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Monday ##/## Pliant Corp., a flexible packaging company that in February filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware, will ask Judge Mary Walrath to let it hire Ernst & Young LLP as an auditor. Tuesday ##/## The Commerce Department...

CASTLE HARLAN CRAFTS TASTY RETURN If there's a case for how private-equity firms can build corporate value and generate strong returns, Castle Harlan Inc.'s sale of United Malt Holdings could serve as a good example. Castle Harlan and...

Fisher: Depreciating Dollar Not Necessarily Inflationary Dallas Federal Reserve Bank president Richard Fisher downplayed the inflationary implications of the depreciating dollar Wednesday, while saying the Fed's main job now is to ensure...

The municipal market was slightly firmer yesterday as the California State Public Works Board sold $###.# million of lease revenue bonds. In the new-issue market, Wells Fargo Securities priced $###.# million of lease revenue bonds for...

Much has been made of the liftouts Jefferies & Co. made at the expense of UBS AG, but the U.S. investment bank has snared many professionals from Dresdner Kleinwort to build its presence in Europe. The latest hire, a native of Vienna,...

A helicopter swoops over Brooklyn's skyline and lands at a heliport in lower Manhattan. By the time its rotors have finished spinning, Lynn Tilton is sitting in a van sipping coffee and examining e-mails on her Blackberry. Tilton, founder...

Hedge funds are not back to where they were before Lehman Brotherse_SSRq bankruptcy, but some investors have returned and former Wall Streeters who think they have interesting investment ideas still want to hang out their own shingles....

A recent transaction involving a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman brought in some specialists who are probably more at home with satellite photos of terrorist camps or suspected nuclear weapons facilities than with high finance. The role...

The merger of equals has always been a misnomer as far as most dealmakers are concerned. But in an economic landscape being shaped by the credit crisis, the distinctions between buyer and seller are only becoming clearer. Despite the...

It's hardly a secret that debtor-in-possession financing and exit money have become more plentiful amid the credit thaw, and one major lender to distressed companies, GE Capital Restructuring Finance, has come back in a big way. The...

THOMAS DINAPOLI NEW YORK STATE COMPTROLLER "Jobs lost on Wall Street have led to job losses in the rest of New York's economy. New York is and will always be the financial capital of the world, but taxpayers need to be protected from...

Leveraged finance without private equity, one might say, is like a turkey without stuffing. So it's a good thing private-equity firms have come back just in time for Thanksgiving with several new deals for investors to feast on. Since...

Weeks into CIT Group Inc.'s restructuring, professionals at the finance company's middle-market investment bank boutique are still wondering about their fate. Bankers at Charlotte, N.C.'s Edgeview Partners are working on deals, some...

Loan-to-own has always carried a negative connotation. The way Tiffany Kosch, a managing director at Bayside Capital, describes it, though, the strategy does not have to be as underhanded as it sounds. In fact, for Bayside, she says,...

Until this week, not a single commercial mortgage-backed bond was sold by Wall Street, making it tough for many borrowers to find money to pay down commercial mortgage loans coming due. Interestingly, some borrowers like Toys "R" Us...

Excessive Wall Street compensation illustrates the law of unintended consequences. To stabilize the global financial system, the Federal Reserve, Treasury, independent agencies and Congress acted to bail out banks and securities firms,...

Most of The Bond Buyer's yield indexes declined this week, as the municipal market grew firmer over the past several sessions in the last full week of activity prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. "It seems a combination of January reinvestment...

Just because money's on the sidelines doesn't mean it's out of the game. Gary Gildersleeve deals with a lot of clients who aren't yet ready to jump back into the market, but who also are dissatisfied with meager earnings on their money....

SAN FRANCISCO - Even as the market for qualified school construction bonds is taking off, many California school districts appear to be stuck on the sideline because of questions over the way the state allocated QSCB authority to the...

CHICAGO - The recession and market downturn has profoundly affected the funded status of state pension plans, driving up some states' overall debt levels and putting some credits at risk, Loop Capital Markets LLC analysts warn in new...

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department this week allocated $##.# billion to state and local housing finance agencies for temporary new-issue bond purchase and liquidity programs, but some small HFAs are warning the fees they would have...

As a tower begins to rise at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan, the property's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, yesterday authorized the sale of $# billion of taxable bonds to finance further construction....

Despite a boost in revenue driven primarily by its joint venture with Bank of America Corp., First Data Corp. today reported a $###.# million net loss for the third quarter ended Sept. ##, a more than $### million increase from the...

Some Heartland Payment Systems Inc. merchants that use VeriFone Holdings Inc. equipment are being swayed to switch to other processors, claims VeriFone CEO Douglas G. Bergeron. In an interview with CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent...

The Federal Reserve Board yesterday released a rule that would force banks to get customers' permission before enrolling them in overdraft-protection programs, but it did little to satisfy lawmakers who want to go even further, reports...

SunTrust Banks Inc. says it is using Moneta Corp.'s online-payment service for a pilot involving ##,### customers. Similar to eBay Inc.'s PayPal service, Moneta uses proprietary software to process transactions using the automated clearinghouse...

MasterCard Worldwide this month introduced Priceless Pointers, a suite of online financial-literacy tools made available on its Web site, which the company has been testing for several months as part of a broader worldwide financial-literacy...

NFinanSe Inc. Tuesday announced it would launch a Visa-branded general-purpose prepaid debit card sold in Winn-Dixie Supermarkets next month. The Tampa, Fla.-based prepaid card provider is touting a package designed to make fees simpler...

Low revolving credit card use, bad debt and low interchange rates present challenges for the Chinese credit card market, according to report from Celent, a U.S.-based financial research and consulting firm. In its report "The Chinese...

With a critical Visa Inc. security deadline about seven months away, independent sales organizations are reassessing their efforts to gain merchant compliance with the Payment Application Data Security Standard. Visa has set a July...

Visa Inc. today launched a new operating system designed to enhance the capabilities of VisaNet, the brand's global transaction-processing switch. Visa worked with IBM Corp. to add the operating system, known as z Transaction Processing...

Ingenico S.A. today announced it has won a $##.# million (## million euros) contract to supply ##,### point-of-sale terminals to HSBC Merchant Services over the next four years. Ingenico also will provide on-site installation services,...

Capital One Financial Corp. today reported that its U.S. credit card segment's net charge-off rate decreased to #.##% of managed receivables in October from #.##% the previous month. McLean, Va.-based Cap One's ##-day delinquency rate,...

Co-op Financial Services' credit-union members will continue to have surcharge-free access to ATMs housed in #-Eleven convenience, Costco warehouse and Walgreen drug stores, according to a five-year agreement the companies announced...

Advanta Corp., the small-business credit card issuer that earlier this year cut off almost # million accounts as defaults soared, has filed for bankruptcy protection and says its undercapitalized banking unit may be turned over to regulators,...

Payment card issuance in ## Western European countries, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, has grown during the past two years, primarily because more consumers are using cards and more retailers are accepting...

PARIS-Visa Inc. today announced the North American rollout of a service that enables issuers to send immediate mobile phone text-message transaction alerts to credit, debit and prepaid cardholders. With the service, issuers in the United...

Lawmakers are not expected to drop proposed overdraft-protection legislation, despite the Federal Reserve Board last week issuing new rules requiring banks to adopt opt-in policies for overdraft protections tied to debit card purchases...

TransUnion LLC last week announced significant enhancements to one of its core risk-management tools, enabling lenders to detect and react to rising risk factors within credit card portfolios more quickly. The Chicago-based consumer...

Dogster Inc., a creator of popular pet owner Web sites, Monday announced it is offering affinity debit cards that users can personalize with a photo of their pet. Tempo Payments Inc. is providing the Web-based platform that enables...

PARIS-Mobile payments in developing parts of the world should add consumer services to create a more-attractive business case, industry experts said Tuesday at the Cartes & IDentification show in Paris. Mobile phones can serve as virtual...

The Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank, has called for study into the establishment of a domestic card scheme. In its Nov. ## "Payment Systems in India" report, the bank says the need for such a scheme, dubbed "India...

The number of contactless-payment terminals deployed globally could reach ##.# million by the end of ####, up from about # million currently, according to a forecast from United Kingdom-based IMS Research. In its report "The World Market...

American Express Co. today announced it will acquire for $### million Revolution Money, a Revolution LLC company that AOL co-founder Steve Case launched in ####. Revolution Money processes payments over the Internet without transmitting...

American Express Co., one of the oldest and most traditional credit card companies, is betting $### million that a small but high-profile alternative payments network will help it leap ahead in emerging technologies (CardLine Special...

Some payments-industry insiders say they expect the U.S. Government Accountability Office tomorrow to release a comprehensive report on credit and debit card interchange. The agency has been developing the report over the past six months...

Payment processor Global Payments Inc. will sell its funds-transfer business, which operates under the DolEx and Europhil brands, to Palladium Equity Partners LLC for as much as $### million, the Atlanta-based company says. The sale...

MasterCard Worldwide Monday announced a mobile-payments processing platform that enables financial institutions, merchant acquirers and mobile-network operators to deliver mobile-payment capabilities to consumers. Known as the MasterCard...

The Obama administration Tuesday announced the formation of a multiagency task force to investigate and prosecute "significant" financial crimes and civil violations tied to the financial crisis and the government's economic-recovery...

MasterCard Inc. has launched the Priceless Gift Finder to enable cardholders to search for and buy gifts online, the company announced Monday. Online shoppers using the tool can choose a price range and pick the personality type of...

A much-anticipated government report on interchange finally appeared today, and it seemed hardly worth the wait. After months of studying interchange rates and how they affect card issuers, merchants and consumers, the Government Accountability...

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D, Conn., on Wednesday asked the Senate to immediately begin considering his legislation to freeze interest rates until the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure...

Despite predictions of bleak holiday retail sales, gift cards will continue to be hot items at the point of sale, according to a new Cardbeat report from Auriemma Consulting Group LLC. Auriemma in September conducted the online survey...

Hoping to increase its sales abroad, payments-technology vendor ACI Worldwide Inc. has acquired Euronet Essentis Ltd. from Euronet Worldwide, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. Terms were not disclosed. The United...

Pentagon Federal Credit Union has agreed to issue an American Express-branded card to its members, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. American Express Co. announced the exclusive partnership Monday, making Pentagon...

Ingenico S.A. has invested $#.# million in Roam Data Inc., which makes mobile-device payment software, the France-based payment-terminal maker announced Tuesday. Boston-based Roam Data's software enables companies to create a payment...

VeriFone Holdings Inc. Tuesday said its VeriShield Protect payment-data encryption product will be available for EMV smart card transactions beginning early next year. The payment-terminal maker is introducing the product in the United...

* Payments processor and electronic-payments service provider Capital Payments LLC has acquired Chicago-based processor Applied Merchant Systems Inc. * Sage Payment Solutions, a division of The Sage Group PLC, has joined the Payment...

Last year, North American payment card manufacturers produced #.# billion cards, down #% compared with #.# billion cards in ####. But the continent still maintains its lead in card production, according to the International Card Manufacturers...

RevEurope is partnering with Raiffeisen Bank in Romania to offer a Visa-branded prepaid card that enables cardholders to send funds via their mobile telephones within the country, John Mitchell, RevEurope CEO, writes ATM&Debit News...

The new debit card overdraft-protection rule the Federal Reserve Board approved last week does not prevent banks from abusing debit cardholders with excessive overdraft fees, contends the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit,...

Cardtronics Inc.'s recent return to profitability apparently has created problems for the ATM independent sales organization's efforts to find a new CEO to replace Jack M. Antonini, who left the company in March. Many candidates want...

Some payment card organizations are beginning to work with providers of alternative payment methods they once viewed as competitors. Earlier this month, SunTrust Banks Inc. announced a pilot with Moneta Corp.'s online payment service...

The potential to help member credit unions attract more customers was a key driver behind Co-op Financial Services' decision this week to renew its ATM agreement with Cardtronics Inc., according to the Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based...

Co-op Financial Services Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based Co-op Financial Services named Mark Chatfield chief operating officer of Co-op Member Call Center, which is based in Fort Worth, Texas....

Co-op Financial Services Co-op Financial Services will hold its #### Think Conference April ## to ## at the Scottsdale Fairmont Hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz....

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Securities and Exchange Commission has released a draft of a five-year strategic plan that calls for a single set of high-quality global accounting standards. While the SEC has not yet decided on the fate of the...

COMPANIES WANT SEC TO APPROVE IFRS ROADMAP New York - Seventy percent of CFOs and other finance professionals support approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission's roadmap for adopting International Financial Reporting Standards,...

BETTER ADVICE COULD REDUCE RETIREMENT PLAN FEES Washington, D.C. - Better information and guidance could improve the oversight of retirement plans and reduce fees for participants, according to a new report by the Government Accountability...

Perhaps the most critical goal of professional portfolio management is to allocate client assets in such a manner as to achieve appropriate diversification. However, the ability to diversify hinges on the universe of asset classes available...

MANUAL REFUNDS ERROR-PRONE Washington, D.C. - The Internal Revenue Service is unable to determine if it is issuing erroneous or fraudulent manual refunds to taxpayers, according to a new report. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax...

The conversion to International Financial Reporting Standards, coupled with the movement towards fair value accounting and Congress' need for revenue, could result in the repeal of the last-in/first-out, or LIFO, method of inventory...

Limited liability companies continue to grow in popularity as a choice of business entity. The combination of limited liability, pass-through tax treatment if partnership treatment is elected, ability of members to be actively involved...

Get your bucket GovCount VentureCount LLC www.venturecount.com The federal government is extremely careful about the way it wastes money. You have to go through a long, complicated tender process, and frequent audits of your accounting...

Another good book Tax Planning for Troubled Corporations #### CCH; $### In times of trouble, those who aren't sure they can go on often turn to a good book full of time-tested wisdom to help them make it through. We're speaking, obviously,...

For more than a decade, my mother resided in the bucolic hamlet of Ludlow, Vt. Those of you who enjoy winter sports may recognize the town as home to Okemo, one of the Green Mountain State's wildly popular ski areas. But nearly ## years...

ILLINOIS Thomas W. Havey, the retired founding partner of Thomas Havey LLP, the predecessor of Chicago-based Legacy Professionals LLP, has received a #### Rerum Novarum Award for business. He was joined at the Driehaus Reception honoring...

CALIFORNIA Greenstein Rogoff Olsen & Co., Fremont, has been named to the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal's #### Fastest-Growing Private Companies List, ranking ##th. ILLINOIS The summer interns of Crowe Horwath LLP, Oak Brook,...

Washington, D.C.-Tax rate brackets and various tax benefits willremain unchanged or change only slightly in #### due to low inflation, and many pension plan limitations will remain unchanged, according to the Internal Revenue Service....

WASHINGTON, D.C.-About a quarter of all sole-proprietor businesses report losses on their tax returns, but many are doing so by understating their income or overstating their expenses, leading to billions of dollars in lost tax revenue,...

Corporate clients will likely be approaching their next audit with extra care. The reason: A recent federal appeals court decision has made it clear that information previously viewed as private under the "work-product doctrine" may...

I read "A memo to CPA firm CEOs" (Oct. #-##, ####) with great interest. Mr. Miller and Mr. Bahnson have done a great job of challenging public accounting firms, particularly the larger partnerships. Their breakdown of the Four Es is...

With last year's financial market turmoil slowly fading in the rear-view mirror, what can forward-looking CPA financial advisors conclude about the performance of their broker-dealers during the upheaval? And what do the broker-dealers...

Although the unemployment rate nationally is close to ## percent, accountants with a tax specialty are still in demand. "The unemployment among accountants is much smaller," said Jodi Chavez, senior vice president at staffing company...

NOVEMBER ##: New Tax Law with Year-End Planning, National Conference of CPA Practitioners, Massachusetts Chapter. Sheraton Needham Hotel, Needham, Mass. Contact: Ronald Tockman (###) ###-####. ##: The Keys to Consultative Selling, Whetstone...

Name / Location (total offices) Chief executive Rev. Emps. Primary accounting or other software Accordant Co. / Whippany, N.J. (#) Robert Sandelands $#.## ## Sage Timberline Office, Sage Master Builder ADSS Global* / Miami and Philadelphia...

After stints in both public accounting as an audit manager and in industry as a software consultant to CPA firms, Alexander Vuchnich was driven to start his own practice because of what he described as the continued resistance of traditional...

Las Vegas-In contrast to the glitzy bonhomie that has become the signature of this town, the American Institute of CPAs' Fall Meeting of Council was nearly all business as attendees were given progress reports on a dizzying number of...

No one had to tell this yearÂ’s Technology Pacesetters that #### was tough. While revenue is not a criterionfor inclusion in our annual list of top-notch value-added resellers, we do collect data on it - and a comparison with last year's...

IASB NOT WAITING FOR U.S. New York - International Accounting Standards Board Chairman Sir David Tweedie said that he won't wait for the board's U.S. counterpart to finalize its own revisions to fair value accounting for financial instruments....

CHINA Dell's Perot Systems to buy BearingPoint China Details: Perot Systems said that it would acquire BearingPoint Management Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd., also known as BearingPoint China Consulting, for an undisclosed sum. The overall...

In case you were wondering, Grant Thornton chief executive Ed Nusbaum has an iPod. And he loves it. Nusbaum, the soon-to-be chief executive of Grant Thornton International, let that nugget drop during a video Q&A with Accounting Today....

Rainmaking skills are almost as important as technical proficiency. The ability to bring in business is a key skill that many firms need. There are far fewer accounting professionals capable of doing this than one would think. So as...

FASB BEEFS UP XBRL FEATURES IN CODIFICATION Norwalk, Conn. - The Financial Accounting Standards Board has expanded the use of interactive data-tagging technology in its official FASB Accounting Standards Codification. The extra functionality...

No one enjoys paying taxes. That's especially true when the tax structure is complex and convoluted. Payroll taxes often fall into this category, but perhaps the most convoluted taxes that some of your clients will have to track, compute...

Managing an accounting firm is not easy for a number of reasons, not only because of the nature of ownership, but also because partners do not usually commit to allowing themselves to be managed. A majority of firms have a managing...

CROWE UNVEILS APP FOR ARRA Oak Brook, Ill. - Crowe Horwath has released an application that aids state and local agencies in tracking spending of stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The firm's Award Monitoring...

As the world slowly starts to emerge from the recent recession - which has affected more people, across more industries, across the world, than any in recent history - there are certain opportunities that investors can take to mitigate...

One of the most vexing challenges for CPA firms large and small is how to effectively welcome women into the ranks of partnership. Graduation statistics and workforce demographics confirm that future new hires will most likely be composed...

Everybody knows that after you build a Web site, you must drive traffic to it in the form of clients, prospects and referral sources. Without traffic, nothing is possible. ItÂ’s like owning a store packed with inventory and having no...