Prepaid Cards

Processor First Data Corp. and Fleetcor Technologies Inc. are forming a joint venture to consolidate their gift card businesses, First Data announced Monday. The joint venture, whose name was not released, combines First Data’s gift card business, digital gift-card provider Transaction Wireless Inc., and its Gyft unit, with Fleetcor’s Stored …

Green Dot Corp.’s chief executive on Wednesday hailed the company’s pending acquisition of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau <![endif]–> The company finished 2016 with $718.8 million in total operating revenue, up 3.5% over its 2015 revenue total. Net income for the year came in at $41.6 million, up 8% from $38.4 …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The lingering impact of some retailers’ slow conversion to EMV chip card acceptance continued to plague prepaid card services provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. in the fourth quarter. Blackhawk reported late Wednesday that revenues fell short of its expectations in part because of a “continued EMV headwind” …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The new Republican-controlled Congress and Republican President Donald Trump want fewer government regulations, and the politically vulnerable now that Republicans have full control of Washington. Republicans say the CFPB has imposed excessive regulations on the financial-services industry and that its director, currently Richard Cordray, is not accountable …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced a consent order that requires Mastercard Inc. and UniRush LLC, program manager of the prepaid RushCard, to pay $10 million in restitution to cardholders and a $3 million civil fine as a result of an October 2015 processing glitch …

• Bloomberg reported that prepaid card services provider Green Dot Corp. is in talks to buy UniRush, a smaller competitor co-founded by Russell Simmons, the music-industry entrepreneur behind the rap label Def Jam. • In another possible deal, U.K.-based accounting and payroll software firm Sage Group plc is mulling a sale of its U.S. …

Prepaid card specialist Green Dot Corp. has agreed to buy rival UniRush LLC in a deal valued at a minimum of $147 million and expected to close by the end of March. Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot, perhaps best known for managing Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s MoneyCard operation, said the deal will …

Cachet Financial Solutions Inc., a small tech company best known for providing remote deposit capture services to banks and credit unions, is trying to raise nearly $14 million in new equity to shore up its finances while pivoting toward prepaid cards and facing a legal deadline to rebrand. In a …

Retailers can expect a bump up in the dollars consumers load on closed-loop gift cards this holiday season as a festive spirit takes hold and more merchants favor the cards over holiday discounts, according to a forecast released last month by payments consultancy Mercator Advisory Group. “Retailers are expecting that …

NetSpend, the prepaid card unit of processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), is facing a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit filed Thursday over allegations the company deceptively marketed reloadable debit cards. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, alleges NetSpend promised “immediate access” to …