Less than a decade after launching its first gift card mall, the Blackhawk Network Inc. is looking for new frontiers of prepaid card growth in the online world and the business-to-business market. “I think we've learned a few things on how to serve the customer better,” Teri Llach, chief marketing …

MasterCard Inc. plans to pay off its remaining $400 million settlement obligation to retailers over debit card acceptance early for a discounted $335 million, according to a filing the card network made on Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Attorneys for the retailer plaintiffs have signed on to the …

Prepaid cards branded by one of the national payment card networks are benefting most from the recession, but prepaid profitability overall is suffering, according to a survey of prepaid card executives whose results were released in a report this week. The survey, conducted by payments-research firm Aite Group LLC at …

Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. this week unveiled what it says is the first coverage available to small and medium-sized businesses for losses from payment card data breaches. News of the policy came on the same day that a non-profit research organization reported that data breaches increased 47% last year. The …

The dollar value loaded onto so-called network-branded or open-loop prepaid cards grew nearly 45% last year, or nine times the growth rate of closed-loop cards, according to a new report from Mercator Advisory Group. Mercator's fifth annual study of network-branded cards says the public sector is emerging as one of …

Merchants have embraced prepaid cards, particularly their in-store gift cards, but they could get even more value?and profits?from them by focusing less on breakage and anonymity and more on giving customers cards with more utility that keep track of their spending, according to a researcher who tracks the prepaid industry. …

While big oil companies at times have temporarily lowered card-acceptance costs in recent years to help gas stations cope with spikes in the price of oil, Shell Oil Co. today said it would permanently lower the price of card processing as well as speed up settlement times for its jobbers …

Financial-institution issuers of prepaid cards usable on general-purpose payment networks such as Visa and MasterCard are making money, but they may be missing opportunities by not exploring new market niches or checking out networks other than the one they already use. Those are some of the findings released Monday from …

Better ATM Services Inc. today took another step toward realizing its goal of turning ATMs into machines that can dispense something other than cash. The Mesa, Ariz.-based startup certified machines made by Diebold Inc. as capable of dispensing its prepaid cards, which Better ATM Services is testing at five restaurants …

A Phoenix-area company called Better ATM Services Inc. thinks it has a better idea for merchandising prepaid cards: sell them directly at ATMs, with cards dispensed through the same slot that dispenses cash. Founded in 2005, the Mesa, Ariz.-based firm is now implementing its ideas at five local restaurants. Thomas …