NEWS

NACHA spells out rules of conduct

NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association's Code of Conduct took effect Feb. 23, 2006, for existing and potential members and participants in its programs. A partial list of the rules requires that members: adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of all applicable regulations and laws; avoid the appearance of criminal or professional misconduct; and conduct business in a manner that does not adversely affect the automated clearing house network.

Financial institutions must awaken to Wi-Fi threats

Financial institutions must deploy Wi-Fi intrusion detection and prevention systems, even if they do not sanction wireless elements within their networks, advises a research report by MasterCard's TowerGroup. Institutions must respond "to the reality that Wi-Fi devices employees are using on their premises may serve as unintended points of entry for security intrusions to their networks," wrote Bob Egan, Research Director for Emerging Technologies.

Visa Plus ATM transactions to get higher scrutiny

Visa U.S.A. is expanding its fraud-detection capabilities by integrating its Plus ATM network with its primary authorization system in order to provide real-time fraud intelligence on each transaction. Advanced authorization gives the issuing institution a rating within two seconds on each transaction's potential for fraud, according to Visa.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

GET moves to larger quarters

Global Electronic Technology Inc. has relocated the company's headquarters and operations to larger offices in Cypress, Calif., from its home in Laguna Hills. The move was triggered by recent growth.

AmEx partners with restaurants

American Express Co. launched the Restaurant Partnership Program, which provides merchants savings on overnight shipping, office supplies and marketing support, as well as access to resources such as GuestMetrics, Healthy Dining Finder and the Elliot Leadership Institute.

Western Union spin-off proceeding

First Data Corp. took steps toward spinning off its Western Union business, which is planned for the fourth quarter of 2006. The company filed a Form 10 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and requested a favorable tax ruling from the Internal Revenue Service.

Heartland's Carr wins award

Bob Carr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Heartland Payment Systems Inc., won the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group's 2006 Walter M. Aikman Entrepreneur-of-the-Year Award, which recognizes his achievement in developing the company as a venture-backed business.

WRG hits 10-year mark

In April, WRG Services marked its 10-year anniversary in the ATM business, providing hardware, software, processing, service and training.

Dutch processor joins Merchant Risk Council

Internet payment service provider ChronoPay B.V. has joined the Merchant Risk Council, an association of 6,500 online retailers, vendors, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies.

POS software licensed

Comstar Interactive's Charge Anywhere POS software is now available for VeriFone Omni and Vx products. The company reports the software is PCI compliant.

MagTek gets MasterCard stamp of approval

MagTek has been awarded the Terminal Quality Management label from MasterCard for quality assur-ance. Also, MagTek's IntelliStripe 65 hybrid reader has achieved EMVCo type approval for Terminal Level 1.

Hypercom is a preferred provider

NOVA Information Systems, a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, chose Hypercom Corp. as a preferred pro-vider of payment terminals and peripheral devices. NOVA will begin Class A certification of Hypercom's Optimum T4100 countertop unit, which has an Intel XScale processor and 24 megabytes of memory.

Co-op opens Midwest office

CO-OP Financial Services has opened a St. Louis sales office, naming Mike Weismiller Regional Sales Manager. Headquartered in Ontario, Calif., the co-op has nearly 2,000 credit union members.

Fast-growing payment processor recognized

Business 2.0 magazine recognized Global Payments Inc. as one of the 100 fastest-growing technology companies in the United States. In June, the company was listed as number 62 of the top 100 publicly traded tech companies.

Visa government services highlighted

At Visa International's annual International Government Services Conference in Buenos Aires in May, Visa showcased how its government partnerships have contributed to economic development goals for emerging nations.

Humboldt sales partners rewarded

Humboldt Merchant Services rewarded high-producing sales partners for the month of April with training and team building at its first President's Advisory Council meeting in Phoenix. Kari Dorris of First National Bank of Arizona was the guest speaker; vendors and strategic partners included Lease Finance Group, Merchant Capital Source, USA ePay, VeriFone and ViVOtech.

Marketer launches cash-back program

RewardsNow Inc. launched its first cash-back rewards program for a major client. The program gives client banks and credit unions a way to enhance loyalty among customers.

Merchant service provider relaunches site

ImGlobal Ltd., a provider of MO/TO and POS retail transaction services, relaunched its Web site to better reflect its product and service offerings. The site remains at www.imglobalpayments.com

Gift card program for small businesses

Moneris Solutions announced a gift card program for small businesses. The turnkey program is designed to give merchants new merchandise to display at the POS; enhanced fraud security, compared with paper gift certificates; and flexibility in loading card value, up to $250.

First Data named processor of the year

At an awards ceremony in Milan in May, Cards International 2006 named First Data the card processor of the year. The company was also short-listed for the best merger and acquisition award. First Data recently acquired a number of companies in Europe and Southeast Asia.

Europeans choose Visa first

Reader's Digest magazine's European subscribers rated Visa the most trusted credit card brand. The survey polled 25,434 households in 14 countries.

PARTNERSHIPS

Comdata's fuel program chosen

Airgas, a distributor of industrial and medical gases, is integrating Comdata Corp.'s MasterCard fuel program for all fuel purchases for its vehicles within the United States.

Netifice picks Precidia

Netifice Communications has chosen Precidia Technologies Inc. to provide connectivity to serial equipment as part of the Shell Oil Products CoolBand initiative. The program consolidates convenience-store equipment, including Ruby terminals, tank monitors and video surveillance, onto a single broadband network.

ISO to offer cell phone rewards platform

Vision Payment Solutions LLC's direct and ISO sales channels will resell the MobileLime Mobile Rewards platform, which turns a consumer's phone into a shopping device.

Retail chain switches to PaySpot

PaySpot now provides electronic prepaid products to Giant Industries' 123 retail stores in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. Within three days of installation, Giant's daily prepaid product sales reportedly exceeded previous daily volumes.

Fiserve network adopts PIN debit

The ACCEL/Exchange EFT Network, owned by Fiserv, will be the first to enable ATM Direct's Internet PIN debit transactions. ATM Direct is a Pay By Touch company.

Chain to deploy fingerprint scan

Pathmark Stores' 141 supermarkets in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia will deploy Pay By Touch fingerprint payment services. Shoppers will authorize payments by a combination of finger scan and telephone number.

VeriFone, D-Link create marketing alliance

VeriFone will collaborate through a marketing alliance with D-Link Corp. to assist merchants with implementation of Wi-Fi electronic transaction systems.

DTI chosen for its mobile technology

PuroSystems Inc., a franchise organization dedicated to insurance restoration and environmental services, chose Direct Technology Innovations as its exclusive provider of merchant services. DTI's mobile transactions technology will enable PuroSystems personnel to collect for services at the POS.

POS-X becomes strategic supplier

Northern Leasing Systems Inc., a provider of micro-ticket leasing, has named POS-X Corp. as its strategic supplier for POS technology.

Security specialists partner on PCI program

The Logic Group and AmbironTrustWave will launch a service package to help businesses comply with the PCI Data Security Standard.

The Logic Group will manage the project, and AmbironTrustWave will conduct compliance audits and certification.

Integrator partners with Sterling

Value-added integrator POSDATA chose processor Sterling Payment Technologies LLC as a referral partner. The two companies already share an extensive list of mutual customers.

Payment processor, bank to offer DCC

Planet Payment and Standard Chartered Bank will offer dynamic currency conversion (DCC) in China, enabling merchants there to disclose to Visa and MasterCard cardholders at the POS the amount of their transactions in their home currency.

FastLane services offered through BPS

Business Payment Systems' merchants now have access to debit and gift card services offered by payment network FastLane. BPS will begin to market FastLane's product suite to its base of 25,000 merchants.

Gateway and software provider team up

Plug & Pay Technologies has completed its integration to POS software provider Inertia Beverage Group.

Hypercom chooses EFTPOS

Hypercom appointed EFTPOS Ltd., an electronic funds transfer company, as the distributor for POS equipment in South Africa and the African continent.

PointPay and Valutec team to offer terminals

PointPay USA completed certification of its OmeroX Lite terminal with Valutec Card Solutions Inc., a provider of gift and loyalty programs. The device combines an intuitive user interface with a thermal printer and the ability to run four fire-walled applications.

ACQUISITIONS

AmbironTrustWave acquires Lucid Security

AmbironTrustWave, a data security and compliance-management solutions supplier, has acquired Lucid Security. Lucid's ipANGEL Intrusion Prevention System will position AmbironTrustWave as a leading provider of threat-management security appliances, the company reported.

VeriSign to purchase SSL reseller

VeriSign Inc. has agreed to buy GeoTrust, a supplier of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) solutions to direct resellers, for $125 million in cash. The acquisition will extend VeriSign's protection of networked interactions. GeoTrust's 9,000 resellers will complement VeriSign's direct-sales SSL business.

APPOINTMENTS

Industry veteran joins Element Payment

Element Payment Services Inc. named industry veteran Roy Bricker Chief Operating Officer, to be responsible for launching the ElementExpress payment processing platform. Current COO Tim Vint will take the role of Chief Compliance Officer. Bricker was a key participant in the development and launch of EFSNET, Concord EFS' (now First Data's) Internet payment platform.

TriCipher has new CEO

TriCipher Inc. appointed John De Santis CEO, President and Chairman of the Board. Previously, De Santis was CEO and President of Sygate Technologies.

He is expected to work closely with TriCipher Founder Ravi Ganesan, who will focus on leveraging the company's intellectual property.

VeriFone appoints former MasterCard CEO to board

Alex W. (Pete) Hart, former President and CEO of MasterCard, was appointed to the board of directors of VeriFone. Hart was the founding Chairman of the Board of CIRRUS and is currently Chairman of Silicon Valley Bank. He also sits on the boards of Global Payments Inc. and Fair Isaac.

Ramsay to head historical society

John M. Ramsay, Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel at Citigroup Global Markets, has been elected 2006 - 2007 President of the Board of Trustees of the SEC Historical Society.

Hypercom appointments strengthen international sales and service

Hypercom promoted O.B. Rawls IV to Senior Vice President, International Sales, and John H. Andrews to Senior Vice President, Global Customer Service. Andrews is former Principal of iClient Global LLC and former CEO of Excell Agent Services LLC.

TransAKT appoints new President, CFO and board

TransAKT Corp. appointed incumbent Board Director James Wu to the post of President and named Rong Fitzgibbons Chief Financial Officer. Wu has been President of IP Mental Inc. since 1997. Fitzgibbons was most recently Senior Budget/Financial Analyst at Antelope Valley Hospital.

Three new directors have been appointed to the board: Lionel Ni, head of the computer science department at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Ming-Huang Tseng, founder and CEO of CeraMicro Technology Corp.; and Mark Fletcher, an Associate at Thackray Burgess and former President of RadioCompass.

BOTTOM LINES

• Retail industry sales for May 2006 (which exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants) rose 8.2% over last year and rose 0.2% (seasonally adjusted) over April, according to the National Retail Federation.
• Total retail sales (which include non-general merchandise categories such as autos, gasoline stations and restaurants) increased 7.6% unadjusted year-over-year and increased 0.1% from the previous month, the Commerce Department reported.
• The National Restaurant Association predicts that in 2006 the restaurant industry will have $511 billion in sales, 925,000 locations serving more than 70 billion meals and snacks, and 12.5 million employees.