First Financial Management Corp., further dating its check-guarantee activities, said Wednesday said that it has signed a definitive agreement to check of Kansas Inc., which does business as Telecheck Mid-America.
The Mid-America unit has 4,500 customers in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and part Tennessee. They will bring to 47 the number of states with First Financial Telecheck franchises.
Including Mid-America and three other recent Telecheck purchases, "FFMC owns 91% of the total Telecheck U.S. network," said Patrick H. Thomas, chairman, president, and CEO of the Atlanta-based processor.
Quick Growth
First Financial has undergone rapid expansion, fueled in part by its recent sales of Georgia Federal Bank and an outsourcing unit, to concentrate on processing businesses. The check-acceptance service supplements the business of FFMC's Nabanco unit, which processes card transactions for merchants.
Telecheck operations are coordinated by Telecheck Services Inc., a Houston company that First Financial acquired last year. Through the franchises, Telecheck serves 100,000 retailers and financial institutions in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
The First Financial-Telecheck tie was one of three that reshaped the U.S. check guarantee market.
Equifax Inc., the Atlanta-based credit bureau, acquired Telecredit Inc. of Los Angeles at the end of 1990, and National City Corp., the Cleveland-based banking company, acquired JBS Associates of Ringwood, N.J., last February. A National City subsidiary, National Processing Co., competes against Nabanco in the merchant processing business.
