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Burger King Corp., the Miami-based fast-food giant, may be rolling out credit and signature-debit card acceptance chainwide, but don't look for its stores to accept PIN-based debit cards on a wide scale any time soon. Julian Gomez, director of operations, services, and programs for Burger King, says his chain is …
Read More »Discover’s Spin-Off Could Lead to Major Changes, But Not Immediately
A spin-off of Discover Financial Services Inc. by its parent, Morgan Stanley, won't likely change the card network's strategy, but an acquisition of the newly independent company would likely occur soon after the spin-off, leading to probable changes in direction at the 20-year-old card company, including a possible break-up, according …
Read More »Rapidly Consolidating, ISOs Tighten Their Grip on U.S. ATM Deployments
Although their rate of deployment has slowed somewhat, independent sales organizations continue to install ATMs at a rapid rate and now control nearly half of the 394,500 machines in service in the U.S., according to a new study from Tremont Capital Group Inc. Moreover, the Boston-based investment advisory firm's report …
Read More »NCR Agrees to Buy Tidel’s ATM Business, Beefs up Self-Service Offerings
NCR Corp. is acquiring Tidel Technologies Inc.'s ATM business for $10.2 million in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter. Following a terse announcement released this morning, spokesmen for both companies referred to an 8-K filing Tidel is expected to make later today with the Securities and Exchange …
Read More »Star Gets Set to Slash Interchange for Small-Ticket Sales
The nation's largest electronic funds transfer network is rejiggering its interchange pricing in an effort to penetrate new merchant categories and convert more low-value transactions?in some cases, below $10?to PIN debit. As part of a sweeping set of pricing changes to go into effect May 1, Star Networks Inc. is …
Read More »ATM Exchange Sees Worldwide Market for New Triple DES Upgrade
The ATM Exchange, a supplier of ATM parts and service, will begin selling next month a retrofit product for older ATMs that upgrades them to run on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. The product, called 3DES Plus XP, also renders ATMs compliant with so-called triple-DES encryption requirements laid down by …
Read More »ATMIA Sets up New Group to Tackle Prepaid, Other Debit Card Issues
Card issuers' uncertainties surrounding such issues as prepaid debit, debit card fraud, and the future flow of interchange income have led a major ATM industry trade group to form a new organization to represent issuers' interests. The Debit Council of the ATM Industry Association held its first meeting today at …
Read More »Pulse Says Discover Signature Debit Pricing Will Be ‘Competitive’
Any signature-based debit card product that banks in the Pulse electronic funds transfer network may issue with Discover Financial Services Inc. will most likely offer interchange income equal to what they earn on Visa and MasterCard signature debit, the top executive at Pulse says. “Any [signature-debit] fees will have to …
Read More »Visa Reports 18% Volume Boost for ’04 with Drop in Chargebacks
Visa USA reported yesterday its total dollar volume in 2004 reached $1.3 trillion, up 17.9% from the previous year. Total sales volume, or dollars on Visa products at the point of sale, hit $1.045 trillion, an increase of 19.1%, the San Francisco-based bank card network says. All Visa-branded cards in …
Read More »QSR and Debit Gains Among Highlights for MasterCard in ’04
MasterCard International reports its U.S. dollar volume on transactions on all of its products except online debit cards grew 11.5% in the fourth quarter last year, to $188.5 billion, while U.S. volume for 2004 as a whole expanded by 9.3%, to $695.9 billion. Total MasterCard purchase and cash transactions in …
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