Fintech

A private-sector bank in India says it plans to deploy at least 50 biometric ATMs before March 31 next year to widen banking access to its customers, especially those who may not be able to read.

Bank Freedom, a wholly owned subsidiary of PrepaYd Inc., is attributing a dramatic increase in deposits into its prepaid card accounts during the third quarter to a substantial boost in card orders during the three-month period.

Operators of cashless vending machines and kiosks are scrambling to find relief from new debit-interchange rates, some of which are significantly higher than what they typically paid previously and may wipe out much of their profits, observers say.

LIVONIA, Mich. – Co-op Services CU is taking advantage of the outrage over Bank of America’s new $5 debit card fee by offering $105 payments for new checking accounts under its “Shred My Card” promotion.

Hughes Communications India Ltd.’s Sept. 26 announcement that it had received approximately 5,000 orders since January to set up satellite terminals suggests deployment of so-called “brown-label” ATMs is becoming a growing trend in India.

WASHINGTON–President Obama sharply criticized the financial sector Oct. 5 in response to questions about the Occupy Wall Street movement, the small number of prosecutions related to the financial crisis, and his recent comments about Bank of America's plan to impose a fee on debit-card users.

First Tennessee Bank is getting ready to rake in the pennies. Lots of them, it hopes.

Though it established a two-tier rate structure to accommodate issuers exempt from new caps on debit card interchange established by the Federal Reserve Board, Visa Inc. made only minor changes to the rates acquirers use to determine how much they pay card issuers with less than $10 billion in assets.

Mocapay Inc. has signed yogurt store Yumilicious to its mobile loyalty program in a move some observers say illustrates the future for loyalty and prepaid gift cards.

Steve Jobs spent his career more focused on personal computing than on personal banking, but under him Apple Computer still left a lasting mark on the world of finance.