Debit Cards

Merchants and other proponents of the Dodd-Frank Act’s Durbin Amendment, which will regulate debit card interchange rates starting this summer, argue that the law will benefit consumers by allowing retailers to pass on lower transaction costs to their customers. While banks and other critics say this is unlikely, an alternative-payments …

With $21.5 billion in assets, enough to rank it the second-largest credit union in the country, Raleigh, N.C.-based State Employees Credit Union will sustain a substantial loss of debit card interchange income when the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd Frank Act takes effect this summer. But that isn’t stopping the …

Tuesday is the final day for commentators to submit their opinions to the Federal Reserve Board about the board’s proposed rules to implement the interchange regulations and other debit card provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law’s Durbin Amendment. Samples from the approximately 2,700 comments that have rolled in over the …

Congress heard conflicting testimony Thursday on whether implementation of new debit card restrictions should be delayed. The rules, which were proposed by the Federal Reserve in December as directed by the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act, came under attack in House of Representatives subcommittee testimony from financial-institution and network …

Despite being exempt from pending debit card interchange regulations, small banks seem to be convinced that their revenues are about to take a hit and are planning to raise account fees or reduce access to debit cards to compensate, according to survey results from the Independent Community Bankers of America. …

First Data Corp., one of the largest merchant processors in the country, said on Monday it will offer an Internet PIN debit option to its merchant clients starting some time in the second quarter. The option will be available to the company’s 300,000 merchants that derive at least some of …

The bane of payment cards and to a lesser extent demand-deposit accounts, identity fraud took less of a toll by some measures in 2010 than it has in the seven preceding years, according to new findings from Javelin Strategy & Research. Javelin’s annual study found that 3.5% of U.S. adults …

A philosophical turn by the Federal Reserve Board, having to do with the definition of a “payment card network,” has already raised questions for PayPal Inc. and could have major implications for a wide range of other alternative-payment systems. “It’s a huge issue,” says Conrad Sheehan, chief executive of mPayy …

It’s bad for consumers and bad for the payments industry, but the Durbin Amendment that imminently will upend the U.S. debit card market still presents some opportunities for MasterCard Inc., according to the No. 2 payment network’s president and chief executive, Ajay Banga. Specifically, MasterCard could well pick up new …

With much of the country buried in snow and ice on Wednesday, Visa Inc. released transaction and charge-volume numbers that likely warmed the predilections of electronic-payments watchers. The leading card network reported U.S. credit and debit card payments volume of $493 billion for its first quarter of fiscal 2011 ended …