Prepaid Cards

More than a year after the Trump Administration took power, payments industry executives looking for a friendlier tone from Washington, D.C., are getting it, but it’s questionable just how much tangible benefit this will yield, two expert Washington observers said Tuesday. Meanwhile, the picture could darken this fall if, as …

Best known for serving prepaid card providers, Galileo Processing says it is rapidly expanding into other parts of the electronic-payments industry with new services, including application programming interfaces supporting cryptocurrency transactions. Salt Lake City, Utah-based Galileo declined to disclose actual numbers, but said earlier this week that it posted a …

No other bidders emerged during a so-called go-shop period that expired earlier this month, so Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. reported Tuesday that its planned $3.5 billion buyout by two investment firms remains on track to close at mid-year. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based provider of gift cards and other prepaid card services …

NthCard LLC, a prepaid gift card processing and distribution firm, launched nthPOS, an app for Android, iOS, and Windows 10 devices that enables merchants to activate, redeem, and reload gift cards using a mobile phone or tablet. Fraud-management vendor Giact Systems LLC announced it and Advanced Fraud Solutions are offering a …

First Data Corp.’s struggling merchant-acquiring joint ventures with three big banks are showing nascent signs of a turnaround, and business is booming in the company’s prepaid card unit, top executives reported Monday. The Atlanta-based processor reported last year that new merchant referrals from its big joint ventures with The PNC …

The prepaid market can expect to grow more than 7% annually over five years, but unlike its early days in which plastic gift cards and government payments dominated, much of the growth will come from new virtual uses for prepaid products, according to a new Aite Group LLC report. Boston-based …

Criminals target signature-based debit cards for fraud attempts far more than any other payment method, according to new findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Fed’s survey last summer, which garnered responses from 283 banks and credit unions across the country, found that more than 90% of …

Mastercard Inc. took an $873 million, one-time charge in 2017’s fourth quarter related to the new federal tax law, and the company reported Thursday that the cobranded Cabela’s Visa card will switch to the Mastercard brand. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that President Donald Trump signed into law in …

Processor Fiserv Inc. reported that its Accel debit network has added new transaction-routing options, including the ability to process signature-based transactions. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is using the new signature service, Fiserv said. Accel also will make signatures optional for merchants beginning in April, as are the four general-purpose card networks. …

UATP, which is owned by and provides payment processing for many of the world’s airlines, said it is now accepted for U.S. ticket purchases on Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. General Catalyst announced that soon-to-retire American Express Co. chief executive Ken Chenault has joined the venture-capital firm as chairman and a …