News

June, 2010

• 15 June

  Defending His Amendment, Sen. Durbin Fires Back at Small Banks

  U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin is chastising small banks and credit unions for not liking his debit card interchange regulation proposal, and Visa Inc. claims consumers strongly oppose legislation that would raise their costs or reduce their cards’ utility. These developments emerged as the House of Representatives and the Senate begin …
• 15 June

  Leveraging Twitter, Twitpay Narrows Focus to Donations, Gaming

  It started out as a way to pay other people through the wildly popular Twitter social network, but now a recapitalized and re-energized Twitpay Inc. is concentrating on much narrower niches where it sees greater potential. In March, using a homegrown, in-house platform, it started processing charitable donations, and in …
• 10 June

  Weak Recovery Puts a Damper on Consumer Spending Growth

  Consumer spending growth began to slow in April and May after a rebound during the first quarter, with general merchandise stores posting their lowest year-over-year dollar-volume growth, according to at least one major processor. Low-end consumers pulled back from spending, squeezed by an uneven economic recovery and high unemployment. However, …
• 10 June

  Google’s Android Closes in on the iPhone in Mobile Banking

  The Apple iPhone, long a staple among consumers who pay bills and transfer funds via mobile devices, is now being challenged for mobile-banking leadership by a surging Android operating system, according to new research. Handsets that use Google Inc.’s open-source Android OS now account for 12% of the smart-phone market, …
• 9 June

  Small Institutions to Durbin Amendment: Thanks But No Thanks

  “Thanks, but no thanks,” was the message on Wednesday from representatives of small financial institutions who made it clear they oppose a Senate amendment that would empower the Federal Reserve to regulate debit card interchange. The chief executives of two credit union trade groups and of a small-bank association voiced …
• 9 June

  Seeking ‘Stickiness,’ MasterCard Rolls out Online Bill Pay for Prepaid

  MasterCard Inc. this week rolled out a service that lets users of MasterCard-branded prepaid cards pay bills at the card issuer’s Web site or by phone. Aimed squarely at the underbanked population, the service relies on the MasterCard RPPS network for links to biller accounting systems and Aliaswire Inc., a …
• 8 June

  The Durbin Amendment Ignites a Lobbying Frenzy on Capitol Hill

  Credit-union representatives descended on Capitol Hill Tuesday to lobby Congress against proposed debit card interchange regulations in the Senate version of the sweeping financial-reform bill. On Wednesday, two frequent political enemies—banks and credit unions—will declare that they’ve stopped fighting each other so they can fight the so-called Durbin Amendment together. …
• 7 June

  A $300 Million iPay Deal Is a ‘Strong Fit’ for Processor Jack Henry

  Acquisitive financial-institution processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc. on Monday said it has completed its $300 million buyout of iPay Technologies, a low-profile but fast-growing electronic bill-payment processor that will add substantial mass to Jack Henry’s already sizable bill-pay business. Monett, Mo.-based Jack Henry provides bill-pay services to 1,050 of …
• 4 June

  Study Quantifies the Heavy Damage of Card Data Breaches

  Everyone knows data breaches are expensive and affect a lot of people, but just how much is startling. In a new analysis, Javelin Strategy & Research estimates credit and debit card issuers spent $252.7 million in 2009 replacing more than 70 million cards compromised by data breaches. Analyst Robert Vamosi …
• 3 June

  Bullish on the iPad, Square Says It Will Be a POS Game Changer

  With application developers rushing to bring apps to market for Apple Inc.’s immensely popular iPad tablet computer, payment service provider Square Inc. is predicting the iPad will become a game changer in wireless payments, and says that it will aggressively pursue developing iPad applications that enrich the transaction experience. The …