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, …

Peter Lucas Flush with new investment, firms that lend to merchants against credit card receipts are more optimistic than ever. Now, they’re laying plans for fixed loans and advances against cash, checks, and alternative payments. It’s been a tough economic recovery for retailers. Not only is consumer spending mired in …

Linda Punch New authentication tools and other technologies are dimming the once-bright line between card-present and card-not-present transactions. Will the card networks take note of that trend any time soon? In an era of mobile wallets, tap-and-go, and other alternative payments using devices other than traditional cards and card readers, …

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 …

Jane Adler Visa and some card issuers are pushing signature authentication for EMV chip cards, but merchants prefer PINs. So who will win? As financial institutions slowly roll out smart cards in the United States while processors struggle to meet looming deadlines for acceptance, a heated industry debate over authentication …

Karen Epper Hoffman With strong brand appeal abroad, online merchants in the U.S. are pursuing overseas sales as never before. Two big hurdles are currency management and fraud risk. Tommy Bahama saw an opportunity abroad. Executives at the purveyor of island-oriented clothes and home décor knew that their brand would …

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 …

Merchant plaintiffs and the payment card network and bank defendants should return to the bargaining table and hammer out a new solution to the credit card interchange litigation for which they announced a proposed settlement July 13. That’s the conclusion of Aite Group LLC in releasing results of its recent …

Numerous merchants and merchant groups have publicly declared their opposition to a controversial proposed settlement to the big credit card interchange litigation pending in federal court. In hopes of turning the settlement into a political issue, nine trade associations on Thursday took their beefs about it to Congress. In a …