Other Breaking News
In today’s CardFlash News Que: CHASE (Epcot); EXPENSIFY (Ventures); NBHC (FIS) and CSI (ReactorNet).
First Data Raises Private Placement for Debt Consolidation
First Data has received commitments to purchase approximately $3.5 billion of its common equity in a private placement to strengthen the company’s balance sheet through repaying portions of its debt. The $3.5 billion comprising the private placement announced today includes $1.5 billion from existing investors and $2.0 billion from new investors, including a diverse group of pension funds, mutual funds, asset managers and wealthy individuals. KKR provided approximately $1.2 billion, including $500 million from its 2006 Fund and $700 million from its balance sheet. Upon close of the transaction, KKR’s balance sheet will have approximately $1.0 billion invested in First Data’s equity, through general partner and limited partner interests.
Fico introduces analytics-based portfolio profitability service
Fico announced The Fair Isaac Advisors P&L Insight Service, giving financial services organizations an analysis of their portfolio trends and profit drivers, along with portfolio-level profitability forecasts and what-if scenarios for strategic planning purposes.Unlike traditional P&L assessments, the P&L Insight Service examines potential impacts across the credit lifecycle, including marketing, originations, customer management and collections. FICO’s advisors can rapidly generate actionable insights using a proprietary FICO tool with built-in forecasting models that can be tuned to the particular dynamics of a bank’s portfolio. Advisors convert 12 to 24 months of portfolio-level data into coherent business intelligence, provide automated trend analysis of profit drivers, deliver actionable and quantifiable recommendations, and assist with strategic planning activities for short-, medium-, and long-range objective-setting.
PKO Bank Polski Issue Rate Hits 7.2M Cards
Cards with ATM function experienced an increase of 3% to reach 33.1 million cards in 2011 while the number of ATMs reached 17,740 units in 2011, from 5% growth compared to 2010. ATM card transactions increased in 2011 by 7% in current value terms to reach PLN284.1 billion and 5% in volume terms to amount to 737 million transactions. Over the forecast period, transaction volume will increase by a CAGR of 3% to reach 838 million in 2016 and in constant value terms transaction will reach PLN332.2 billion with a CAGR of 3%. PKO Bank Polski SA has 7.2 million cards in circulation with ATM function in 2010. The average transaction amount is expected to increase from PLN376 in 2011 up to PLN397 in 2016.
MotherFund Expands for Merchant Cash Advance
TX-based MotherFund creative financial solutions for businesses has expanded its call center staff to serve the increasing demand for non-traditional working-capital programs, like its popular Merchant Cash Advance. The Company’s products such as these are based on accounts receivable financing or factoring. This form of financing puts a company’s financial assets to work immediately. MotherFund also offers trade receivable, credit card processing, and custom financial services.
Citi Pledges $2 Million to Haiti Recovery Efforts
In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti Citigroup has pledged a $2 million commitment for immediate relief and recovery efforts, $250,000 of which will go to the American Red Cross for immediate relief while the remainder will be given to local partners for medium- to long-term reconstruction efforts. The bank has partnered with the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) for the past 20 years to keep pre-deployed supplies in warehouses in Miami which are released in disaster situations across Latin America and the Caribbean. Citi has also opened an appeal fund for employees to donate, provided details of partner organization relief funds for donations and are encouraging employees to help with volunteer efforts in their communities.
G&D 2008
In 2008, the Giesecke & Devrient (G&D)
technology group reported it generated net sales of 1.7 billion euros, an increase of 9% compared with the previous
year. All business units of the Group presented high growth rates. Net
income for the year increased by 16% to 111 million euros. EBIT
amounted to 160 million euros. At the same time, G&D made further
substantial forward-looking investments, increasing its R&D expenditure
to 109 million euros. Sales by the Cards and Services business unit increased year-on-year by
5.6 percent to 609 million euros. The Payment division once again gained
additional market shares, profiting especially from the ongoing
migration from simple magnetic strip cards to more sophisticated cards
with embedded microprocessors. G&D was able to significantly expand its
position in this market sector, particularly in Canada, France and
Spain. As in 2007, the Telecommunications division considerably
increased the volume of sales of SIM cards. The demand for value-added
cards for mobile communication applications greatly exceeded our
original expectations. The global trend towards lower prices was
balanced by a higher volume of sales and greater demand for premium
products offering higher memory capacity.
UCBH & MINSHENG BANK
China Minsheng Bank has bought 5.4 million shares of stock in UCBH
Holdings, at $17.79 per share, for a total transaction worth $95.7 million
and the first phase of 9.9%-20% acquisition. The second phase of the
development will result in a 9.9% acquisition of UCBH at a share
premium of up to 5.0% above the average. Decisions regarding the
possibility of further acquisition will be made thereafter by Minsheng Bank,
which has a market capitalization of $27.6 billion and total assets of
$125.9 billion while UCBH had $11.80 billion in assets with the closing
of 4Q07.
BUSCAPE & PAGAMENTO
BuscaPe has acquired the Pagamento Digital payment management
platform with the intention of providing electronic commerce security.
Providing over 500 clients with access to operational payment methods,
Pagamento Digital is projecting revenues of more than R$ 20 million for
2008. The company provides integral payment methods for online sales
promotion needs and cash-flow management. BucsaPe’s website,
“BuscaPe.com”, gets 30 million hits monthly and across 28 countries,
providing product search and price research while Pagamento Digital
develops electronic commerce solutions and online payment platforms.
Consumers & Businesses Embrace Gift Cards
Surveys by two industry leaders shows that consumers and business owners have overwhelmingly embraced gift cards this holiday season. A pre-holiday survey by First Data reveals that 77% of consumers are “extremely likely,” “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to buy gift cards for family and friends this holiday season. American Express found that of companies choosing to give individual employee gifts at year-end, gift cards are at the top of the list (42%), followed by spot cash bonuses (37%), company products (35%), food/food baskets (26%), merchandise (25%), and time off (24%). FDC discovered that 66% of consumers plan to buy the same number of gift cards again this holiday season with 19% planning to purchase more. The mean number of gift cards consumers plan to purchase is five. Also, discount stores (42%) and specialty retail stores (33%) are the top locations where gift cards purchases are planned for this holiday season. The AmEx poll found that from the employee perspective, gift cards rival a day off as a desirable gift, and are bested only by cash and time off. In fact, a gift card is twice as exciting as company-wide recognition, and nine times more exciting than dinner with the boss, according to AmEx survey respondents. In order of importance, employees most want cash (44%) as their year-end gift, followed by time off (17%) and gift cards (15%).
CYBUX CASH CARD
For the local promotion of their online products and services and to provide
the CyBux Cash Card, ActiveCore Technologies has signed agreements with
Business-Scene Portal(BPS). Citing that 80% of business for small and
medium-
sized operations comes from within a 30 mile radius, local business
portal solutions
is something ActiveCore Technology was seeking for the generation of local
revenue. Portal solutions, such as these, reduce operational expenses,
simplify
application maintenance, improve CRM and customer satisfaction, increase
revenue
streams, and improved knowledge management and collaboration. For
ActiveCore,
the implementation of BPS solutions across organizations and business
units will
generating revenues, improve positioning and overall internal business
processes.
The portal will also help ActiveCore conduct business over the Internet.
CyBux
provides an integrated online payment system across Canada involving
most of the
major banks and credit unions and provides a secure account-based payment
system for use on the Internet.
PartsCards GE Business MasterCard is Promoted
ATCO Parts PartsCards is promoting commercial credit cards to their business customers through a relationship with GE Money – Corporate Payment Services. Under the agreement, PartsCard is promoting a co-branded version of the “CPS Productivity MasterCard” to middle market and small business customers nationwide. PartsCard provides the option to purchase parts, tools, paint, body, and equipment and other business-related items from any vendor accepting MasterCard. The Productivity Card’s suite of features helps companies streamline their purchasing and payment processes and control costs. PartsCard, a division of ATCO Parts, was created to support the national sales of the co-branded “Productivity Business Card”. GE Money – Corporate Payment Services, the commercial card unit of GE Money – Americas, develops and markets corporate bank cards and e-settlement tools designed for small-, medium- and large-sized companies and organizations. Cards are issued by GE Capital Financial Inc.