Merchant

Linda Almonte, a former assistant vice president at JP Morgan Chase, has filed a lawsuit against the banking giant claiming that its credit card unit misrepresented information about a portfolio of card debt for sale.

Point-of-sale terminal maker Hypercom Corp. this week reported a $624,000 fourth quarter profit, marking the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company’s third consecutive profitable quarter. Hypercom reported a $74.8 million loss for the fourth quarter of 2008.

A recent study that focuses on Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliance among large merchants also is helpful for educating ISOs and the smaller merchants with which they typically work, observers note. ISOs should educate themselves not only about their specific markets but also about all aspects of data security and compliance in the payments industry to better serve their clients and ensure all merchants protect card data, they say.

Credit Bureau Collection Services, a Columbus, Ohio collection agency, will pay a civil fine of $1.1 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated federal law by inaccurately reporting credit information and pushing consumers to pay debts they often did not owe, FTC officials said today.

A Washington, D.C. lawyer, accused late last year of collecting more than $1.2 million from homeowners with false promises to arrange loan modifications, has been charged with bank fraud after depositing $2.4 million in counterfeit checks at several banks.

Point-of-sale terminal maker Hypercom Corp. yesterday reported a $624,000 fourth quarter profit, marking the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company’s third consecutive profitable quarter. Hypercom reported a $74.8 million loss for the fourth quarter of 2008.

TransUnion reports that customers at least 60 days past due on their mortgage payments rose to a new record in the fourth quarter.

No official movement is afoot to switch to EMV in the U.S., which is becoming increasingly Balkanized as the only major global region not moving to the more-secure chip-and-PIN technology. But a Visa Inc. executive is among experts suggesting that, though issuers, acquirers and merchants may be resisting the shift for a variety of reasons, EMV technology itself is not the biggest obstacle preventing the U.S. from adopting the standard.

First National Bank of Omaha plans to relinquish controlling interest in its First National Merchant Solutions merchant-acquiring arm to Total System Services Inc. in a joint venture the companies announced today.

Though a few large merchants fail to achieve compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, many rely on alternative compensating controls to comply, according to a report released today by Thales Group and the Ponemon Institute. Many large merchants also are paying an average of $225,000 per year for PCI audits, according to the report.