Digital River Deal
Siris Capital Group is ponying up $840 million to acquire Digital River. Digital River is a major global provider of Commerce-as-a-Service solutions.
Vantiv to Acquire Mercury Payment Systems
Vantiv, Inc. announced an agreement to acquire Mercury Payment Systems, LLC for an aggregate price of $1.65 billion. Mercury is a payment technology and service leader whose solutions are embedded into point-of-sale software applications and brought to market through their dealer and developer partners. Mercury is currently majority-owned by Silver Lake, a global leader in technology investing.
Wells Fargo to Service Dillard’s Privatel Label Cards
Wells Fargo & Company and Dillard’s, Inc. announced that the two companies have entered into an agreement for Wells Fargo to fund, issue and service Dillard’s-branded private label and co-brand credit cards. Wells Fargo will also manage the cardholder loyalty program for Dillard’s. The program agreement has a 10-year term and is anticipated to become operational in the fourth quarter of 2014, following the scheduled expiration of Dillard’s current program agreement. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Dillard’s management believes its earnings from the new program exclusive of startup costs will be comparable to its historical earnings from the Dillard’s branded credit card products and believes that earnings will increase with future program growth.
Bank of America to Sell Remaining Interest in Archstone
Bank of America announced that it and Barclays Bank PLC have entered into an agreement with Equity Residential and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. pursuant to which Bank of America and Barclays will sell their remaining 26.5 percent interest in Archstone, a privately-held owner, operator and developer of multifamily apartment properties, for a purchase price of…
Johnson and Johnson Installs Signbox NFC Smart Poster
Signbox has recently completed an installation of innovative Enlighten smart poster displays at the High Wycombe office of pharmaceutical company, Johnson & Johnson. On a prominent wall at the Consumer Healthcare site, Enlighten is the central display feature for the company’s Healthy Future initiative. A total of 11 Enlighten smart posters feature on a double wall spread of environmental graphics replacing the Healthy Future 2010 display, originally installed by Signbox in 2005. Staff and visitors can now download information programmed into the NFC (Near field communication) tag in the poster via a smartphone in a single elegant swipe.
Fifth Third Offering Voltage Data Protection
Fifth Third Processing will offer data protection provider
Voltage Security encryption and tokenization products to its merchant network.
Fifth Third Processing Solutions will integrate
Voltage “SecureData” Payments, a version of its industry-leading
end-to-end encryption solution specifically tuned for merchants and
payment processors, into its payment processing solution and make it
available throughout its merchant network.
Voltage uses the Identity-Based Key Encapsulation and Encryption
Protocol (IBKEEP) to transmit data across the various end-points without
the need for decrypting and re-encryption.
Voltage end-to-end encryption features an innovative cryptography
approach called Format-Preserving Encryption or FPE. With Voltage FPE,
credit card numbers and other types of structured information are
protected without the need to change format or structure.
SOMETRICS & IJJI.COM
Sometrics has helped online hardcore gaming portal ijji.com increase
offer-based revenue by more than 30% thanks to advertisement
presentation and a 15% increase in the rate of completion. Presenting
users with offers to take specific actions, generating responses for
advertisers (survey, club membership, etc), ijji.com lets gamers play
for free and the publisher generates advertising revenue. ijji.com
partnered with Sometrics to help increase advertisement offers and
complete the actions to earn their currency. Ultimately, the two
companies improved targeting offers based on user demographics to
present offers which to which they’re more likely to respond.
Commerce Online and 561 Media Join Forces
Commerce Online has announced a joint venture agreement with 561 Media
international web development firm to provide merchant card services and
web marketing for all 561 Media clients. The card services will be made
available through Commerce Online and its alliance partner network,
which includes FL-based Direct Technology Innovations (“DTI”). Commerce
Online and DTI have recently signed merchant processing and ISO
agreements to support the venture. The venture will offer website
development for new business, search engine marketing, social networking
and merchant card services for all
561 clients, including fee-based traffic and advertising through the
“www.800Commerce.com” social B2B portal.
GBGC REPORT
Stunting industry growth to only 2% in 2009 and 3% in 2010, rising
credit card debt is predicted to account for losses in online gambling
by as much as US$1.3 billion and US$2.8 billion in GGY, respectively. These figures
are projected to account for a US$11 billion loss between 2009 and 2012,
according to a recent GBGC report. The report also shows UK consumer
credit card debt is second to US consumers with charge-offs having
reached GBP929 million. Charge-offs’ impact on Internet gambling is severe,
considering credit cards process 70% of all transactions. Also, there
will be fewer new customers so the acquisition cost per customer is
expected to rise, leading to inevitable cost-cutting and merging of
customer base.
OCC Shoots Down FSR/CFA Concessions Pilot
The OCC this week responded to a proposal by The Financial Services
Roundtable and the Consumer Federation of America calling for
a pilot project that allows major credit card companies to dramatically
reduce the amount of money owed by heavily indebted borrowers who do not
qualify for currently-available repayment plans. The OCC says that while
it strongly encourages national banks to work with distressed borrowers,
the agency cannot approve a plan that defers the timely recognition of
losses, since that would compromise the transparency and integrity of a
bankâs financial reports and could lead to a loss of public confidence
in the banking system. The OCC said that the major lenders and credit
counseling firms interested in the FSR/CFA proposed pilot are failing to
differentiate between working with distressed borrowers and a desire to
simply acquire forbearance on loss recognition. Under the FSR/CFA
proposal lenders would forgive up to 40% of the amount consumers owe and
allow borrowers to pay back the remainder over time. (CF Library 11/03/08)
Consumer Groups Promote a Concessions Test
The Financial Services Roundtable and the Consumer Federation of
America are requesting the OCC to approve a pilot project allowing major
credit card companies to slash the amount of money owed by heavily
indebted borrowers who do not qualify for currently-available repayment
plans. This morning, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling
endorsed the initiative. The largest credit card banks have agreed to a
limited duration test, in which lenders would forgive up to 40% of the
amount consumers owe and allow borrowers to pay back the remainder over
time. The OCC currently does not allow lenders to offer repayment plans
that reduce the amount of principal owed and allow borrowers to pay back
this balance over a multi-year period. If regulators give permission
before the end of this year, the “Concessions Test” is expected to begin
in March and require between six and nine months to gather the needed
consumer sample. Results analysis will not be available until the end of
2009, thus it will be 2010, in all likelihood, before these concessions
are widely available.
Citi Absorbs Wachovia in Another Failure
While not FDIC seized like WaMu, Wachovia sold its retail bank, corporate and investment bank and wealth management businesses to Citi. Despite the window dressing, this is the second major U.S. bank failure in less than a week. Citi agreed to pay $2.1 billion to Wachovia and assume its senior and subordinated debt. At this time, there are no changes to Wachovia’s board of directors and two Wachovia directors will join Citigroup’s board. Wachovia will remain headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. Wachovia says that during recent weeks, the financial landscape has changed significantly and presented unprecedented challenges.