MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MoneyGram International (NYSE:MGI), a global leader in the payment services industry, yesterday entered into memoranda of understanding to settle federal securities class and stockholder derivative actions pending in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. The claims arise out of the subprime related losses in 2007 and 2008.
“We are pleased to be able to enter into these agreements and bring to conclusion these legal proceedings,” said Pamela H. Patsley, MoneyGram chairman and CEO. “My goal since joining MoneyGram has been to re-focus the organization on our core business and transform the company into a global market leader. These agreements will put these claims behind us and move MoneyGram another step forward towards the achievement of that goal.”
Under terms of the securities class action memorandum of understanding, the plaintiffs agree in principle to settle the claims for an $80 million cash payment, all but $20 million of which will be paid by the Company’s insurance coverage. The derivative claims memorandum of understanding provides for changes to MoneyGram’s business, corporate governance and internal controls, some of which have already been implemented in whole or in part in connection with MoneyGram’s recent recapitalization. The memoranda of understanding are subject to negotiation and execution of definitive settlement documents containing usual and customary settlement agreement terms, notice to the class and shareholders, and approval of the Court.
MoneyGram’s three remaining pre-recapitalization directors, having helped MoneyGram successfully manage the transition of the company’s ownership, management and governance and resolve the litigation described above, have determined not to seek re-election as directors at MoneyGram’s annual meeting for the year 2010 in order to ensure a wholly new post-recapitalization board and wholly new audit committee.
“MoneyGram is committed to ensuring that its Board of Directors embodies the highest standards of governance and oversight for MoneyGram and its shareholders,” added Patsley. “Our Nominating Committee and board will work to ensure that the MoneyGram Board of Directors and Audit Committee are comprised of directors best suited to uphold these standards.”
The company has begun a process to identify new director candidates and anticipates nominating candidates for election to the board at the 2010 annual meeting of stockholders.
About MoneyGram International
MoneyGram International offers more control and more choices for people separated by distance or with limited bank relationships to meet their financial needs. A leading global payment services company, MoneyGram International helps consumers to pay bills quickly and safely send money around the world in as little as 10 minutes. Its global network is comprised of 190,000 agent locations in nearly 190 countries and territories. MoneyGram’s convenient and reliable network includes retailers, international post offices and financial institutions. To learn more about money transfer or bill payment at an agent location or online, please visit www.moneygram.com.
COLUMBUS, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TSYS (NYSE: TSS) today announced that its board of directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.07 per share on TSYS common stock, payable April 1, 2010, to TSYS shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 18, 2010.
About TSYS
TSYS (NYSE: TSS) is one of the world’s largest companies for outsourced payment services, offering a broad range of issuer- and acquirer-processing technologies that support consumer-finance, credit, debit, healthcare, loyalty and prepaid services for financial institutions and retail companies in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. For more information contact news@tsys.comor log on towww.tsys.com.
In it they say that transaction security fears are at the top of the list when it comes to the most common barriers to using mobile banking. Here's a snippet:
While mobile banking introduces some new operational costs, it is by far the lowest-cost banking channel in place today at an estimated $0.08 per transaction (figure 9).
Compare that to other banking channels such as call center ($3.75 per transaction), IVR ($1.25 per transaction) or ATM ($0.85 per transaction) and you can see how moving some of these transactions to the mobile channel could result in significant cost savings.
But consumers remain wary of mobile banking because of concerns about transaction security (figure 8). Security fears topped the list of reasons that would prevent respondents from using mobile banking with 53 percent.
With 35% of Top 500 retailers now breaking out annual web sales, it’s clear that web-only merchants took business away from the rest of the retail market in 2009, according to analysis of data for Internet Retailer’s forthcoming 2010 Top 500 Guide.
Combined revenue for the 175 merchants that have reported annual web sales so far increased 13.8% to $49.70 billion in 2009 from $43.69 billion in 2008. However, among the 99 web-only retailers who have reported sales thus far, sales increased 25.2% to $32.45 billion from $25.92 billion in 2008. Even excluding growth powerhouse Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, which grew 27.9% to $24.51 billion from $19.17 billion in 2008, the remaining 98 web-only retailers grew 17.6% to $7.94 billion from $6.75 billion.
The analysis of 99 web-only retailers, 36 chain retailers, 32 catalog companies and eight consumer brand manufacturers reveals:
Even though only a few consumer brand manufacturers have released e-commerce figures thus far, that group grew collective annual web sales by 12.7% to $487.6 million from $432.5 million in 2008.
Chain retailers’ web sales declined 3.7% in 2009 to $12.94 billion from $13.44 billion.
Catalogers posted a 2.6% decline in online revenue to $3.8 billion from $3.9 billion.
Internet Retailers Can Only Wish Visa would Charge Them "Swipe Fees"
CNN Politics published an article about 15 minutes ago which reports that more and more merchants are "up in arms" about Swipe Fees.
Swipe Fees are a cost of doing business. If you don't like them, you can refuse to take Visa/MC cards.
Personally, I think they should focus more on why Visa has been pushing (with rewards) signature debit cards over the 12.5 times more secure PIN Debit cards. That fact alone robs merchants of millions of dollars annually.
PIN Debit rates are SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER, because they are SIGNIFICANTLY MORE SECURE. If you own a retail brick and mortar establishment, steer your customers towards the PIN Debit option. Not only will it save you more on Interchange, it will virtually eliminate charge-backs.
Of course, if you are an Internet Retailer, then you are SOL. Wouldn't it be "GREAT" just to be able to pay "Swipe Fee's?
Internet Retailers "would probably maim" simply to have have the "right" to pay "Swipe Fees." They would "kill" for the right to pay PIN Debit fees.
But alas, Visa won't allow "Swipe Fees" for online transactions because they make way too much money on Non-Swiped "Card Not Present" Fees.
Remember...
The MORE SECURE the transaction, the LOWER the FEE.
The "LESS SECURE" the transaction, the HIGHER the FEE.
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB evaluated HomeATM's eCommerce based PIN Entry device. The stringent evaluation resulted in the first-ever (and still to this day, world's only) PCI 2.0 Certified PIN Entry Device.
Yet, here we are, almost a year later, and there is no PIN Debit Interchange Rate for Internet-based transactions. Worse yet, there isn't even a "card present" rate.
Internet Retailers could ask the logical question: Why can't we process a more secure transaction when these insecure one's are costing us millions while making you millions? It ain't right...
Put another way: "How can Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and JCB evaluate and then PCI 2.0 Certify a PIN Entry Device designed for eCommerce use, and then not offer "card present" and "PIN Debit" rates on transactions conducted via that same device?
HomeATM made history. We not only created the first eCommerce PCI Certified PED, it's apparently the first ever certified PED in history that cannot *conduct "card present" OR "PIN Debit" transactions. (*denotes sarcasm) Wonder what it WAS certified to be able to do?*
When you consider that PIN Debit is preferred by both merchants and consumers alike, then add the fact that (at least in the UK) "card not present" fraud consists of 87% of the total fraud committed, you have to wonderwhy Visa is keeping "card present" and "PIN Debit" transactions off the web. UK "Card Not Present" Fraud Responsible for 86.6% of Total
ESPECIALLY in light of the fact that their solution to securing an online transaction is to keep the card not present and just typing more numbers into boxes in browsers. No wonder Verified by Visa, was recently exposed as a "Textbook Example of How Not to Authenticate a card user." Verified by Visa: "Textbook Example of How NOT to Design an Authentication Protocol"
Visa can charge significantly higher fees when the card is not swiped thus the Internet is a cash cow for them. Allowing for Swipe Fees would be taking money out of their pocket.
Unlike the brick and mortar world, where some merchants feel they should have the right to "negotiate" Swipe Fees, Internet Retailers cannot even "negotiate" the right to pay "Swipe Fees"
One could argue that eMerchants are prevented by Visa...or at least "excluded" ...from being able to conduct a "more secure/card present transaction."
You would think that would fall under one of those "inalienable right" thingamajobbers. Now if there "wasn't" a PCI 2.0 Certified PIN Entry Device in the marketplace, it would be a different story. But there is. So why then, are Internet Retailers forced to conduct "card NOT present" transactions. They can conduct transactions in the same manner conducted by brick and mortar retailers. Have the customer swipe their card and have the customer enter their PIN at the Point of Sale. The only difference is that the Point of Sale is the consumers home instead of the retailers rental location.
Meanwhile, fraud skyrockets and Visa's own security product is exposed as a sham. "Card Not Present" fraud costs billions of dollars per year, yet Visa want's it to remain the SNAFU status quo. (in order to rake in millions of dollars at the expense of merchants and consumers.) Sounds like Internet Retailers would have a better chance of winning a war against the Dynamic Duopoly fighting for CP vs. CNP than the brick and mortar merchants have with their "right to negotiate" stance.
From CNN:
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Merchants pay "swipe fee" when customers use MasterCard, Visa
Swipe fees brought in somewhere between $38 billion to $46 billion in 2008
Credit card industry says the fees are appropriate because of services they provide
Unclear whether restricting fees would mean lower prices for consumers
Two Videos, one defending and one taking a swipe at fees.
Read the Article in Full at CNN Politics by clicking the headline below:
"The merchants are getting ripped off, it's that simple. There's monopoly power with Visa, MasterCard. They have over 70 percent of the transactions," said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, who is pushing for congressional action on the issue.
A new Symantec study found that 42 percent of organizations rate security their top issue. This isn’t a surprise, considering that 75 percent of organizations experienced cyber attacks in the past 12 months.
These attacks cost enterprise businesses an average of $2 million per year.
VANCOUVER, Feb. 23 /CNW/ - TIO Networks Corp., North America's leading multi-channel expedited bill payment network, (TSX-V: TNC), today provided transaction volumes for the second quarter ended January 2010.
------------------------------------------------------------------------- % Growth % Growth in US in CDN Transaction Dollars Transaction Dollars Revenue vs. Revenue vs. Quarter Transactions ($US) Q2/2010 ($CAN) Q2/2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Q2/2010 2,031,393 $5,119,733 N/A $5,383,804 N/A ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q1/2010 1,827,699 $4,671,282 9.6% $5,019,192 7.3% ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q2/2009 1,668,571 $4,265,470 20% $5,234,402 2.9% ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The growth trend in month over month transaction volumes increased substantially throughout the quarter with January recording our best month ever with 771,210 transactions processed accounting for more than $2M CAN in transaction revenue.
Business growth with new and existing clients and growing consumer demand for the Company's expedited bill payment products is driving network and revenue growth. The Company continues to aggressively seek new bill payment products, network partners, build on its suite of financial services and add new distribution platforms and endpoints to serve America's increasing reliance on expedited payment products and financial services.
All figures are preliminary and subject to adjustment that will be confirmed when TIO reports its second quarter financial results in March 2010.
TIO Networks Corp.
TIO is the leading multi-channel expedited bill payment processor serving the largest Telecom, Wireless, Cable and Utility bill issuers in North America. With over 20,000 endpoints to its processing network, TIO symbolizes fast, convenient and secure access to expedited payments.
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed this news release and does not accept responsibility for its adequacy and accuracy.
For further information: Behshad Hastibakhsh, Media Relations - TIO Networks, Tel: (604) 298-4636, Ext. 250, Toll Free: (888) 679-3322, Email: pr@TIOnetworks.com;
John Lewis, Business Development - TIO Networks, Tel: (416) 364-2266, Toll Free: (877) 954-6327, Email: jrlewis@TIOnetworks.com
