Cards

Independent sales organizations contribute about 35% of Global Payments Inc.’s annual revenue, but the revenue they generate has a lower profit margin for the Atlanta-based payments processor than that of some of its other business, suggests a recent analyst report.

Gemalto NV’s Secure Transactions unit, which includes banking cards, generated 207.4 million euros (US$253 million) in revenue during the first half of this year, up 1.4% from 204.6 million euros during the same period in 2009, the France-based smart card vendor announced Aug. 26. The unit’s profit from operations totaled 5.6 million euros, down 24.3% from 7.4 million euros.

Six casinos in Idaho, Washington and California have signed up to use Global Payments Inc.’s VIP LightSpeed cash-access service, the Atlanta-based payment processor announced Aug. 26.

Beginning Oct. 31, 2012, issuers, merchants and acquirers in Canada that support the American Express brand will become liable for credit and charge card fraud initiated with magnetic stripe cards that chip-and-PIN technology could have prevented, American Express Co.’s AmEx Canada confirms.

A long-planned payments pilot program allowing banks to convert low-value checks to automated clearing house transactions is moving forward, but some industry experts say the initiative may be past its prime.

Hypercom Corp. said Wednesday that it is bringing to the United States a version of its end-to-end encryption software that is currently available in Asia.

American Heritage FCU last week introduced technology it said combines the convenience of an ATM with a highly-personal two-way interaction.

First Data Corp. says it has come up with an answer to EMV chip-and-PIN technology. The processor’s Star electronic funds network on Aug. 25 introduced a debit card fraud-protection product that uses a contactless chip to produce a unique, one-time card number to complete point-of-sale transactions.

Various unregulated new mobile-payment services proliferating in the U.S. could be putting certain consumers at risk for fraud, Consumers Union, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy organization, announced Aug. 24.

VeriFone Systems Inc. beat Wall Street’s expectations for its fiscal third quarter ended July 31 based on strong North American sales and a rebounding Latin American market, and executives at the payment-terminal maker predict demand for wireless payment systems and gas-station terminals will help drive future earnings.

WePay Inc. continues to distinguish itself from other online-payment services by soliciting groups and organizations using social-networking sites. The company recently integrated with Facebook Events and Facebook Groups to enable groups to collect funds online through the social-networking website.

Bangladesh’s Southeast Bank Ltd., which recently launched a Visa-branded debit card called the SEBL My Card, has signed an ATM and point-of-sale network sharing agreement with Brac Bank Ltd.

American Eagle FCU has signed with Dynamic Card Solutions to use the company’s instant card issuance for unembossed Visa debit cards at the branch level.

PartnersFirst Affinity Services has agreed to use a custom card-production service from the processor Total System Services Inc.

After months of banks’ efforts to explain new opt-in policies for account-overdraft protection, 60% of consumers surveyed last month were aware of pending changes in debit card overdraft services on existing accounts mandated by new federal rules, according to new data from Mintel Comperemedia, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults online. That was up from 40% who were aware of the changes during a similar survey Mintel conducted two months earlier.

Companies that install or manage payment-application software, such as that used in integrated point-of-sale terminals, can best protect their information by following a list of best practices Visa Inc. issued today, the payments company contends.

The merchant-processing unit of Barclaycard UK in July experienced an almost double-digit increase in spending by its merchant clients’ credit and debit card customers in the United Kingdom compared with the same month last year, challenging the notion that consumer confidence has declined, Barclaycard announced recently.

China’s Union Mobile Pay service’s transaction sales volume exceeded 30 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion or 3.1 billion euros) in 2009, a spokesperson for the mobile payment service provider tells PaymentsSource.

Growth in automated clearing house transactions slowed in the second quarter, but the dollar value of those transactions increased slightly.

Mobile banking is gaining more popularity with the underbanked than it is with conventional bank customers.