Issuing/Originating

With the growing popularity of prepaid cards and other stored-value devices over the past few years, law-enforcement agencies and regulators have voiced concerns that payment devices intended for consumer convenience could become tools for money launderers, terrorists, and other illicit players. To address those concerns, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial …

In relaunching a debit rewards card for the QuikTrip Corp. convenience-store chain this week with a new issuer and new payment card network, specialty debit processor Tempo Payments Inc. plugged Discover Financial Services into the decoupled-debit market. And after concentrating on non-profits for the past year, Tempo says more Discover-branded …

Issuers of prepaid and gift cards could get an extension of the Aug. 22 deadline for complying with new rules from the Federal Reserve under legislation pending in the U.S. Senate. The so-called ECO-Gift Card bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-NY, passed the U.S. House of Representatives on …

Utter the name “Wal-Mart” and heads turn in the payments industry. That happened yet again with the revelation this week that Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer that tried and failed to get into the banking business, had taken an equity interest in Green Dot Corp., a major player …

Debit cards are more popular than ever, but issuers see threats to the bottom line from rising fraud and more regulation. Loss rates rose 43% on signature debit cards and 24% for PIN-debit cards in 2009, according to the Pulse EFT network’s fifth-annual survey of the debit market. Meanwhile, issuers …

News about the latest developments in the hot mobile-payments sector is coming from some familiar sources, such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Visa Inc., and some unlikely ones, such as the state of Arkansas. Wells Fargo is rolling out Visa's text-message and e-mail alert service that lets credit card …

Bank of America Corp.'s decision to stop offering overdraft protection on debit card transactions casts a spotlight on billions of dollars in fee revenue issuers earn from cardholders that could drain away if the bank's move becomes a trend. It could also be a harbinger of a move by consumers …

U.S. card issuers are starting to worry about problems some of their high-spending and corporate card customers are having using their magnetic-stripe cards in countries that support the chip-and-PIN standard, according to executives who spoke on Tuesday at a smart card conference. Whereas the issue hardly seemed apparent only a …

Here's one way credit card issuers could win back some popularity in an increasingly debit card world: make credit cards function like debit cards. That's the essence of a new product from processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), which last week unveiled its TSYS Hybrid card. The patent-pending product enables …

A Discover Financial Services employee test of contactless payment stickers for mobile devices that started in April 2009 will continue, according to a Discover executive. But Discover is being coy about if and when it or its card-issuing partners will roll out Discover's Zip contactless brand on a wide scale. …