By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Dollars loaded onto closed-loop gift cards fell 9% in 2015, according to new research from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. But one major prepaid card issuer, Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc., franchisor of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins stores, reports that its DD Perks loyalty program now has more …

JPMorgan Chase Co.’s Chase Pay mobile wallet, probably the most ambitious bank-operated U.S. mobile-payments service, on Wednesday announced it has signed up Phillips 66 Co., which sells gasoline under the Phillips 66, Conoco, and 76 brands, and will accept Chase Pay at its pumps and in its stores. No date …

By controlling debit interchange and supercharging the administrative state, the Durbin Amendment has inflicted immense harm, says Eric Grover. With virtually no debate, the Durbin Amendment was sold as pro-consumer, pro-small bank, and pro-merchant—a political trifecta. Widely understood to be bad for politically unsympathetic large banks, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, …

Universal mobile wallets have yet to gain the hearty embrace of merchants and consumers, unlike those serving a solitary merchant. But that will change, forecasts the “Merchant Mobile Wallets: Mobile Payments in Action” report released Wednesday by Mercator Advisory Group Inc. The report from the Maynard, Mass.-based payments consultancy predicts …

Of the challenges presented by the U.S. payments systems’ transition to the EMV chip card standard, one of the least reported is confusion among both consumers and merchants  caused by the sudden appearance of puzzling terminal messages. Meanwhile, new numbers indicate petroleum marketers face a daunting challenge meeting their October …

• Braintree launched Braintree Auth as an invitation-only service in beta. The service streamlines integration of Braintree merchants with e-commerce platforms and eases the way for new payment methods enabled by Braintree, a unit of PayPal Holdings Inc. Braintree Auth currently processes payments on e-commerce platforms Bigcommerce, WooCommerce, and 3DCart. …

In 2015, American Express Co. had a bad year. Hit hard by competitive pressures on merchant fees and cobrand-card returns, as well as swooning gasoline prices, the big card network on Thursday reported a 4% decline in revenue net of interest expense for the year to $32.8 billion, its first …

The press is filled with dire warnings about a disruptor leading to the demise of the bank and card payments system. It is true that only a small portion of disruptive new entrants are fatal, but the fact that disruptors usually are not fatal doesn’t mean they aren’t damaging at …

Security Notes It has long been established that something as simple and ordinary as our handwriting exposes our character traits, and may determine whether we receive a job offer or not. But it has only recently been established that something as simple and ordinary as our payment record exposes the …

American Express Co. is offering new rewards and benefits for using one of its prepaid cards, but at a cost. The card brand and acquirer on Wednesday added a rewards program to its Serve card under the “Serve Cash Back” moniker. Serve Cash Back users, who pay $5.95 per month …