Headlines:
Visa U.S.A. Unveils Micropayment Rules Bankers' Bank Offers Perimeter Service Global Payments Lands ACH Deal Software Application Buy for Jack Henry
Visa U.S.A. Unveils Micropayment Rules
Visa U.S.A. has implemented a new pricing program for small transactions.
The program, which it first discussed in November and announced last week, raises the ceiling for credit card and signature debit transactions that can be authorized without a signature, to $25, for certain categories of merchants. It also lowers debit and credit card interchange rates for some purchases of under $15.
The signature rule covers industries with a low history of fraud, such as pharmacies, fast-food restaurants, movie theaters, and parking lots.
Visa added several more merchant categories to its small-ticket pricing program: newsstands, drycleaners, car washes, photocopy stores, tolls, and buses. It already offered lower rates for garages, fast-food and sit-down restaurants, taxi and limousine services, movie theaters and movie rental stores, and commuter transportation.
"We've tailored the program so that it applies to segments where the merchant value proposition is the strongest," Elizabeth Buse, Visa's executive vice president of product development and management, said in a press release.
Bankers' Bank Offers Perimeter Service
Nebraska Bankers' Bank of Lincoln is offering an online security service from Perimeter Internetworking Corp. to the more than 100 financial institutions in Nebraska for which it provides correspondent services.
"We feel it's a very important service to offer community banks," said Donna Harden, a senior vice president at the bank's parent company, Midwest Independent Bancshares Inc. of Jefferson City, Mo.
Her company operates another, Midwest Independent Bank of Jefferson City, which has used Perimeter's hosted service for three years, Ms. Harden said in an interview last week. "If they benefit us, they can benefit the community banks in our market."
Perimeter, of Milford, Conn., provides more than 50 managed network security services, including firewall, intrusion defense, secure email, and others.
Global Payments Lands ACH Deal
The Atlanta transaction processor Global Payments Inc. agreed to provide front-end credit card authorization services and back-end settlement for MasterCard and Visa transactions for the Allen, Tex., independent sales organization ACH Direct Inc.
Jeff Thorness, ACH Direct's president and chief executive, said last week in a Global Payments press release that the deal will let his company "offer a complete spectrum of payment services, by adding services that complement our traditional area of strength, ACH payment processing."
ACH Direct offers risk management and merchant services. It processes automated clearing house, credit, and debit card payments.
Software Application Buy for Jack Henry
Jack Henry & Associates Inc. has acquired two liability management software applications from Cuna Mutual Group, a Madison, Wis., affiliate of Credit Union National Association Inc.
Jack Henry, of Monett, Mo., will continue to serve the 650 small and midsize credit unions that use the Cupro applications, Cupro, and Cupro Express, through ProfitStars.
Jack Henry started the ProfitStars division in February as an umbrella organization to house the 13 companies it had acquired in the previous 18 months.
One of those acquired companies, Profitstar Inc. of Omaha, formed a joint marketing agreement with Cuna Mutual in April 2005 to offer its asset liability program to Cuna Mutual's credit union customers.
The software deal was announced April 7. The price was not disclosed.
