Fintech

Estimating the growth of social media and mobile channels equals a $70 billion global opportunity across banking and other consumer-facing
 industries, IBM has formed a new consulting practice to offer navigation
 expertise for companies looking to embrace the new technologies, many of 
which are offered in some form by IBM itself.

Two more banks in India have joined a select few others that enable customers to pay their income taxes at ATMs.

SAN FRANCISCO – Mission SF FCU may have a small membership – just 2,500 – but the one-time $9 million credit union that failed Friday will provide a big footprint in the Bay City for two-year-old Self-Help FCU, which agreed to acquire the remnants of the community development credit union.

First it was check electronification at the point of sale, then decoupled debit. Now health care appears to be the next major target market to help drive automated clearinghouse payments volume.

WASHINGTON — Cynthia Blankenship was likely not the first banker to discuss the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s overdraft guidance — a significant cause of worry for industry executives — with FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair.

Consumers’ use of cash to make payments grew in 2009, a Federal Reserve Bank of Boston study released April 7 found (see report).

Fiserv Inc. is adding Cardlytics Inc.’s merchant-funded rewards program to its menu of online-banking services alongside Fiserv’s own UChoose Rewards credit and debit rewards program, the technology company announced April 4.

Consumers can check the balances of their health care accounts with new mobile applications that U.S. Bancorp announced April 8.

WASHINGTON – Jaws were dropping around Capitol Hill this week as CUNA President Bill Cheney began a tour of Senate offices with Camden Fine, head of the credit unions’ most virulent enemy, the Independent Community Bankers Association, to lobby for delay of the interchange rule. “Many in Washington know that credit unions and community banks do not see eye-to-eye on a number of key issues, but on this issue, there is no debate: The new interchange rules will have a devastating impact on the smaller financial institutions and their consumers/members we are proud to represent,” said Cheney of his teaming with the group that continues to fight increase in member business lending and for repeal of the credit union tax exemption. “We are more than willing to put aside our differences as an outward sign to Congress and the public of how crucial this issue is to our industries,” said the credit union figure. The CUNA figure and the community banking leader conceded that their efforts to lobby on behalf of credit unions and small banks are an important part of the interchange debate, where a handful of banks control an estimated 80% of the $20 billion a year in debit interchange. “The thousands of community banks and credit unions we represent want senators to know the truth—that the carve-out won’t work and will only harm Main Street by costing consumers more,” said Fine, of the exemption from the price caps the Federal Reserve is supposed to preserve for credit unions and banks under $10 billion. The credit unions and banks have joined hands with Visa and MasterCard, the two card giants they control, in a powerful Electronic Payments Coalition to fight the debit rule and have lobbied for a bill that would delay enactment of the rule for as long as two years.

Budget-tightening is prompting more state and federal agencies to expand the types of benefits distributed using prepaid cards, including unemployment and Social Security, as they look to reduce costs associated with cutting paper checks.