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Green Dot Corp. late Monday removed a big source of uncertainty about its near-term future by announcing a five-year renewal of its contract with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to be both program manager and issuer of the Wal-Mart MoneyCard prepaid product. But while the deal secures a major source of revenue …
Read More »As Debit Issuing Lags, Don’t Expect Debit and Credit EMV Parity Any Time Soon
Consumers this fall will begin to dip a lot of EMV credit cards into EMV-compatible point-of-sale terminals, but not so many EMV debit cards. That’s the assessment from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. in its “Prediction for the U.S. Migration to EMV Debit Cards” report released last week. By Oct. 1, …
Read More »Revolving Credit Took a Big Jump in April, New Federal Reserve Data Show
Judging from new Federal Reserve data, April was a month of joy for merchants and credit card issuers as consumers spent more on their credit cards, but for consumer advocates and financial advisors it may have been a month of angst as they saw foolish consumers take on too much …
Read More »MasterCard Issuers Reject Proposed Settlement for Target Data-Breach Losses
A proposed $19 million settlement forged by MasterCard Inc. and retailer Target Corp. to compensate MasterCard issuers for fraud and other expenses they incurred after Target’s 2013 data breach failed to win approval from issuers representing 90% of eligible accounts that the so-called alternative-recovery plan needed by a May 20 …
Read More »A Cut in a Controversial ACH Fee Pleases Big-Box Retailer Group, But a Bank Shrugs
The reduced interbank fee of 5.2 cents contained in the same-day settlement plan approved this week by members of NACHA, the regulatory body for the automated clearing house network, is likely to go down better with major merchants than the 8.2-cent fee contained in the original proposal. “The level of …
Read More »Security, Costs Weigh on Issuers as They Ponder Their EMV-Issuing Strategies: Report
Payment card issuers considering the conversion of their credit and debit cards from magnetic stripes to EMV chip cards need to consider not only the cost, but the security and reputational factors of doing so, says Computer Services Inc., a banking-services company. In its new “The Road to U.S. …
Read More »Chase Begins Issuing EMV Debit Cards, Expects To Reach 70% of Cardholders by Year’s End
Banking giant JP Morgan Chase & Co. has begun issuing EMV debit cards, with plans to convert its entire debit card portfolio of 34 million cards to chip by the end of 2016, Chase announced Tuesday. Chase began testing chip-enabled debit card issuance in Arizona and Illinois two months …
Read More »Forecast Indicates 800 Million U.S. Cards Could Have EMV Chips by Year’s End
By Jim Daly U.S. credit and debit card issuers will have about 150 million more EMV chip cards in circulation by year’s end than predicted last summer, according to the latest forecast from an industry group promoting the conversion of U.S. card payments to smart cards. The Payments Security Task …
Read More »Younger Consumers Inclined To Choose Debit, Especially for the Rewards
Debit-rewards programs offered by banks appear to be rebounding a little, with younger consumers more motivated than other age groups to use them. That’s according to a new report from payments-research firm Mercator Advisory Group Inc. Debit rewards programs fell out of favor with banks following passage of the Durbin …
Read More »Trust Issues: Banks Losing Favor Among Consumers
Up against determined competition from big technology companies, financial institutions have always reassured themselves that they still have an edge in payments when it comes to consumer trust. Now, that edge appears to be eroding fast. On the question of consumer trust, banks and financial institutions are losing ground to …
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