Fintech

The Australian capital territory of Canberra plans to roll out the MyWay smart card ticketing system on its Action bus service starting Feb. 21, a spokesperson at the bus operator tells PaymentsSource.

Financial institutions and consumers will be able to more quickly detect and respond to fraudulent transactions and suspicious bank-account activity using a mobile-based fraud-management service ClairMail Inc. has developed, the San Rafael, Calif.-based company announced Feb. 17.

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed doubt this morning on the workability of exemptions for credit unions and small banks from the debit interchange price controls required under the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act.

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed doubt this morning on the workability of exemptions for credit unions and small banks from the debit interchange price controls required under the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act. Bernanke raised concerns about how the exemption for institutions under $10 billion will be enacted, noting that the market is likely to drive more transactions to lower-priced debit cards mandated for the institutions over $10 billion. “We are not certain how effective that exemption will be,” said the Fed Chairman during testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. “It is possible that because merchants will reject more expensive cards from smaller institutions or because networks will not be willing to differentiate the interchange fee for issuers of different sizes, it is possible that the exemption will not be effective in the marketplace.” Credit unions and community banks have argued that the exemption will force merchants to discriminate against their higher-fee cards, which will force the smaller institutions to charge the same, lower fee as large banks. Bernanke acknowledged that possibility this morning, saying "it's possible merchant will reject cards from smaller banks." Proposed rules unveiled by the Fed in December would limit fees for the biggest banks to seven to 12 cents per transaction, a 73% percent drop from the current 44-cent average. The stakes are huge for credit unions which earned an estimated $2.6 billion last year–well more than half of all their net income–from debit card interchange. Interchange for credit unions from debit transactions now exceeds by far all revenues earned on credit card transactions. Bernanke’s comments came the same time as the House Financial Services Committee was holding a hearing on implementation of the debit card provision, known as the Durbin amendment because it was sponsored by Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin. A credit union representative, Frank Michael, president of Allied CU of Stockton, Calif., was scheduled to testify, along with Sarah Raskin, one of the Fed’s seven Governors, and representatives from the banks, Visa and the merchants groups. WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed doubt this morning on the workability of exemptions for credit unions and small banks from the debit interchange price controls required under the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act.

NCR Corp. is adding a reporting tool to its ATM fraud software to help banks detect when the machines have been infected by a virus.

Visa Inc. confirmed Wednesday that it has retained counsel and said it is weighing its next moves in fighting debit interchange regulation, but it stopped short of specifying what strategies it might use in the weeks ahead.

Skimming crimes — and their costs — are rising.

In a warm-up for tomorrow’s Capitol Hill hearing on the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed debit-interchange rules, merchants’ representatives during a press conference today said that unless the rules are left unchanged, merchants might be forced to lay off employees.

Better-than-expected merchant reaction to Intuit Inc.’s offer of free card readers and no monthly service fees to small merchants using its GoPayment mobile-payments service has prompted the company to extend the offer indefinitely, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company announced Feb. 16.

Economic improvements are helping Heartland Payment Systems Inc., which reported on Feb. 16 that higher spending led to a small jump in fourth-quarter net revenue.