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The prepaid card industry is marching to new frontiers as November heads toward a close. Intuit Inc. on Tuesday is expected to launch a prepaid Visa card for new merchants in its GoPayment smart-phone-based service, and the Federal Reserve Board approved prepaid card program manager Green Dot Corp.’s plan to …
Read More »Chase Issues First Airline EMV Card, Following Two Chip Cards Launched Earlier
n As with Chase’s previous two EMV deployments, the new Visa card will allow cardholders to sign for transactions rather than enter a PIN, which is a far more common form of authentication for EMV in markets like Europe and Canada where the smart card technology has been rolled …
Read More »More Retailers Offer Virtual Gift Cards, But Could Do a Better Job with Them, Report Finds
With the holiday season weeks away, more major retailers are now offering so-called virtual gift cards. But few make the experience of buying, sending, and redeeming the digital payment products easy or pleasant, according to a report issued this week. Some 59 of the 100 largest online merchants, ranked …
Read More »Survey Reveals Small-Bank Jitters About Regulation, Fraud, Rapid Change
Many community bankers say their payment revenues are declining, and they are bracing for hits from higher expenses from complying with regulations and from fraud while at the same time trying to ramp up new services such as mobile payments. The findings come from the Independent Community Bankers of …
Read More »PayPal Plans to Issue a Card for POS Use Starting First Half of 2012
PayPal Inc., a dominant processor of e-commerce transactions, has made no secret lately of its ambitions to move into the world of brick-and-mortar commerce. The only missing element was a physical token that account holders could use at the point of sale. Now it appears that void will soon …
Read More »Durbin Continues Blasting BofA Debit Fee with ‘No Way BofA’ E-mail Campaign
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Read More »CashStar Readies a Mobile App That Taps Bank Rewards Points for Retail Gift Cards
CashStar Inc. plans early next year to roll out a mobile app that will let consumers tap unredeemed rewards points held at banks to buy digital gift cards from major merchants. The app will also feature location-based alerts to let users know when they are near a merchant issuer. …
Read More »Buoyed by Gift Cards, Closed-Loop Prepaid Grew Faster Than Expected in 2010
Closed-loop prepaid cards held their own in 2010, growing by 13% in loads to $261.2 billion from $230.3 billion in 2009, according to Mercator Advisory Group Inc.’s newly released industry study. In fact, the closed-loop market, which while bigger in loads but slower growing than the newer, general-purpose or …
Read More »Fifth Third’s Credit/Debit Card: A Response to Customers, But Also Suited to Durbin
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Read More »New Debit Card Usage Fees Raise Questions About Their Stickiness
Banks are likely to continue testing debit card usage fees in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s new price controls on debit interchange, though such fees are generating heated debate about whether they make good business sense. “Disincenting consumers to use debit cards I just think is a terrible strategy …
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