Open-loop prepaid cards are slowly but steadily gaining market share and now account for nearly 40% of the market, but closed-loop prepaid cards, especially gift cards, remain highly popular with consumers. The 9th annual study of the prepaid card market by Mercator Advisory Group Inc., released in August, shows volumes …

Gideon Samid • Gideon@AGSgo.com We are so used to it that we no longer realize that there is no natural bond between a credit offering and a dispute resolution. If I get a $1,000 loan from my bank, and I use the money to buy a television set at Wal-Mart, …

MasterCard is up, and Visa’s Interlink is down—way down—as the U.S. debit industry realigns six months after the Durbin routing rules took effect. Other PIN-debit networks? It’s a mixed bag. But this card game is far from finished. By Jim Daly Think of countless Westerns where the bad guys storm …

The long war over interchange isn’t likely to end any time soon, which means its harmful effects will go on as well, says Eric Grover. The war over interchange will continue. Washington should stay out of it, playing the role of night watchman in payments, not central planner. Eric Grover …

Growing demand from financial institutions for more advanced mobile- banking features is prompting Brookfield, Wis.-based banking-solutions provider Fiserv Inc. to expand the breadth of services available through its Mobiliti mobile-banking platform. A key service will be person-to-person payments, a Fiserv executive says. Fiserv plans to make its Popmoney person-to-person payments …

With the Isis mobile-payments venture having announced yet another delay, it remains unclear just what is causing the holdup and when the service will launch. And, say observers, time may be growing short for the venture, which is backed by three of the country’s largest wireless carriers. “I don’t know …

A 2-year-old startup that allows consumers to use prepaid cards augmented with funds from participating merchants is expected to launch its product commercially next week following a nearly nine-month pilot in the Bay area. Emeryville, Calif.-based Marqeta Inc., which has already signed up about 250 merchants, is banking on the …

Continuing its slow march toward comprehensive security requirements for mobile payments, the PCI Security Standards Council on Thursday released a set of best practices for developers of software for mobile devices. The guidelines follow by four months the guidance about mobile payments that the Council released for small merchants. The …

With smart-phone usage on the rise, small online merchants are at risk of losing market share because most of them haven’t created e-commerce sites that work smoothly on mobile devices. At the same time, independent sales organizations could lose business if they don’t find ways to help small clients deal …

Two recent deals by startup Square Inc. indicate that the specialist in mobile payments for part-time sellers and tiny businesses is moving up the merchant ladder. In mid-August, San Francisco-based Square introduced a $275-per-month fixed pricing plan that may appeal to higher-volume, established small businesses. That announcement came shortly after …