Credit companies cut CardSystems loose

Visa USA Inc. and American Express Co. are cutting ties with the payment-processing company that left 40 million credit and debit card accounts vulnerable to hackers in one of the biggest breaches of consumer data security.

CardSystems Solutions Inc. “has not corrected, and cannot at this point correct, the failure to provide proper data security for Visa accounts,” said Rosetta Jones, a Visa vice president.

Banks that issue Visa cards have until Oct. 31 to replace CardSystems with one of the hundreds of other payment-processing companies in the U.S., she said.

American Express also notified CardSystems that it would sever its relationship as of October. CardSystems was a small part of American Express’ network, handling fewer than 0.5 percent of its transactions.

Donations

‘Make Someone Smile’ arrives at LMH center

Prairie Patches employees don’t wear ladybug costumes everyday.

Steve Jones/Sunflowerboadband Photo Lucy White is recieving a flower boquet from the Make Someone Smile presenters at LMH Breat Care Center Tuesday morning. from left to right are, woman in blue shirt...Becky Hoffman secretary for the 4-State heart of America unit,Cinda Garrison owner of Prairie Patches....Teleflora service agent, Lucy White,current patient at LMH Breast Care Center,Connie Patterson, Prairie Patch staff...Teleflora service agent

But the workers – including owner Cinda Garrison, second from left, and Connie Patterson, right – slipped into character Tuesday for “Make Someone Smile” week, a program organized by Teleflora to bring flowers and smiles to hospitals, nursing homes, foster care centers and others in more than 300 North American communities.

In Lawrence, Prairie Patches employees delivered flowers to the Breast Care Center at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, surprising patients and visitors. Among them Tuesday were Lucy White, above. Becky Hoffman, secretary for Teleflora’s regional unit, is pictured at left.

Prairie Patches plans to continue delivering flowers – and smiles – to the center through Friday.

Leadership

New leaders elected for Payless shoes

Payless ShoeSource Inc. has completed a planned change of its senior management.

The Topeka-based shoe retailer said it had elected Matthew Rubel as chief executive officer and president of the company and elected Howard Fricke as its chairman.

Rubel replaces outgoing chairman and chief executive Steven Douglass. The company had said it wanted a non-executive chairman of the board.

Rubel, 47, is the former chairman and chief executive of Cole Haan, a subsidiary of Nike Inc. Fricke, who has been on the Payless board since 1996, is secretary of commerce for the state of Kansas.