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MasterCard Inc., the distant No. 2 in the U.S. signature-based debit card market, scored a big win in 2005 over rival Visa Inc. when Washington Mutual Inc. said it would convert its Visa-branded debit portfolio of more than 10 million cards to MasterCard. But that gain is now in jeopardy …
Read More »Interchange: the Unheralded Benefit of Unembossed Cards
Visa Inc. this week announced it would permit the widespread issuance of unembossed consumer credit and debit cards and business debit cards. In doing so, Visa played up the advantages to issuers, including less-complex supply-chain management, quicker activation, the ability to issue cards to customers in person at bank and …
Read More »Debit Rivalry Heats up with National City, RBS Shifts to Visa
With National City Corp. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc moving portfolios into its camp, Visa Inc. scored two big debit card wins over MasterCard Inc. this week in the bank card networks' ceaseless struggle to curry issuer and merchant favor. Analysts say the payment industry can expect to …
Read More »Both Sides Claim Victory After Judge Rules in Discover’s Antitrust Case
The federal judge presiding over Discover Financial Services' antitrust case against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. for lost business from would-be financial-institution partners has disposed of pre-trial motions, setting the stage for trial in a network conflict that began a decade ago. At issue is the alleged harm to Discover …
Read More »JPMorgan Offers Insurers a Prepaid Visa Card for Workers’ Comp
The movement by card issuers and government entities to replace check-based benefit payments with prepaid cards entered a new category this week with JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s announcement it will issue a Visa card backed by workers' compensation funds. Unlike unemployment compensation, child-support payments, and other benefits that have backed …
Read More »The Coming End of Big-Issuer Hegemony in Bank Card Payments
This is the third installment of a six-part series exploring the growing economic tensions and structural conflicts between acquirers and issuers in the bankcard business. A handful of big issuers dominate the bank card business and command the lion's share of merchant-acceptance fees. Just about everyone else in the payments …
Read More »With Eight Months to Go, Some Banks May Have to Scramble To Do IATs
A significant minority of financial institutions may not be ready to implement a new application for international automated clearing house payments by next March, even though that's when all banks will have to start supporting it, according to research published this week. The new application, known as International ACH Transactions, …
Read More »Revolution Money Aims for 1 Million Merchants, Cardholders by Year End
Nine months after its official launch, Revolution Money Inc.'s PIN-secured credit card is being accepted at 150,000 merchants, a number a top executive at the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based alternative-payments provider says will reach 1 million by year's end. David Cautin, senior vice president and general manager for online business at …
Read More »How Tyfone Looks to Free Banks from Carriers in Mobile Payments
A provider of mobile-banking and ?payments software has begun promoting a memory card for cell phones that it says could allow financial institutions to move forward with contactless mobile payments without the need to work with wireless carriers. Portland Ore.-based Tyfone Inc., founded four years ago, is testing its Secure …
Read More »How U.S. Bank Hopes To Catch a Wave in Contactless Payments
Riding the swelling wave of issuer interest in contactless payment cards, Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp this week launched a program to issue Visa Inc.'s payWave contactless cards on debit accounts in California, Colorado, Missouri, and Utah. The bank didn't say how many cards it plans to issue. Customers who already have …
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