Payments


GPR: ‘Just Scratching the Surface’ (March 7, 2013)

March 7, 2013 During a Tuesday session entitled GPR: A Destination or Journey?, panelists at Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., discussed whether GPR cards should be a stepping stone to a bank account and other products or if they are sufficient financial tools in their own right. The consensus seemed to be that moving everyone […]

Taking Gift Cards to North and South America (March 7, 2013)

March 7, 2013 On the final day of Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., this week, First Data’s Michael Hursta, vice president, prepaid category manager, discussed consumer research that reveals some challenges and opportunities with taking closed-loop gift cards into international markets. In Latin America, First Data looked at five countries—Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Chile and […]

CFSI Nonprofit Exec: Prepaid Could be ‘Anchor’ for Broad Financial Services for Changing Society (March 7, 2013)

March 7, 2013 “Banklike” card products, such as American Express Co.’s Bluebird, Chase Liquid and Green Dot’s GoBank, that target underserved customers who are disproportionately “young and mobile” are just the tip of the iceberg of innovative new products emerging to serve a changing society, according to Rachel Schneider, senior vice president for insight and analytics for […]

Card Design, Customer Experience Key to Reducing GPR Churn (March 6, 2013)

March 6, 2013 As GPR card providers seek to develop long-term cardholder relationships, a panel of industry experts at the Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., discussed strategies of dealing with one of the prepaid industry’s biggest hurdles—reducing customer churn. The lifespan of a typical GPR card is a short one; cards distributed online average […]

Ex-Southwest Airlines Exec Sees Industry Parallels in Prepaid Card Competition, Consolidation (March 6, 2013)

March 6, 2013 The prepaid card industry may appear to have little in common with the airline industry, but prepaid card marketers could learn a few lessons from Southwest Airlines about surviving turbulent times and transforming commodity-like financial services products into unique and successful brands, Southwest’s former top executive told attendees during a keynote session […]

Experts Offer Sales-Boosting Tips for Gift Card Retailers (March 6, 2013)

March 6, 2013 Visibility, replenishment and store associate awareness are three keys to energizing a retailer’s gift card category, according to Colleen Dorwart, senior manager of gift card services at Cabela’s Inc. Dorwart, who was part of a panel discussion this week at Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., also stressed frequent conference calls between […]

Paybefore Honors Innovation in Orlando (March 4, 2013)

March 4, 2013 Paybefore celebrated 72 programs in 23 categories, naming for the first time Best-in-Category honorees at the 7th Annual Paybefore Awards Ceremony, which capped off the first day of Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla. This year—for the very first time—there was a sixth judge, consisting of the votes of visitors to Paybefore.com, […]

CPI Card Group Expands Secure Packaging Capabilities in U.K. (March 5, 2013)

March, 5, 2013 CPI Card Group, a Littleton, Colo.-based card producer, has expanded capabilities at its Petersfield facility in the U.K. to support demand for secure prepaid card packaging, the company announced yesterday. The new capabilities, which include gift card packaging for distribution within an open- or closed-loop environment, add to the existing products and […]

Giving the Millennial Generation What They Want (March 5, 2013)

March 5, 2013 Tracking their finances, saving time and money, avoiding risk and maintaining close relationships with their parents are some of the hallmarks of older “Millennials,” the generation born between 1982 and 2005, according to Neil Howe, founding partner and president, LifeCourse Associates, a consulting company focused on the attributes of generations. Howe, a […]

Prepaid Resources Partners with IDology to Combat Benefit Enrollment Fraud (March 5, 2013)

March 5, 2013 Prepaid Resources, a New York City-based technology specialist for the prepaid and banking industry, has announced a partnership with Atlanta-based technology provider IDology to incorporate advanced identity verification and prescreening solutions within Prepaid Resources’ FraudGuard security services. Fraud Guard protects against unauthorized direct-deposit enrollments using Prepaid Resources’ BenefitsDirect Direct Deposit Management application. […]

eGifter Takes Social Gifting to LinkedIn (March 5, 2013)

March 5, 2013 GroupGifting.com, the developers of the eGifter Web and mobile social gifting app, debuted its integration with LinkedIn at the Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., yesterday. The new feature enables consumers to send eGift cards to their LinkedIn Connections. “Social gifting in a business context is now a reality,” said Tyler Roye, […]

Paybefore Honors Innovation in Orlando (March 4, 2013)

March 2013   Expanding the Boundaries of PrepaidLeft to right: Lisa Breitengross and Kevin Boglarsky, Discover On March 4, Paybefore celebrated 72 programs in 23 categories, naming for the first time Best-in-Category honorees at the 7th Annual Paybefore Awards Ceremony, which capped off the first day of Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla. This year—for […]

Mixing up the pieces

The introduction of a seven-day account switching service in the autumn is meant to increase competition among UK High Street banks. Will it succeed?

Discover Launches Checking, Debit Service with Rewards Lure (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 Discover Financial Services is taking on the likes of online banking specialists Simple and Moven with Discover Cashback Checking, introducing a mainstream debit card, to be processed on its Pulse network. Initially targeting only select Discover credit card customers by invitation, Discover’s new banking service carries no monthly fees or minimum balances […]

MasterCard Inks VimpelCom Deal, Launches NFC Services in Brazil (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 MasterCard Worldwide pushed its global mobile payments strategy forward this week with announcements of diverse initiatives targeting new customers, including a strategic partnership with Amsterdam-based mobile network operator VimpelCom Ltd. to reach unbanked consumers in 18 countries with a “mobile money” service, as well as the card network’s first NFC launch in […]

PayPal Founder’s New App ‘Simplifies’ Mobile Shopping (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 A new startup from PayPal co-founder Max Levchin is aiming to improve the process of making online purchases via mobile device—an improvement he says is a boon to customers and retailers alike. Known as Affirm, the new company is the brainchild of Levchin’s tech incubator Hard, Valuable, Fun and is launching a […]

CO-OP Financial Services to Offer TMG Prepaid Cards (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 As part of a partnership established last year with The Members Group (TMG), a Des Moines, Iowa-based card processing and payment solutions provider, CO-OP Financial Services today announced it will be offering TMG’s reloadable prepaid cards to all of its client credit unions. The TMG reloadable prepaid cards are in addition to […]

AccountNow Reports Major Call Volume Shift with VoltDelta (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 Customer service is in the news for the second time this week as prepaid card provider AccountNow Inc. reported that more than 90 percent of its call volume is now resolved in the automated system rather than via live agent. The increase follows AccountNow’s move to VoltDelta for customer service 18 months […]

Blog: New Credit Card Surcharges Could Impact Prepaid Market (February 2013)

Blog: New Credit Card Surcharges Could Impact Prepaid Market February 2013   By Lori Breitzke, E&S Consulting LLC A proposed settlement agreement in the In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation—filed in 2005 on behalf of approximately 7 million merchants alleging, among other claims, that MasterCard and Visa had separately colluded […]

Blog: New Credit Card Surcharges Could Impact Prepaid Market (February 2013)

February 2013   By Lori Breitzke, E&S Consulting LLC A proposed settlement agreement in the In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation—filed in 2005 on behalf of approximately 7 million merchants alleging, among other claims, that MasterCard and Visa had separately colluded with banks to eliminate competition and increase interchange (swipe) […]

Mauritius adopts e-payment as PeX turns to BPC-HP

Payment service provider Payment Exchange has moved its Mauritius operation onto BPC Banking Technologies’ HP Integrity NonStop platform, which is designed to make it easier, faster and cheaper to launch new products.

U.S. EMV Migration Forum Sketching Plans for One-City EMV Pilot (Feb. 26, 2013)

Feb. 26, 2013 Payments industry experts eyeing the October 2015 target date for the U.S. migration to EMV card technology are contemplating plans to set up an EMV pilot in a single U.S. city to boost EMV planning and to work out the bugs in chip-card deployment. The concept, hatched by a committee within the […]

paysafecard Launches Online Shopping Account (Feb. 26, 2013)

Feb. 26, 2013 European e-voucher provider paysafecard group has launched a new service it says will simplify the process of Internet shopping for its customers. The Paybefore Award-winning firm’s new system—dubbed “my paysafecard”—enables customers to combine all of their paysafecard e-vouchers into a single account. Instead of having to enter separate 16-digit PINs for each […]

GOP Leaders Talking Tough on Interchange Fee Cap (Feb. 26, 2013)

Feb. 26. 2013 Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) today told attendees at a Credit Union National Association Government Affairs Conference in Washington, D.C., that federal lawmakers may revisit the debit interchange fee cap created by the Durbin Amendment this year, according to CUNA’s News Now. The publication also reports the Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said earlier […]

Prepaid Customer Service Takes Center Stage at Philly Fed Workshop (Feb. 26, 2013)

Feb. 26, 2013 The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a workshop last week focused on customer service in the prepaid card industry. Susan Herbst-Murphy, a senior industry specialist at the PCC, says the center was eager to learn more about customer service issues in light of the Treasury’s mandate […]

Omani Bank Stung by Travel Card Fraud (Feb. 26, 2013)

Feb. 26, 2013 Oman’s largest bank said a dozen of its prepaid travel cards were compromised outside of the country. Bank Muscat will take an impairment charge of up to 15 million rials (US$39 million) as a result of the unspecified fraud—a figure representing more than 10 percent of the bank’s latest annual earnings.   […]

SEPA Uncertainty

Big banks and their large corporate clients are in the final stages of preparation for the SEPA end date of February next year, but what about the smaller clients in the non-euro countries?

Wagner aims at m-commerce gap

Dan Wagner is pretty sure that he has an idea how the use of mobile devices will play out in the commercial world and how the relationships between banks, merchant acquirers, merchants and customers will change.

Visa Inks Deals with Samsung, Roam for ‘Ready Partner’ Program (Feb. 25, 2013)

Feb. 25, 2013 Aiming to speed up development of mobile payment technologies, Visa Inc. on the eve of this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona announced the Visa Ready Partner Program, a framework it hopes will make it easier for mobile device manufacturers, mobile network operators and various of their technology partners around the world […]

MasterCard Unveils MasterPass for ‘Simple’ Shopping Experience (Feb. 25, 2013)

Feb. 25, 2013 MasterCard Inc. today unveiled MasterPass, a cloud-based service that builds on its PayPass Wallet Services by eliminating the need for consumers to enter card or shipping details with each purchase and adding new tools to enhance online, mobile and in-store shopping. MasterPass will roll out through banks in Canada and Australia beginning […]

PayPal to Enter Crowded European Mobile Card Reader Market (Feb. 25, 2013)

Feb. 25, 2013 PayPal continues its diversification into brick-and-mortar payments with the announcement that it will expand its PayPal Here mobile card reader to Europe, beginning in the U.K. this summer. The European iteration of PayPal Here will differ from the version launched in the U.S. nearly a year ago in some key ways, due […]

ATM Survey Suggests Prepaid Card Opportunity for FIs (Feb. 25, 2013)

Feb. 25, 2013 Recent research into the prepaid card-buying habits of ATM users indicates an opportunity for credit unions and banks to capture a portion of the prepaid card market by leveraging the convenience of ATMs. More than 85 percent of credit union members use ATMs and 70 percent of those ATM-using members also buy […]

China UnionPay Continues NFC Push with Gemalto Pact (Feb. 25, 2013)

Feb. 25, 2013 Shanghai-based payment card network China UnionPay (CUP) continues its efforts to develop NFC payments, signing an agreement with Dutch digital payment security provider Gemalto to build “a secure mobile NFC ecosystem.” The partnership will cover deployment issues including trusted service manager interoperability, along with technology standards and specifications, the firms said. China […]

PayPal rolls out Chip & PIN reader in Europe

Payment provider PayPal has launched a card reader device that handles Chip & PIN and PayPal payments in Europe. The device will be available to select UK businesses over the coming months before becoming generally available this summer.

The changing face of payments

The Payments Council’s latest report, The Way We Pay, shows rapid changes in use of payment methods over the past decade – but cash is still in the mix.