The effort to harness debit card networks for near-instant person-to-person payments is moving apace. The latest development is this week’s announcement that the Houston-based Pulse electronic funds transfer network has enabled a service that will let cardholders pay each other by entering their debit card PINs on a so-called …

New Visa Inc. chief executive Charles W. Scharf used his first earnings conference call with analysts Wednesday to offer an olive branch to U.S. merchants. Scharf’s comments came on the heels of an earnings and operational report for fiscal 2013’s first quarter that show strong U.S. Visa credit card growth …

Now that the debit card interchange controls mandated by the Durbin Amendment have been in place for nearly a year-and-a-half, observers have decided to check in on the small financial institutions exempted by Durbin to see whether their fears about the law have been proven by experience. You may recall …

Peter Lucas The card networks’ gambit to rapidly accelerate EMV terminal rollout by waiving PCI compliance reporting for merchants is falling short. Sometimes what looks to be a great deal is not all it’s cracked up to be. Offers by the payment card networks to accelerate the U.S. deployment of …

Lauri Giesen Will PIN debit for online transactions ever take off? Some backers are hopeful for this year, but others argue the Durbin Amendment and alternative technologies—like mobile payments—could make PIN debit irrelevant for e-commerce.Time was, the case for online retailers to accept debit card transactions secured with a PIN …

The good news for prepaid card program manager Green Dot Corp. in the fourth quarter: purchase volumes, revenues, and active cards all increased. The bad news: American Express Co.’s new Bluebird prepaid card now being sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s U.S. stores is taking some business from Green Dot’s own …

  The effort to bring near-real-time person-to-person payments to the customers of smaller financial institutions took another step on Wednesday with the announcement the Sprig digital-wallet service from Co-Op Financial Services, a processor and network operator that links some 3,000 credit unions. The new service, available for both mobile devices …

The surcharging provisions of the credit card interchange settlement announced last July will take effect on Sunday, but observers expect few merchants will take advantage of their new-found freedom to add a surcharge to Visa and MasterCard credit card sales. “I know of nobody” who plans to surcharge, says Mitch …

A sweeping review by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City of the Durbin Amendment’s effects warns that competition could be harmed if more payment card networks adopt fixed-pricing plans as they compete for merchant business in the newly regulated debit card environment. The new report is the first of …

Have the Durbin Amendment’s interchange restrictions cut into debit card revenue at the nation’s smaller financial institutions? In the wake of a spin war touched off on Monday by a merchant-controlled lobbying group, the answer appears to be: It depends on whom you ask. Monday morning, the Washington, D.C.-based Merchants …