York (Pa.) Federal Savings and Loan has become the first member of the MAC regional electronic banking network to take its processing business elsewhere.
Mellon Network Services, a division of Mellon Bank Corp., Pittsburgh, won the thrift's automated teller machine processing contract in April.
After antitrust scrutiny by the Department of Justice, Electronic Payment Services Inc., owner and operator of the MAC network, agreed to drop network membership rules that prohibited financial institutions from using a third-party ATM processor other than EPS.
"The ability to serve members of the MAC network as a third-party ATM processor represents a substantial new market for Mellon Network Services," said David Johns, senior vice president and general manager of the Mellon division.
Mellon will have some competition for this business, however. An EPS spokeswoman confirmed that while Mellon is thus far the only third-party processor to be certified by the network, several others are getting certification and will be ready to bid for work as early as next month.
Under terms of the agreement between Mellon and the $890-million asset bank, Mellon will drive nine full-service ATMs, representing 75,000 monthly transactions.
Mellon will also provide ATM access to the MAC regional network, the Cirrus and Plus national ATM networks, and the Discover, American Express, MasterCard, and Visa credit card networks. Mellon will operate York Federal's ATMs terminals, route the transactions, and provide on-line authorization, gateway support, and card processing.
Mellon also serves as the processor for York Federal's Visa Check card program, an off-line debit card service.
Mellon Network Services ranks among the top five ATM processors in the country, and processes more than 20 million transactions each month.
