News

June, 2005

• 8 June

  Colorado Becomes Latest Market in Chase’s Contactless Rollout

  Continuing its national rollout of contactless card technology, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s Chase Bank U.S.A. unit said it will begin issuing the chip-equipped cards early this month in Colorado. The announcement follows by 15 days the bank's introduction of its contactless card, which it calls “blink,” in Atlanta, the …
• 8 June

  CheckFree Will Pilot PIN Debit for Walk-in Bill Payments

  CheckFree Corp. will begin piloting PIN-based debit transactions in its extensive walk-in bill-payment network before the end of the year. The Atlanta-based processor is also investigating the possibility of adding a PIN-less debit feature to its online and telephone-based bill-payment network for so-called biller-direct transactions, though it has no definite …
• 6 June

  AmEx Begins National ExpressPay Rollout, Signs 7-Eleven for Acceptance

  American Express Co. today said it has commenced a nationwide rollout of its ExpressPay contactless card program and announced that 7-Eleven Inc. would accept the AmEx technology, which is being embedded in the New York-based T&E giant's Blue card. The Dallas-based convenience-store chain joins pharmacy chain CVS Corp. as national …
• 3 June

  Valista Looks to Strong U.S. Growth in Wake of Partnership with IBM

  Looking toward a breakthrough year in payments processing for online and mobile digital content, Valista Ltd. has signed a marketing and technology deal with IBM Corp. that it says will help it recruit its first major North American client since America Online Inc. The unnamed telecom operator, currently a client …
• 2 June

  MasterCard Lifts the Veil on Acquiring Rules for ISOs, Other Nonbanks

  Addressing a longstanding complaint of independent sales organizations and other nonbank acquirers, MasterCard International has published its operating rules for what the card company calls member service providers. MasterCard says the 291-page document, entitled “Member Service Provider Rules Manual,” is now available free, and has posted a PDF for download. …
• 1 June

  Following Synovus, Viewpointe Expects More Banks to Sign Soon

  Viewpointe Archive Services, a check-image archive and exchange owned by some of the nation's largest banks, has signed its second client for its non-archive exchange service, called Pointe2Pointe. Columbus, Ga.-based Synovus Financial Corp., a holding company for 41 southeastern banks, follows Compass Bank, which signed up with Viewpointe early last …
• 1 June

  Chase Merchant Makes a Play for More Bill-Payment Business

  Chase Merchant Services LLC has launched a processing and consulting arm aimed at helping billers set up and manage bill-payment services. In a press briefing today, Chase executives stressed the new service, called BillPay Recurring Biller Solutions, would embrace cards as well as alternative payment types such as the automated …

May, 2005

• 31 May

  Key Makes Agent-Bank Deal with Genpass, While TNB Links to Star

  Key Corp. said today it has made an agreement with Genpass Inc. that will allow agent banks in Key's ATM network to add access to 12,000 ATMs in GenPass's MoneyPass network, a surcharge-free system. The Cleveland-based banking company, which operates 2,200 ATMs, said current and future agent banks in its …
• 31 May

  Ring-Tone Market Jumped 6% Among Mobile Users in April

  Some 24.6 million U.S. wireless-phone subscribers?or 13.6% of the base of mobile users?downloaded ring tones in April, according to the latest monthly survey of mobile-phone usage by market-researcher M:Metrics Inc. That's up 6% from the Seattle firm's March survey. At the same time, the survey shows nearly 6 million users, …
• 26 May

  Number-One E-Banker BofA Adopts Two-Factor Authentication

  The cause of strong authentication for Web-based transactions took a major step forward today with the announcement from banking giant Bank of America Corp. that it is implementing a two-factor authentication system for its online banking service. With 13.2 million users, including 6.4 million bill payers, BofA's service is the …