Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Bank of America Corp.'s planned acquisition of MBNA Corp. and its 40 million active credit card accounts has payment industry executives pondering the fate of American Express Co.'s ambitious efforts to jointly issue credit cards with banks. The $35 billion deal, announced this morning and expected to close in the …
Read More »Prepaid Card Issuers Seek an ‘Edge’ by Linking to Banking Products
A pair of companies specializing in stored-value products for the underbanked population are reaching beyond prepaid cards to extend credit and savings options to their cardholders. Next Estate Communications Inc., which launched its Green Dot Financial Network to support check-cashing and prepaid cards, already offers its cardholders a program to …
Read More »Chase Says Its New Blink Card Will March Through Atlanta First
Atlanta is where J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will begin its rollout of contactless cards, starting June 1, the bank announced today. Chase, which said last week it would begin issuing the chip-equipped cards this summer in a region-by-region rollout (Digital Transactions News, May 19), says almost 1 million of …
Read More »Chase’s Big Bet on Contactless May Hinge on Merchant Adoption
Technology that allows consumers to pay at the point of sale by waving or tapping a card or other token took a major step forward today with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s announcement that it will issue millions of cards equipped with the technology starting this summer. Following on the …
Read More »Axalto First to Set up Full-Scale Smart Card Production in the U.S.
In a vote of confidence for smart card technology in North America, a leading producer of chip-embedded plastic cards has achieved full production of the technologies necessary for smart cards at a plant outside Baltimore. Axalto Holding NV, a France-based card manufacturer, says this is the first time such full-scale …
Read More »ATMIA Sets up New Group to Tackle Prepaid, Other Debit Card Issues
Card issuers' uncertainties surrounding such issues as prepaid debit, debit card fraud, and the future flow of interchange income have led a major ATM industry trade group to form a new organization to represent issuers' interests. The Debit Council of the ATM Industry Association held its first meeting today at …
Read More »Remittance Cards Will Top 1 Million in 2006, New Report Says
The number of Visa- and MasterCard-branded money-transfer cards issued in the U.S. will reach 1.1 million in 2006, up from 400,000 this year and just 145,000 in 2004, according to a new research study on the remittance market. The jump in the number of the prepaid cards follows the increasing …
Read More »QSR and Debit Gains Among Highlights for MasterCard in ’04
MasterCard International reports its U.S. dollar volume on transactions on all of its products except online debit cards grew 11.5% in the fourth quarter last year, to $188.5 billion, while U.S. volume for 2004 as a whole expanded by 9.3%, to $695.9 billion. Total MasterCard purchase and cash transactions in …
Read More »Discover Scores a Volume Coup with GE/Wal-Mart Network Deal
Discover Financial Services Inc.'s deal with GE Consumer Finance Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will lead to a huge volume boost for Discover and help the Riverwoods, Ill.-based company offer pricing to potential issuing partners that exceeds the interchange income they can get from Visa and MasterCard, an expert observer …
Read More »WaMu’s Move to MasterCard Underlines Intense Card Competition
Washington Mutual Inc.'s decision to switch its 10.5-million-card debit portfolio to MasterCard International from Visa U.S.A., though a big win for MasterCard, doesn't necessarily herald a trend, observers say. At the same time, it throws into relief a bylaw Visa quietly put into place in 2003 that penalizes large debit-card-issuing …
Read More »