Tony Adams reports for the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer about yesterday's first ever annual meeting for TSYS as an independent company. 'Tomlinson [TSYS CEO] said his company will soon introduce a single card that lets consumers choose between a debit or credit transaction at the point of sale.' A webcast of the annual meeting is available at the TSYS web site.

TSYS has announced the renewal of a long-term agreement with Target Corporation to service its REDcard portfolio. The multi-year agreement will include systems processing for the Target Visa Credit Card, Target Credit CardS, Target Check Card and the Target Business Card. According to TSYS, Target was recently named by the Nilson Report as one of the top-five Visa credit card issuers, with more than 21.4 million accounts on file. Target began working with TSYS in 2000 for the launch of its Visa product. TSYS began supporting the Target Credit Card portfolio in 2005.   » Continue Reading

TSYS Acquiring Solutions has announced 'a partnership agreement with Royal Group Services designed to protect merchants, acquirers and independent sales agents (ISOs) from expenses resulting from a suspected or actual credit card data breach.'   » Continue Reading

Tony Adams writes for the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer about TSYS' announcement yesterday of its n>gen next generation processing platform designed to 'cater to a faster and more mobile business and consumer world.'

TSYS has announced the launch of n>gen - calling it 'a new business paradigm that makes it easy for TSYS clients to efficiently and thoroughly manage all their complex payments-related business needs with point-and-click ease.'   » Continue Reading

TSYS Loyalty has announced the 'development of an innovative product that calculates points and rewards for customers who subscribe to multiple products with a single financial institution, which include, but are not limited to direct deposit, credit, mortgage, insurance and Certificate of Deposit accounts.'   » Continue Reading

Barclaycard Business has launched Prepaid Solutions, a product it says "will enable retailers to offer gift cards and other stored value solutions to their customers in a more cost effective and convenient way, with the ultimate aim of increased sales and enhanced customer loyalty. The nationwide launch today follows the completion of a successful three month pilot of a Gift Card with Autonomy, a ladies tailoring and special occasion clothes chain with 27 stores nationwide."   » Continue Reading

TSYS Healthcare has announced "the successful market launch of the industry’s most advanced benefits payments system. Fringe Benefits Management Company (FBMC), the first third-party administrator to use this innovative solution, offers its subscribers the ability to pay from multiple healthcare tax-advantaged accounts, credit accounts and cash accounts through a single card."   » Continue Reading

Several SEC Form 10-K Annual Report filings have been completed by various payments-related firms over the last few days including: TSYS, American Express, Fiserv, MasterCard Worldwide, Discover Financial Services, and Visa Inc.

TSYS and UK-based Telrock have announced they are "jointly developing a suite of integrated mobile solutions for TSYS’ North American clients. Telrock has been providing mobile solutions for TSYS’ European card processing clients for more than one year. The decision to extend the relationship to North America is based on the success of the European relationship and an increased interest in mobile account servicing and payment solutions in the North American card market."   » Continue Reading

TSYS has announced that China UnionPay Data Services Co., Ltd. (“CUP Data”), TSYS’ joint venture with China UnionPay (“CUP”), has successfully completed a bankcard conversion for Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (“SPDB”), one of the largest joint-stock commercial banks in China.   » Continue Reading

Earlier this week, TSYS held an investor day for analysts - a webcast along with accompanying slides of the presentations are available online.

Péralte C. Paul writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about TSYS' plans based upon an interview with Philip W. Tomlinson, chairman and chief executive of the Columbus, Georgia-based payments processor. Earlier this week, TSYS announced it was being spun out of parent Synovus Financial to become an independent public company.

TSYS has announced that "it has entered into an agreement and plan of distribution with Synovus, under which Synovus plans to distribute all of its shares of TSYS common stock in a spin-off to Synovus shareholders. Under the terms and conditions of the agreement, TSYS will become a fully independent company."   » Continue Reading

Tony Adams writes for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer about TSYS and its potential spin-out from Synovus Financial Corp.

Péralte C. Paul writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about TSYS becoming a Discover issuing processor. "The deal gives Columbus-based Total System, or TSYS, processing rights on the networks of all four major credit card companies — American Express Co., Visa USA, MasterCard International and Discover — for the first time."

Update: Here's yesterday's press release from Discover announcing the new TSYS relationship. According to Discover, "the agreement, which will provide issuers with more options in choosing a preferred processor on the Discover Network, is part of the Discover Network's commitment to offering payment solutions that deliver significant value to issuers."

TSYS Europe and The Gift Voucher Shop (GVS) have announced the launch of GVS’ One4all retail gift card campaign in five major Irish Post Offices in Dublin and on the GVS Web site, www.giftvouchershop.ie.   » Continue Reading

TSYS Europe and Lloyds TSB have announced the launch of the Lloyds TSB money transfer card in the UK. "The new Silver account from Lloyds TSB includes an innovative money transfer prepaid product, aimed particularly at the growing number of newly arrived migrants living and working in the U.K."   » Continue Reading

In a press release, TSYS has acknowledged that "Synovus Financial Corp., which owns 80.8% of TSYS' outstanding stock, will ask its Board of Directors to consider whether to distribute its ownership interest in TSYS to Synovus' shareholders in a spin-off transaction."

Tony Adams reports for the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer about the question of whether Synovus might decide that TSYS would be better equipped to support future growth as a separate standalone company. Although TSYS is already a public company, Synovus currently owns over 80 percent of TSYS' stock.

TSYS Acquiring Solutions has announced it signed an earlier agreement to provide transaction processing services for National Processing Company (NPC), formerly Iron Triangle Payment Systems. The multi-year agreement was effective in the third quarter of 2006. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.   » Continue Reading

Chuck Williams reports for the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer about TSYS shutting down its New York office -where its TSYS Prepaid unit has been based - and moving it to an existing TSYS facility in the metro Atlanta area.

Tony Adams writes for the Colombus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer about how this year has "been a bittersweet year for Phil Tomlinson, chairman and chief executive officer of the credit-card and data processing firm TSYS." Adams interviews Tomlinson on his plans for TSYS in the year ahead, Synovus' majority ownership stake in TSYS, and more including his worries about continued industry consolidation. It's a great interview.

Investors Business Daily reports on how payments transaction processors are moving into new niches for growth - including Heartland, Global Payments, and TSYS.

TSYS has announced it is now certified to support open-loop prepaid cards in Europe on the MasterCard network. The certification includes capability for chip-and-PIN processing on MasterCard's network.   » Continue Reading

Tony Adams reports for the Columbus, GA Ledger-Enquirer that "Synovus Financial Corp., which owns 80 percent of payment processor TSYS, is seriously considering spinning off its subsidiary in the face of financial pressure to diversify and grow its business by acquiring other companies around the world." One important issue is that TSYS is limited in its ability to do stock-based acquisitions with its parent holding such a position.

TSYS has announced it will be supporting a new co-branded Visa offered by Toyota Finance and Nikko Cordial Securities in Japan.   » Continue Reading

TSYS Acquiring Solutions has announced plans to integrate Discover Network card acceptance into its offering for merchant acquirers and independent sales organizations (ISOs) - offering merchants consolidated servicing, statementing and settlement.   » Continue Reading

TSYS has announced that it has increased its ownership in China UnionPay Data Services Co. Ltd. to 44.5 percent. CUP Data is China’s largest bankcard processor, providing transaction processing, disaster recovery and other services for issuing banks in China. Since CUP Data was established in 2003, the company has been providing processing services to 16 of China’s 29 credit card-issuing banks, while 12 of the remaining banks continue these services in house.

The September 2006 issue of the Harvard Business Review has an article by David Yoffie and Mary Kwak titled "With Friends Like These - The Art of Managing Complementors" that's recommended reading. While this article is about the tech industry, the parallels to the US card payments world are striking.   » Continue Reading

Executives from Chase, Peppercoin, TYS, and Visa plan to hold a Small Payments Webinar on July 19th. Moderated by Jeff Green of Card & Payments Magazine, the session will cover contactless payments, card acceptance in the everyday spending market, and emerging loyalty requirements. Jeff Gordan, an Arby's Roast Beef franchise operator, will provide the merchant perspective. Peppercoin will also be unveiling new Ipsos-Insight data on the growth and obstacles facing the contactless payments adoption, as well as which markets have the greatest potential.

TSYS has announced the acquisition of Card Tech, Ltd., a privately owned London-based payments firm that has implemented its payments software for six of the 25 largest global banks and three of the largest global card issuers. Worldwide, the company has approximately 190 clients from 70 countries -- primarily banks. Its applications are certified by all of the major global payment networks. The all-cash transaction closed on 11 July 2006. The new company will be known as TSYS Card Tech.   » Continue Reading

TSYS Prepaid has announced an agreement with MoneyGram Payment Systems, Inc., to provide real-time loading for TSYS-processed prepaid Visa and MasterCard cards at MoneyGram's 26,000 money transfer locations in the U.S.   » Continue Reading

Payment processor TSYS held its annual analyst day yesterday in New York City. The presentation slides (PDF) and audio from the presentations are available online. Included are comprehensive sections on TSYS's role in the merchant acquiring business and its international businesses. TSYS also announced yesterday that it had signed Wachovia for its re-entry into the credit card business.

TSYS and Wachovia have announced a long term agreement for TSYS to provide core-processing and other related services in support of Wachovia's re-entry into the consumer credit-card line of business.   » Continue Reading

Peralte Paul reports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about a recent deal between card processor TSYS and Exante Financial Serfvices, the banking unit of United Health Group.   » Continue Reading

Vital Processing Services has announced the re-branding of the company to TSYS Acquiring Solutions.   » Continue Reading

The China Stock Blog highlights some comments from last week's TSYS earnings conference call by CEO Phil Tomlinson and CFO James Lipham about TSYS' entry into the bank card market in China through its investment in China UnionPay.   » Continue Reading

TSYS has announced that it has received official notification from Bank of America of its intent, pending its acquisition of MBNA, to shift the processing of its consumer card portfolio in house in October 2006.   » Continue Reading

[Update - 12/21/05 - Bank of America has notified TSYS that it will be bringing its consumer card processing in house.]

TSYS reported earnings yesterday and included commentary about the potential risk of loss of its Bank of America consumer credit card processing business following the bank closing on its previously announced acquisition of MBNA. MBNA currently processes its card portfolio in-house and Bank of America could decide to consolidate its card processing onto the MBNA platform.   » Continue Reading

TSYS has announced the completion of a five year definitive agreement with Capital One to provide processing services for its North American portfolio of consumer and small business credit card accounts.

We are very pleased with the spirit of partnership that we've found with TSYS," says Catherine West, President of US Card, Capital One. "This outsourcing agreement provides Capital One access to TSYS' innovative technology platform and creates the foundation for a long term partnership."

JP Morgan Chase and TSYS announced late today that Chase has selected TSYS to provide credit card processing for the merged card portfolios of the former Bank One Corp. and JPMorgan Chase. A definitive contract is expected to be completed within a few weeks.   » Continue Reading