Thursday, October 16, 2008

Happy Birthday! The Green Sheet Turns 25!

The Green Sheet 2.0 :: GS Online
Editor's Note:  When I read that Paul Green's "Green Sheet" was turning 25 this week, first, I couldn't believe it and second, I had to post about it.  I've been receiving the Green Sheet since 1996...that's a dozen years already! Whether you're in the payments industry or not, The Green Sheet is a great publication.  Paul Green has done a tremendous job with the magazine through the years.  And there's no denying what it is when you see one lying on someone's office desk, with it's trademark all green color.  Heck of a branding strategy too. 

He featured one of the company's I co-started  with a Mr. Craig Tims, Hot Off The Press: Merchant's Getting P.A.I.D. which I aptly named P.A.I.D (an acronym for Payment Authorized Instantly Debited).  I say aptly because it converted a potentially very bouncy paper check into a "one-time/real-time" debit transaction.  Yes, that was back before banks figured out how much money they'd make by approving transactions in DDA accounts that didn't contain sufficient funds and then charging $30+ bucks a pop to their customers. 

Back then, the way it worked was if there wasn't enough money in the account to pay for the transaction the EFT networks  actually declined the transaction due to insufficient funds...or approved them which guaranteed the merchant they would "Get P.A.I.D"   Easiest Sale Pitch in the world.  Want to Get P.A.I.D?  Should've never sold it to Pay By Touch.  Should've just included the CheckElect/RCK biz in the sale and  kept that one.   

Ironically, and I say ironically, because throughout the years, not too many companies have been  a "Featured Company"...not even Pay By Touch made the grade...The Green Sheet also did a "Company Profile on HomeATM, which you can find here:  Homing in on E-Commerce
GS always makes for interesting reading and I looked and continue to look forward to every issue...especially the Quarterly's. (I like the colors!) So Happy 25th Birthday to The Green Sheet and congratulations to Mr. Paul Green!

The Green Sheet turns 25

T he Green Sheet celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. Said like that, you wonder where the time went.
It all began in October 1983 when payments industry pioneer Paul H. Green founded The Green Sheet as a four-page monthly newsletter produced by a staff of two. It was reproduced on a copy machine and distributed to American Marketing Corp. (Amcor) sales reps as a resource and tool to support them at their jobs.
Remember, Amcor was the first  ISO in the United States, founded by Paul in 1982. With the vision of building a network of ISOs across the nation, Amcor was also the first Super ISO. In its first year of operation, Amcor sold $1.5 billion – yes, with a "b" – of new bankcard business.  Paul's position within the payments industry and his passion for the craft of honest selling made him ideally suited to deliver timely news and opinion about the industry.

As with most overnight successes, it took almost 10 years before The Green Sheet expanded its readership base beyond Amcor reps to reach a much wider audience of over 1,100 ISOs and nearly 150 individuals.

In March 1994, Paul's now ubiquitous “Good Selling” signature appeared for the first time in the newsletter. About a year later, distribution of The Green Sheet had grown from 300 copies per week to 2,200; the content had expanded to six pages; and it became a biweekly publication now received by thousands of sales professionals, ISOs, third party service providers and even banks.

In the first April 1994 issue, the influential Resource Guide made its first appearance. A few months later, the letters to the editor feature debuted with one letter. By 1995, The Green Sheet had gone "hi-tech" with an e-mail address through America Online.

But The Green Sheet was only getting started. A full blown Web site soon followed. April 1997 ushered in the first issue of the newsletter to include paid advertising.
To read the entire article, take a moment to visit Paul Green's "The Green Sheet"  You'll be glad you did!

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You Say You Want a Revolution?

Revolution Money has announced that RBS WorldPay (formerly RBS Lynk) will be offering RevolutionCard as a payment option to its merchants. According to the companies, the agreement extends the RevolutionCard network to nearly 300,000 online and physical merchant locations.

In August 2008, RBS WorldPay began processing RevolutionCard's PIN-based transactions for participating merchants. Merchants will be charged absolutely no interchange fee and a nominal 0.50% transaction fee - saving them up to 80% in transaction fees compared to other payment brands. The PIN-based security benefits of the RevolutionCard also help reduce merchant expenses associated with disputes, chargebacks and unauthorized transactions.

In addition to lowering a merchant's cost per transaction, and enhancing the scope of both national and local merchants' selection of electronic payment solutions alike, RBS WorldPay and Revolution Money have joined to provide a first-of-its-kind Independent Sales Organization (ISO) program that will enable ISOs to offer this new payment vehicle.

"RBS WorldPay is committed to providing the widest array of payment options to its clients," said Ian Drysdale, senior vice president of Market Development for RBS WorldPay. "Revolution Money's groundbreaking solution addresses two of the paramount concerns for any merchant: reducing the cost of payment acceptance and reducing the incidence of fraud."

Jason Hogg, (Editor's Note:  I've heard Mr. Hogg is a capitalistic pig...like me:-)  Revolution Money's Founder and CEO, added, "We're excited to supply RBS WorldPay's merchants with RevolutionCard's low fees, customer loyalty opportunities and exceptional security features. With the development of an ISO program, this relationship brings us one step closer to reaching 1 million merchant locations in the U.S. that accept RevolutionCard."


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CAIMR - Center for Applied Identity Management Research

Secret Service, IBM, Others Form Alliance - Desktop Security News Wire - Dark Reading
Secret Service, IBM, Others Form Alliance
Corporate, government, and academic leaders unite to fight cybercrime, identity theft, and other identity management challenges

OCTOBER 16, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- An unprecedented coalition of leading corporate, government and academic institutions today announced the formation of the Center for Applied Identity Management Research (CAIMR). CAIMR is focused on developing research and solutions for society’s most daunting identity management challenges such as cyber crime, terrorism, financial crimes, identity theft and fraud, weapons of mass destruction, and narcotics and human trafficking. The Center is the first of its kind to bring cross-disciplinary experts in criminal justice, financial crime, biometrics, cyber crime and cyber defense, data protection, homeland security and national defense to address identity management challenges that impact individuals, public safety, commerce, government programs and national security.

CAIMR’s founding members represent an extraordinary alliance of non-profit, public sector and corporate institutions including: Indiana University, U.S. Secret Service, LexisNexis, IBM, Cogent Systems, Visa and Intersections. Dr. Gary R. Gordon, a nationally recognized expert in economic crime and a Senior Scholar in Identity Management at Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington will serve as Executive Director of the Center. Under their guidance the Center will undertake applied research projects concentrating on the identity management aspects of the following:

* Public Safety: Identity theft, cyber crime, computer crime, organized criminal groups, document fraud and sexual predator detection
* National Security: Cyber security and cyber defense, human trafficking and illegal immigration, terrorist tracking and financing
* Financial and Corporate Fraud: Mortgage fraud and other financial crimes, data breaches, e-commerce fraud, insider threats and health care fraud.
* Individual Protection: Identity theft and fraud

CAIMR will identify the key challenges, the gaps in knowledge and the research needed to provide solutions to these challenges. Additional members include Fair Isaac, University of Texas at Austin, Wells Fargo & Company, U.S. Marshals Service, Dragnet Solutions, ID Experts, Identity Theft Assistance Corporation (ITAC), Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

“CAIMR is a trusted public private partnership of organizations focused on solving some of the nation’s most challenging identity management problems,” said Gary R. Gordon, Ed.D. Executive Director, CAIMR. “As a non-profit organization governed by its partners with a strong affiliation with its host academic institution, Indiana University, CAIMR is uniquely positioned to foster a collaborative applied research environment that brings together the multi-disciplinary talent, resources, data sources, and analytical capabilities to take up this challenge.”

LexisNexis

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First Data/Wasau Financial Team for Remittance Processing Agreement

First Data - First Data & Wausau Financial Systems Expand Relationship
DENVER/MOSINEE, WIS., Oct. 16, 2008 - Remittance processing partners, WAUSAU Financial Systems (WFS) and REMITCO LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Data Corp., have entered into a new agreement that expands WFS' proprietary software solutions into a full service offering.

Under the agreement, WFS will provide multiple levels of service that allow organizations to choose end-to-end remittance processing or a more limited solution that can grow over time. The expanded solution can be used by a number of industries, including financial services, utilities and insurance companies.

First Data, a global technology leader in information commerce, will host the software environment, manage the service facilities, and provide the labor necessary to process the transactions. The agreement also calls for First Data to beta test new WFS product development and new releases and upgrades to the software.

The WFS payments solution is third-party accredited as being best-of-breed by Celent and Aite Group. The WFS remittance solution supports nearly 4 billion transactions annually. REMITCO has used the WAUSAU Financial Systems software within its lockbox network for nearly five years.

"Funding internal resources to keep up with technology advances has proved challenging for both large and small organizations. This expanded relationship provides both corporate and financial institutions with innovative solutions that increase efficiencies and reduce costs, thereby allowing businesses to reinvest capital dollars and grow," said Joe Delgadillo, president and CEO for WAUSAU Financial Systems. "This partnership is now uniquely positioned to provide superior solutions and services to the market and we are pleased to be partnering with First Data to do so."

"With WAUSAU Financial Systems, we saw a tremendous opportunity to build on our existing technology relationship to deliver innovative new technology and expand the services available," said Sally Else, general manager of First Data's Issuing and Payment Services. "This is a great example of First Data's commitment to constantly seek innovation and new technology in all that it delivers to the marketplace


 

Editors Note:  Speaking of Remittance, Look for a Post examining HomeATM's HomeRemittance Program.  I personally used this service myself and it's quite interesting.  Just need to take a few screenshots and a couple digital shots of HomeATM's SwipePIN device in action and I'll take you through the whole process...  JBF

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