Press Releases

SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 02/09/12 -- Day one of the Smart Card Alliance Payments Summit brought spirited discussions from experts on the future of payments in the United States, but they all agreed that migrating to EMV chip will be the foundation necessary to move to the next level of secure and convenient payments, whether in the form of contact, contactless and/or mobile. The Summit is being held through February 10th at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

EMV in the U.S. "The answer is simple: it's time," said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer, MasterCard Worldwide, on MasterCard's recent announcement of its roadmap, which includes the path for migration from magnetic stripe to EMV technology. Referring to EMV as "the foundation of the future of payments," McLaughlin detailed MasterCard's plans to encourage the rapid adoption of more secure contact and contactless chip cards by giving more benefits to merchants that invest in secure, dynamic authentication methods.

Visa's Jennifer Fischer, head of U.S. payment system risk, agreed. She stressed that EMV's dynamic authentication is critical for a more secure payments industry, maintaining that it will lay the groundwork for contact, contactless and mobile EMV under the same infrastructure. Visa guidelines promote an "always online" strategy that does not mandate offline authentication with PIN. Issuers have flexibility to choose cardholder verification options, whether it is online and/or offline PIN; signature; or no verification method. Fischer noted that Visa's issuers have issued one million EMV chip cards in the United States to date.

In his presentation, chip card expert and consultant Dr. Toni Merschen urged attendees to learn from other countries that have migrated to EMV. Citing the trend of fraud migrating to the United States because of its weak magnetic stripe technology, he said, "EMV deployment is the most efficient way to decrease fraud," but added it is critically important to secure card-not-present (CNP) and ATM transactions at the same time as deploying point-of-sale (POS) chip card solutions. Merschen also suggested attendees "not renounce offline transactions," saying that offline PIN means global interoperability.

Merchants and processors had requests for payments brands in regards to U.S. EMV. NACS payments consultant Gray Taylor put it simply by stating, "We need a roadmap that everyone understands and is very clear." Jamie Henry, the senior director of payments services at Wal-Mart concurred, saying "a detailed plan will help reduce confusion."

Mobile Wallets and NFC The differing mobile wallet solutions emerging in the marketplace was a hot topic yesterday, with presenters commenting on consumers' increasing use of mobile phones to compare prices, browse, and purchase. George Peabody, director of Mercator Advisory Group's Emerging Technologies Advisory Service, called these consumers "weaponized shoppers." Both MasterCard and Visa included mobile in their vision of the future of U.S. payments, while Isis and PayPal took the floor to talk commerce.

Isis director of sales Jim Stapleton announced that the company's upcoming summer pilot in Salt Lake City will "transform the way people shop and pay." Stapleton called the Isis mobile payment infrastructure -- a joint venture formed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon -- a "convening of the industry" that gives banks and merchants "tinker toys" to develop payment and loyalty programs for customers in the form of a mobile wallet that is "safer than your other wallet."

Patrick Gauthier, head of PayPal's product strategy and business operations, retail services, focused on commerce and the consumer experience in his presentation. Citing that in the last few decades payments have driven commerce, Gauthier said that at least in the next 15 years, "commerce will drive what payments need to do." He suggested that mobile wallet solution providers should roll out infrastructures and programs with merchants' and consumers' wants and needs in mind, as these are the parties that are going to drive usage.

Open Transit Payments Several large U.S. transit agencies talked about their plans to move to open fare collection systems. All were looking to "future proof" systems, and all had aggressive implementation schedules. John McGee, SEPTA's (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) chief officer of new payment technologies talked about their recent open payment system contract award, and their goal of a future where virtual ticketing plays a major role.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), which recently awarded a $454 million contract to Cubic Transportation Systems, will skip pilots and aim for full implementation of its open payment system in the second quarter of 2014. Eric Reese, general manager of business development, said the main objective is to let consumers use the same payment mechanism across all of the CTA's areas of service, adding, "NFC is a thought. When that time comes, we will be ready."

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York is ready to commit to open payments as well. Amy Linden, the MTA's senior director for new fare payment systems, said that their Tap & Ride" project is about consumers being able to "buy fare products anytime, anywhere, and manage accounts anytime, anywhere." With the goal to mainstream payments and leverage existing payment technologies and networks, Linden said the MTA aims to "go live" within three years of the design notice to proceed (NTP).

For more news from the 2012 Payments Summit, follow the Smart Card Alliance on Twitter @SmartCardOrgUSA hashtag #PaymentsSummit, Facebook at Smart Card Alliance, and LinkedIn at Smart.Payments.

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.

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Contact:
Deb Montner
Montner & Associates
203-226-9290
dmontner@montner.com

Source: The Smart Card Alliance

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The world-famous Peabody Ducks are marching under new leadership these days. Anthony Petrina has stepped into the prominent role of Duckmaster at The Peabody Memphis. In addition, Doug Weatherford has been named Assistant Duckmaster.

The role of Duckmaster originated at The Peabody Memphis more than 70 years ago, and Petrina is only the fifth Duckmaster in the hotel’s history. The Duckmaster is responsible for the care and well-being of the Peabody Ducks, including feeding and training the teams for their twice-daily marches. When not tending to the five North American mallards, he acts as a public ambassador for the hotel, greeting guests in the Grand Lobby, doing media interviews, making community outreach appearances, and occasionally traveling with the ducks to promote Peabody Hotels. The Assistant Duckmaster tends to The Peabody’s flock on the Duckmaster’s days off and conducts history tours for hotel guests.

At just 25-years-old, Petrina bears the profound responsibility of continuing the time-honored tradition of the March of the Peabody Ducks that began in the early 1930s. At 11 a.m. each morning, the Peabody Ducks march from their rooftop Royal Duck Palace - along a red carpet to the tune of John Philip Sousa’s “King Cotton March” - to a marble fountain at the center of the hotel’s lobby. There they splash and preen until 5 p.m., when the procession reverses and the ducks retire for the evening.

The title “Duckmaster” originated at The Peabody in 1941 when the hotel hired a former Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey animal trainer named Edward Pembroke as a Bellman. Pembroke offered to help with delivering the ducks to the fountain each day and conceived the now-famous Peabody Duck March. Mr. Pembroke served as Peabody Duckmaster for 50 years until retiring in 1991.

Anthony Petrina was recruited to the position of Duckmaster from within the hotel, having worked in Capriccio Grill since 2010. He studied hotel and resort management at the University of Memphis.

Doug Weatherford, a Memphis native and hospitality industry veteran, spent much of his career working in hotels. Now semi-retired, his love of Memphis and deep interest in its history are what led him to the role of Assistant Duckmaster.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50164098&lang=en

The Peabody MemphisKelly Earnest, 901-529-4000Director of Public Relationskelly.earnest@peabodymemphis.com

Source: The Peabody Memphis

HARLEYSVILLE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Medical Components, Inc. (aka Medcomp, Inc.) has been awarded a 36-month agreement with Novation, the leading health care supply contracting company for the members of VHA Inc., UHC, and Provista LLC, effective April 1, 2012.

Medcomp’s extensive offering of vascular access catheters provides solutions for all patient demographics including pediatric and neonatal patients combined with a platform that focuses on evidence based medicine to facilitate greater confidence in the integrity of the products amongst the clinical community.

Medcomp will be a valued supplier of Hemodialysis, Peritoneal Dialysis and Apheresis Catheters, Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICCs), and Implantable Infusion Ports. This agreement will provide the members served by Novation with direct access to Medcomp’s industry leading line of quality Chronic, Acute and Peritoneal Dialysis Catheters (including the Split Cath III, Tesio and SLX Catheters) as well as access to the company’s complete offering of CT Injectable and Standard Infusion PICCs and Implantable Ports, including the Dignity Power Injectable Port, which through its unique design offers advantages for both clinician and patient.

ABOUT MEDICAL COMPONENTS, INC.

Medical Components, Inc. (aka Medcomp, Inc.) is headquartered in Harleysville, PA and is the Vascular Access Industry’s leading manufacturer and innovator of high quality and high performance vascular access catheters and accessories. Medcomp offers Chronic, Acute and Peritoneal Dialysis Catheters, Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICCs), Infusion Ports, Central Venous Catheters (CVCs) and associated accessory products to aid in the treatment of patients of all demographics, including pediatric and neonatal patients.

Medical Components, Inc.Justin Sirna, 215-256-4201Marketing Manager

Source: Medical Components, Inc.

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- It was recently brought to our attention that ChaCha provided inflammatory answers to questions asked about sensitive subjects. We sincerely apologize for this incident. We are taking this issue seriously and are making every effort to provide answers which comply with our company policies.

ChaCha is currently reviewing our database of nearly two billion questions and answers we have provided. We are correcting answers which do not comply with our policies. In addition to cleansing our existing answers, we are implementing tighter policies and procedures. We are training all of our guides, support teams, and quality control teams to ensure the highest level of quality of our answers.

We sincerely regret that this incident occurred, and we apologize to those who were offended. We are working to ensure this type of incident does not occur again.

ABOUT CHACHA

ChaCha is the leading source for free real-time information and answers. Through its unique "ask-a-smart-friend" platform, ChaCha has answered nearly two billion questions since launch from more than 25 million unique users per month via online (ChaCha.com), mobile text (242-242), iPhone app, Android app, and voice ( 1-800-2-ChaCha (TM)). ChaCha is one of the fastest growing mobile and online publishers according to Nielsen, comScore, and Quantcast and was recently named by Forbes as one of “America’s Most Promising Companies.” Follow ChaCha on Twitter: @ChaCha

ChaCha Search, Inc.Shannon Neumeyer, 317-660-6680Shannon.Neumeyer@chacha.com

Source: ChaCha Search, Inc.