Diners Club International Ltd., a business unit of Discover, and Elavon, a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, have announced the signing of a merchant acquiring agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Elavon will add Diners Club card acceptance to its portfolio of payment processing services. This relationship will create more acceptance opportunities for Diners Club and Discover cardmembers, who eventually will be able to use their cards at Elavon merchants in the U.K. and western Europe. READ MORE

Elavon and Santander have announced the launch of a new alliance for merchant services in the UK. This alliance combines Elavon, a wholly owned subsidiary of US Bancorp, and Santander, one of the strongest and best capitalized banks in the world. "Jointly, Elavon and Santander’s strategy is to become one of the leading players in the UK acquiring market. The new alliance will enable Santander to leverage Elavon’s end-to-end control of the processing relationship; from risk and underwriting, to processing, funding and all customer support functions, whilst Elavon will dramatically increase their presence in the UK market by partnering with one of the most respected and fastest growing institutions in the UK." READ MORE

Elavon, a wholly owned subsidiary of US Bancorp, has signed a three-year agreement with FNC Inc., a technology company offering tailored solutions for the real-estate and mortgage industry to streamline industry processes, regulations and compliance. According to Elevavon, "the agreement provides credit and debit processing services via a new dashboard functionality offered by FNC in support of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) – a regulatory requirement impacting the mortgage industry’s appraiser selection process." READ MORE

Elavon has announced enhancements to its international processing platform that expands multi-currency, cross-border and Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) capabilities for merchants. Elavon’s network now has the ability to authorize in 89 currencies, settle in 16, and convert up to 48 currencies for DCC. In addition, Elavon has launched DCC in Germany, where the processor can currently convert 27 currencies, giving its merchants the ability to generate a new revenue stream by sharing in the conversion fees. READ MORE

Elavon, the merchant acquiring subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has announced that it is the "first acquirer to commercially market the American Express OnePoint program to its third party sales channels, including Merchant Service Providers (MSP's) and Agent Banks." Under this program, Elavon says it performs all set up, processing, settlement, funding, customer support and reporting for eligible American Express acceptance, thereby providing merchants with one processing relationship for all major card brands. Elavon also offers OnePoint to merchants in its direct sales and alliance bank referral channels. READ MORE

US Bank has reported financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008. Among the details, US Bank reported that debit card transaction dollar volume was essentially unchanged in the fourth quarter as compared to the same quarter in 2007 and was actually down sequentially from the second and third quarter of 2008.

For credit cards, the bank reported a decline in credit card purchase volume in the fourth quarter of about 3.5% from both the prior year. Fourth quarter credit card purchase volume was also lower that in both the second and third quarter of 2008. In the bank's merchant acquiring business (Elavon), the number of transactions processed increased about 3.5% over the prior year while the purchase volume declined about 6%.

Elavon has announced it has completed the rollout of its Electronic Check Service (ECS) solution, utilizing back-office conversion (BOC), at L’Occitane’s 166 luxury bath and body product boutiques across the United States. In addition, L’Occitane has also agreed to implement Elavon’s electronic gift card (EGC) solution just in time for the holidays for both in-boutique and online environments, offering customers the opportunity to purchase, redeem and reload cards in either environment. READ MORE

Elavon, a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp and formerly known as NOVA Information Systems, has announced that its Back Office Conversion (BOC) processing handled more than 4.6 million transactions in August, accounting for over $400 million in converted check volumes. BOC implementations of Elavon’s Electronic Check Service (ECS) solution are currently installed at more than 1,800 retail locations nationwide. READ MORE

NOVA Information Systems (NOVA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has unveiled a new global company name, Elavon. Elavon becomes the identity for NOVA and its affiliate merchant acquiring brands including First Horizon Merchant Services (FHMS) and euroConex. READ MORE

Roger Alexander, President of Elavon Merchant Services (Europe) and seasoned payments industry veteran, has been named 'Industry Personality of the Year' at the Card Awards 2008, hosted at the Grosvenor Hotel in London on 31st January 2008.