Pay By Touch Shutters Biometric Payment Network
SAN FRANCISCO–Solidus Networks, which is undergoing bankruptcy liquidation, said it is closing down its biometric payments network operating under the Pay By Touch name.
The payments network, which allows hundreds of thousands of shoppers to access their credit union and bank accounts at the touch of a finger, was closed at midnight last Thursday morning.
In recent weeks the financially troubled company has auctioned off several operating subsidiaries it acquired over the past four years, including its BipYa Paycheck Secure biometric check cashing outfit and its ATM Direct, a provider of PIN-based payments for the Internet.
The bankruptcy auction by privately owned Solidus is the result of a fight with its major venture backers, who forced the company into bankruptcy last fall.
Washington D.C. As An Overserved Community
WASHINGTON–NCUA approved a request by CommonwealthOne FCU to serve the entire city of Washington as an underserved community, the second credit union granted that field of membership in the last two months and seventh overall.
The other credit unions approved to serve the entire city of Washington are: DVA FCU, Lafayette FCU, Agriculture FCU, Treasury Department FCU, Department of Commerce FCU and Library of Congress FCU.
The 600,000 residents of the Capital City, which has pockets that are among the wealthiest enclaves in the world, qualify as an underserved community because 80% of the population earns 80% or less of the median national income.
Washington is one of more than a dozen major U.S. cities qualified by NCUA as underserved, including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Richmond, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, St. Paul-Minneapolis, Tucson, Lansing, Mich., Canton, Ohio and Wilmington, Del.
Giant CUs Grow Through Mergers
ALEXANDRIA, Va.–Pennsylvania State Employees CU was approved to acquire another small credit union, its third over the last three months, NCUA said.
The latest merger, of $6-million Clarion University Employees CU, joins recent deals for $9-million Rite Aid Employees CU and $3-million Gannett Fleming Employees CU by the $3-billion credit union.
NCUA also approved the combination of Summit CU with Great Wisconsin CU to create a $1.2-billion Madison, Wis.-based credit union, the state’s largest.
NCUA said it approved a request from Redwood CU, a $1.7-billion Santa Rosa, Calif., credit union, to acquire California Preferred CU, a $43-million San Francisco credit union.
Also approved was the merger of $50- million Walla Walla Valley FCU into $630-million Gesa CU, of Richland, Wash.
