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Cardholders in Mexico, not the United States, report the highest incidents of card fraud, according to a new report from Boston-based Aite Group LLC and Elkhorn, Neb-based ACI Payment Systems. Of the credit, debit, and prepaid cardholders surveyed in Mexico, where EMV cards are rolling out, 44% reported an incident …
Read More »PCI Waiver Expected To Spur Merchant Adoption of EMV Terminals
Despite just 10% of U.S. merchant terminals being capable of accepting EMV chip cards today, 60% of all terminals likely will be EMV-enabled by 2015, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. Javelin also expects U.S. issuers will convert the bulk of their credit, debit, and prepaid …
Read More »Durbin Effects Manageable So Far for Small Banks—But Worse Is Expected
Now that the Durbin Amendment’s debit card interchange caps have been in effect for nearly a year, enough time has passed for community banks and credit unions to start to determine the impact, if any, the price ceilings have had on their income. Based on conversations Digital Transactions News has …
Read More »With Double-Digit Growth, Prepaid Closes in on Half-Trillion Mark in Load Value
The prepaid card market closed in on half-a-trillion dollars in load volume last year, new data from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. show. Volumes on closed-loop cards grew 14% and loads on the newer open-loop cards increased 24%, according to Mercator’s ninth annual study of U.S. prepaid cards. In all, Maynard, …
Read More »High-Tech PayPal-Discover Tieup Rests on Huge Issuance of Old-Tech Mag-Stripe Cards
The massive deal PayPal Inc. and Discover Financial Services announced on Wednesday that will bring online-payments leader PayPal to 7 million physical U.S. merchant locations has all the hallmarks of electronic payments in the 21st Century’s second decade, including digital wallets and cloud-based technology. But the foundation of the deal …
Read More »After Years of Pushing Signature Debit, Big Banks Are Promoting PIN, Study Shows
The nation’s biggest debit card issuers have reversed polarity and are now promoting PIN-debit cards over signature debit and small-value transactions over bigger tickets, if the results of a debit study released this week are any indication. “Certainly, there’s a fundamental shift under way” among large banks to focus on …
Read More »Durbin or No, First Data Figures Show Debit Continues To Flourish
Worried about getting too far in debt and nearly oblivious to the ongoing debate in the banking and payments industries about the controversial Durbin Amendment, consumers in June continued to display their allegiance to debit cards, according to new figures from First Data Corp. The nation’s leading payment card processor …
Read More »App Usage Reaches a Solid Majority Among Handset Users As Wallet Apps Proliferate
With much of the nascent mobile-payments business concentrated on consumer access via streamlined applications rather than browsers, news emerged this week that handset users are rapidly adopting apps. Indeed, usage of downloaded apps crossed the 50% mark in March and stood at 51.1% in May, according to figures released this …
Read More »Gift Card Sellers Get Half a Loaf in New Jersey As State Delays ZIP Code Rule
New Jersey has delayed implementation of the most onerous provisions of an unclaimed-property law affecting gift cards that caused American Express Co. and two major gift card distributors to pull out of the state this spring. The changes Gov. Chris Christie signed into law last week, however, don’t repeal the …
Read More »Late with Its ‘Roadmap,’ AmEx Could Jump into EMV Lead Among Networks
American Express Co. announced what it calls its “roadmap” for EMV and chip-based and mobile payments in the U.S., which means all four of the major U.S.-based payment card networks are now on record with plans to move beyond the magnetic-stripe payment card. Like the ones from MasterCard Inc. and …
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