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Payment processor eFunds Corp. will take over the processing of American Express Co.'s fast-growing retail and gift card portfolio in 2007 and 2008 under a deal announced Wednesday. The deal, financial terms of which were not released, is the biggest prepaid contract to date for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based eFunds, which focuses …
Read More »Gift Cards, Web Shopping Will Be Big Winners in Holiday Season
A trio of studies released on Monday indicate the 2006 holiday-shopping season should be merry and bright for gift cards and Internet transactions. Gift cards will be the second most popular item on gift-givers' lists this year, edged out only by apparel, according to survey results from both American Express …
Read More »Online Resources Starts to Process Online Gift Card Orders
The links between the growing payment sectors of prepaid cards and online banking just got a little tighter with the creation by Online Resources Corp. of a new service that lets consumers buy private-label gift cards through their financial institutions' online banking and bill-payment sites. The service, called CardHQ, currently …
Read More »Metavante Pairs Electronic Bill Pay With Prepaid Cards
Processor Metavante Corp. has come up with a seemingly natural but rare pairing of two booming payment niches: payroll cards and electronic bill payments. A major provider of both services to financial institutions, Milwaukee-based Metavante this week introduced what it calls Metavante Prepaid Bill Payment. The service makes Internet-based bill …
Read More »MasterCard Starts Test in Dallas of NFC Payment With OTA Downloads
MasterCard Worldwide announced on Thursday the start of a contactless-payment pilot in Dallas using mobile phones enabled by near-field communication (NFC) technology. The pilot, which is expected to involve about 500 subscribers of 7-Eleven Inc.'s Speak Out Wireless service, is the second real-world test of NFC payment in the U.S. …
Read More »Comdata’s New Chief Looks to Acquisitions To Spur Growth
Fresh on the heels of a payment-processing initiative and a new branding campaign, the new chief executive of prepaid and fleet card specialist Comdata Corp.'s parent company told investors on Thursday that Comdata is in the acquisitions market. “The Comdata business is posting strong results driven by a proven, effective …
Read More »New Boss of Comdata Acquiring Unit Aims to Move into Top 10
Rod Katzfey, the new boss of Comdata Processing Systems, has worked for some of the nation's biggest merchant acquirers?U.S. Bancorp, First Data Corp., and, most recently, ABN AMRO Merchant Services, where he was general manager. He expects that some day the company he joined this month as senior vice president …
Read More »New Program Links Any Credit, Debit Card to Funds in FSA Accounts
A Conshohocken, Pa.-based processor has begun marketing a service that allows employees covered by flexible-spending health-care plans to use any payment or loyalty card they have to access benefits. Finpago Inc. announced this week an agreement with health-benefits administrator WageWorks Inc., San Mateo, Calif., to launch its FSAok AnyCard program …
Read More »Issuers Win And Lose As the Fed Puts Reg E’s Stamp on Payroll Cards
In the Federal Reserve Board's final rule that extends Regulation E provisions to the fast-growing payroll card sector, electronic transaction reporting won out over paper statements, but issuers may take on added risk with a longer time period for dispute resolution, experts say. After a two-year process that involved taking …
Read More »Eyeing Gift-Card Popularity, the OCC Issues Disclosure Rules
Responding to the rapid build-up in popularity of gift cards, a federal banking regulator has issued guidelines telling banks what information they should disclose?and how they should disclose it?to both the buyers and ultimate users of the prepaid plastic. The new rules, which bear on matters such as expiration dates, …
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