Headlines:
Certegy Adding Casino Clients
A deal announced Friday would give Certegy Inc. more casino business.
The St. Petersburg, Fla., payment processor has agreed to pay $14 million in cash to FastFunds Financial Corp. of Minnetonka, Minn., for most of the business of its sole operating unit, Chex Services Inc.
The deal, to close in the first quarter, would give Certegy contracts to provide cash-access services to about 50 accounts in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Thirty are casinos owned by Native Americans.
The services include check cashing, automated teller machine access, and credit and debit card cash advance services.
Mary Waggoner, Certegy's vice president of investor relations, called the purchase "a tuck-in acquisition." Certegy has provided check-cashing services in casinos for about five years, she said. In March 2004 it paid $43 million for the Game Financial Corp. unit of Viad Corp. of Phoenix, which provided similar services at about 60 U.S. sites.
Also Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued final approval for the proxy statement Certegy plans to send shareholders before they vote on its planned merger with the financial technology company Fidelity National Information Services Inc.
Ms. Waggoner said Certegy expects to complete the merger with Fidelity, which is majority-owned by Fidelity National Financial Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., in late January.
Growth Year for CashEdge
CashEdge Inc., which sells funds-transfer software and an outsourced funds-transfer service, says its bank and credit union clientele has grown by more than half this year, to over 450.
The New York company said it has added more than 160 such customers this year. Its software and service transfer money between customers' accounts at different banks and fund new accounts.
"We are excited about the trend that we see among financial institutions, both large and small, using an outsourced model for online transactions," said Sanjeev Dheer, its chief executive, in a press release last week. "Given the efficiency of our implementations and our ability to assume high levels of risk associated with online transactions, it is no longer practical for financial institutions to build this capability internally."
