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Home-improvement giant Home Depot Inc. is pressing on with its plan to get an industrial-loan corporation charter despite a hostile political environment that has only grown stronger over the weekend. Opponents to ILC applications by commercial enterprises notched a victory Friday with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s decision to abandon its efforts …
Read More »Adding QuikTrip, Tempo Payments Pumps Up Its Issuing Ranks
Tempo Payments Inc., the PIN-debit alternative network for retailers, has signed another large gas-station/convenience-store chain to its issuing ranks. Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip Corp. will offer a rewards card program in a phased rollout beginning in the second quarter involving 50 stores in an unspecified market, Tempo announced this week. Privately …
Read More »Merchant Win on Interchange Would Help And Hurt Prepaid Cards
With efforts by merchants to force down interchange rates picking up steam, the rapidly expanding prepaid card market will confront two very different outcomes should those efforts ultimately succeed, according to an expert on interchange. Cards issued by merchants would likely benefit, but those issued by banks would be hurt, …
Read More »Survey: Mass Reissuance May Be Overkill in Merchant Breach Cases
A recent survey indicates debit card issuers may be overreacting to database breaches that compromise card data held by merchants. Nine out of 10 debit card issuers have received notice in the last few years that their cards could have been compromised in a breach, and of these, some 87% …
Read More »Cost Cutting Helps TSYS Boost Profits After a Tough Year
It was a bumpy ride, but Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) emerged from 2006 with some hefty profit growth. The second-largest card processor this week reported fourth-quarter revenues of $503.9 million, up 19.8% from $420.7 million a year earlier, and net income of $87.1 million, up 75.2% from $49.7 million. …
Read More »TSYS Battered But Not Broken, Top Execs Say, Citing New Business
Top executives of card processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) on Wednesday portrayed a company that may be a bit bruised but is heading for better times. Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS even upped its 2006 profit projections and says earnings next year won't decline as much as previously forecast. TSYS late …
Read More »MasterCard Unveils Network-Level, Real-Time PIN-Fraud Scoring
With PIN debit fraud losses rising along with consumer usage of PIN debit cards, MasterCard Worldwide announced on Wednesday a system it says will score PIN transactions in real time to assess their risk of fraud. Purchase, N.Y.-based MasterCard says when the service goes live in the first quarter of …
Read More »Issuers Win And Lose As the Fed Puts Reg E’s Stamp on Payroll Cards
In the Federal Reserve Board's final rule that extends Regulation E provisions to the fast-growing payroll card sector, electronic transaction reporting won out over paper statements, but issuers may take on added risk with a longer time period for dispute resolution, experts say. After a two-year process that involved taking …
Read More »Cutting Payment Costs, Wesco Helps Debitman with Issuer Gap
A Michigan convenience-store chain believes its new Debitman card program will lower its card-acceptance costs while simultaneously boosting customer loyalty by taking some of the sting out of rising gasoline prices. Debitman Card Inc. announced this week that Muskegon-based Wesco Inc., which operates 51 stores in the state, would join …
Read More »Eyeing Gift-Card Popularity, the OCC Issues Disclosure Rules
Responding to the rapid build-up in popularity of gift cards, a federal banking regulator has issued guidelines telling banks what information they should disclose?and how they should disclose it?to both the buyers and ultimate users of the prepaid plastic. The new rules, which bear on matters such as expiration dates, …
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