Smart Card Alliance Latin America Announces 2010 Executive Committee

SOURCE: The Smart Card Alliance

 

 PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ- The Smart Card Alliance Latin America Chapter (SCALA) today announced its 2010 executive committee including new Chair Fernando Mendez of Visa, Inc. The executive committee leads the organization's advisory board. 

SCALA, an affiliation of the Smart Card Alliance, focuses on building awareness and adoption of smart card technology in Latin America. Its membership includes smart card industry leaders and government organizations located across the region, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Venezuela.

Peers from chapter member organizations chose the executive committee based on their leadership qualities and commitment to supporting SCALA's efforts in developing the smart card market in Latin America. The new SCALA executive committee is:

• Chair - Fernando Mendez, Visa Inc.


• Vice Chair - Karina Prado, G&D Burti


• Secretary - Humberto de la Vega, HID Global


• Observing General Member - Vincent Tenaglia, GET Group


• Observing Government Member - Mauricio Augusto Coelho, Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia da Informação (ITI)

"In the five years since we formed SCALA, the Latin American smart card market has undergone dramatic changes, with great progress in the migration to EMV chip payment technology, and more governments beginning secure identity and credentialing initiatives," said Edgar Betts, associate director of the Smart Card Alliance Latin America Chapter. "SCALA has been there every step of the way, expanding its membership and providing knowledge and awareness of smart cards throughout the region. We are excited for the new executive committee to continue this work driving the progress of the smart card market in Latin America."



About the Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA)

The primary mission of the Smart Card Alliance Latin American chapter is in line with the overall goal of the Alliance: to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart cards. The Alliance plans to use specific projects such as bilingual education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums to keep Latin American chapter organization members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought.



About the Smart Card Alliance

The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.

Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org.

Contact:

Deb Montner

Montner & Associates

203-226-9290

dmontner@montner.com

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MetaBank Says Dubai Suspects Used Fraud to Get Cards

Bloomberg's Peter Eichenbaum reports for BusinessWeek.  Here's a snippet:

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Suspected assassins of a Hamas leader in Dubai “fraudulently” acquired prepaid payroll cards and stole identities to obtain jobs or compensation from U.S. companies, according to card-issuer MetaBank.



Authorities informed the lender, a unit of publicly traded Meta Financial Group Inc., that the suspects used fake passports to get cards issued by the firm and other banks, according to an e-mailed statement from Meta yesterday. The company, rooted in regions of Iowa and South Dakota tied to farming, said it followed proper procedures and that the people weren’t on federal lists designed to block potential terrorists.



“No other readily apparent method existed for Meta to determine that identity theft had been perpetrated on valid governments and their citizens,” MetaBank said.



Fourteen of the suspects in the January killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh used MasterCards issued by MetaBank to book hotel rooms and pay for air travel, Dubai police said last month. Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim accused Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, of orchestrating the murder of al-Mabhouh, a founder of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Palestinian movement Hamas.



MetaBank’s home town of Storm Lake, Iowa, is about 200 miles southwest of Minneapolis and 150 miles northwest of Des Moines. The bank said the cards were issued through New York- based Payoneer, which markets them to U.S. companies and has a research and development facility in Tel Aviv.



Continue Reading at BusinessWeek

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Litle & Co. Wins eCommerce Customer Service Honors at 2010 Stevie Awards

LOWELL, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Litle & Co. won a Stevie® Award for e-Commerce Customer Service at the 4th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service presented in Miami Beach, Florida last week. Litle & Co.’s selection was, in part, determined by demonstrating the success of its payments reporting & analytics platform in helping customers analyze their own customer data to engage with customers, and third-party partners, to uncover new ways to improve operational efficiencies and maximize customer lifetime value through payments.



“We strive to provide value above and beyond what businesses consider typical in customer service, reviewing on a regular basis our customers’ businesses practices to streamline their operations, minimize the cost of payments acceptance and grow revenue.”



More than 500 entries from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted to this year’s competition. The awards are presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes several of the world's leading business awards shows including the prestigious American Business Awards.



“It is an honor to receive a Stevie Award in recognition of our Merchant Services Group’s commitment to driving client success through service,” said Bob Botelle, Chief Customer Officer and Executive Vice President, Merchant Services at Litle & Co. “We strive to provide value above and beyond what businesses consider typical in customer service, reviewing on a regular basis our customers’ businesses practices to streamline their operations, minimize the cost of payments acceptance and grow revenue.”



Litle & Co. said the Stevie Award will embark on a cross-country tour among its clients to thank them and to encourage their continued demand for excellence in customer service in the competitive world of payments.



“This year’s honorees demonstrate that even in challenging economic times, it’s possible for organizations to continue to shine in sales and customer service, the two most important functions in business: acquiring and keeping customers,” said Michael Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards.



Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of honorees in all categories are available at www.stevieawards.com/sales.

About Litle & Co.

Litle & Co. is a leading payments management company for merchants who sell goods and services directly to consumers. Providing payment processing and consultative merchant services for card-not-present (CNP) and alternative payments, the Litle & Co. payments platform is engineered specifically to meet the needs of companies in Direct Response (DRTV, radio, print), Multichannel Retail (including catalogs), Internet Retail, and Online Services. Founded in 2001, and based in Lowell, Massachusetts, Litle & Co.’s growth has been acknowledged by a No.1 Inc. 500 ranking (2006) and a No.8 Entrepreneur Hot 100 ranking (2008). To learn more about Litle & Co. visit http://www.litle.com, or call 1-800-548-5326 (1-800-LITLECO) or 978-275-6500.



Twitter: @LitleCo

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/litle-&-co.

 

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.

Sponsors of the 4^th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include official publications Sales & Marketing Management (SMM) and Training magazines, as well as the Sales Association, SalesLabs, and ValueSelling Associates.





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