's "Retail News" reported.