| » Publisher's Corner |
What letter of the alphabet do you fear the most?
If you watch any news broadcast or political talk show, it seems that everyone is dancing around the letter R! Only recently have people been willing to say that awful sounding R-Word………Recession…….now I have gone and said it. Sorry!
And technically we are not even close to being in a recession yet. By definition, it takes two consecutive calendar quarters of negative GDP growth for a recession to be declared….at least by economists. Could the pundits and the politicians talk us into a recession before one officially occurs? Can behaviors be changed so businesses start acting like they are in a recession?
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Calvin D. Johnson, Publisher
publisher@tpatlanta.com
Trans Atlantic Systems, Inc.
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| » Editorial |
US Treasury to Push Prepaid Cards to Unbanked
Social Security Benefit Recipients Targeted
The debit card market is about to get a quantum leap in users, courtesy of the U.S. government. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS) has announced that millions of unbanked Americans receiving Social Security will soon be offered a prepaid debit card for benefit payments. Treasury has selected Comerica Bank, based in Dallas, to provide the "Direct Express" card, which will start rolling out in early 2008.The program first targets the 4 million unbanked recipients of Social Security payments, but the program will be offered across the board as well. Up to $44 million in administration costs could be eliminated by the debit card program for the unbanked alone. The Direct Express card is part of an ongoing federal effort, called Go Direct, to get recipients to go paperless.
Details of Program Treasury estimated that there are four million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) check recipients who are unbanked. Because they have to wait for paper checks to arrive, there is a risk of delay due to weather, national or local emergencies. Checks can also be lost or stolen. The news release said that nine times out of 10, problems with Social Security payments are associated with paper checks, not direct deposit. The accounts are FDIC-insured, and subject to federal consumer protection regulations (Regulation E).
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» Main story |
| Merchant e-Solutions Grows e-Commerce Business, Hires Payments Industry Executive 
Merchant e-Solutions, Inc. (MeS), a leader in payment processing services, continues to make growth investments in its e-commerce business sector, first by developing payment solutions that are specifically engineered for card-not-present transactions, and now by announcing the appointment of Kevin Gallagher as the General Manager of the MeS e-Commerce business.
Gallagher, with over 14 years of payment processing experience--most recently as Senior Vice President of Corporate Alliances at Chase Paymentech-is responsible for continuing to develop and grow the MeS e-Commerce business through channel partnerships and direct merchant sales.
"We are delighted that Kevin Gallagher has joined Merchant e-Solutions," says Sharif Bayyari, CEO. "Kevin's industry experience and our proprietary payment services provide a perfect combination that will enable us to continue to grow our presence in the e-commerce arena."
In focusing on the needs of e-commerce merchants, MeS has developed a payment system with a direct exchange interface to Visa, as well as the MeS e-Commerce Payment Gateway and Virtual Terminal.
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| » Earlier this month |
Global Payments' Paul R. Garcia Listed Again Among America's Best CEOs by Institutional Investor Magazine
Atlanta based Global Payments Inc., a leader in payment processing services, announced today that Institutional Investor has, for the fourth year in a row, named its Chairman, President and CEO, Paul R. Garcia, among "The Best CEOs in America." Click here for more..
Visa Reports PCI Compliance Continued to Grow in 2007
Visa Inc. has announced that "as of the end of 2007, more than three-fourths of the largest U.S. merchants (those processing six million or more Visa transactions annually) and nearly two-thirds of medium-sized merchants (those processing between one million and six million Visa transactions annually) have now validated their compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).Click here for more..
U.S. Bank, MasterCard Launch Mobile Payments Pilot in Spokane
U.S. Bank, owner of locally based Nova Information, MasterCard Worldwide and Nokia have announced a mobile payments pilot program in Spokane, Washington using new Nokia mobile phones equipped with MasterCard PayPass payment functionality allowing consumers to pay for purchases with a tap of their mobile phone.Click here for more..
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| » Industry News |
InComm, Single Touch Interactive Focus on Mobile Coupon Redemptions
Single Touch Interactive and Atlanta based InComm have announced that they have partnered to provide customers with mobile coupons through retail loyalty cards.
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Fleetcor acquires Tracker
Atlanta based FleetCor, the Global Fleet Card Company, announced on January 15 that its subsidiary, CCS, had acquired Tracker s.r.o., a leading provider of GPS monitoring applications for business fleets in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.Click here for more..
First Advantage Purchases Fiserv's Mortgage Credit Reporting Division, CredStar
First Advantage Corporation FADV, a global risk mitigation and business solutions provider and competitor to ChoicePoint, and Fiserv, Inc. FISV, a leading provider of information technology services to the financial industry, announced that First Advantage has purchased the assets of CredStar, Fiserv's mortgage credit reporting business unit. Click here for more..
Recession ahead
Joi Freemont, a dentist in suburban Atlanta, doesn't have to look further than her appointment book to tell that people are worried about money.
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