If you want to print out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed prepaid card regulations, think again. They run 870 pages in PDF form, so you’ll need almost two reams of paper and plenty of ink. The regulations unveiled Thursday would require so-called “Know Before You Owe” disclosures and aim to …
Read More »MCX’s InComm Deal Might Give Currency To the Idea That Its Network Is Building Momentum
Prepaid card services provider InComm Holdings Inc. announced today that it has struck a “strategic partnership” with Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), parent firm of the fledgling mobile-payments network owned by merchants and recently branded as CurrentC. But exactly what the partnership will do for the long-aborning MCX is not clear. …
Read More »Capital Prepaid Looks to Extend Prepaid Program Management to Scores of Small Issuers
The general-purpose prepaid card market is hot, but most smaller financial institutions find it a daunting task to start and run a prepaid program. To fill that gap, Capital Prepaid Services on Monday launched a prepaid Visa card with two small banks as part of a campaign to make prepaid …
Read More »Spurning Publicity, Amazon Launches a Mobile Wallet with Modest Features—So Far
Without fanfare, Amazon.com Inc. last week introduced a trial version of its first digital wallet. The free Android app, known as Amazon Wallet, has been available since July 17 on Amazon’s own App Store and on Google Play. It is also available pre-installed on Amazon’s recently unveiled smart phone, the …
Read More »Mobile Deposit for Prepaid Cards And Wallets Poses Heightened Fraud Risk, A New Study Finds
The technology to deposit checks into prepaid cards or mobile wallets using a smart phone is less than two years old, but already the channel is proving to be 33 times more prone to fraud than mobile deposits into bank accounts, according to data from Fidelity National Information Services Inc. …
Read More »FDIC Consent Order Restricts The Bancorp Bank’s Dealings With ISOs And Merchants
The parent company of major prepaid card issuer The Bancorp Bank on Wednesday disclosed that the bank had entered into a consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that places restrictions on its dealings with independent sales organizations. The order also prevents the bank in some instances from issuing …
Read More »Stockpile Emerges To Offer Digital Gift Cards Backed by Stock to ‘Everyday’ Consumers
A new type of gift card is set to debut this summer that will be backed not by cash but by shares of stock. The virtual card will come from a startup called Stockpile Inc., which has created a waiting list for interested potential accountholders and is planning to market …
Read More »American Express Adds Wal-Mart to the Distribution Network for Its Serve Prepaid Card
American Express Co. deepened its prepaid card relationship with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. with Monday’s announcement that its Serve card will be sold in 4,100 U.S. Walmart-branded stores. The Walmart stores also will become part of Serve’s cash-reload network, boosting its location count to 19,500. Serve’s thus will become the biggest …
Read More »In a Sudden About-Face, Wal-Mart Stops Gift Card Sales Through Gyft E-Card Service
Less than a month after electronic gift card provider Gyft announced it was selling Wal-Mart Stores Inc. gift cards, they no longer are available. According to a report on Coindesk.com, a digital-currency news site, Gyft stopped offering Wal-Mart gift cards on April 13. Gyft provides electronic gift card services for …
Read More »Merchant Warehouse’s Opticard Purchase Intended To Enhance Small Business Products
Merchant Warehouse Inc. has bought gift and loyalty provider Opticard and has plans to offer its services as part of bundled transaction services to merchants. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Opticard, which will continue to operate independently, sells gift and loyalty card services to small businesses. Merchants can use Opticard programs to …
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