As consumers continue to seek ways to control spending in a troubled economy, expect debit card issuers to play a key role, according to Stacey Pinkerd, head of global debit products at Visa Inc. “We expect issuers will continue to focus on developing new, innovative rewards and loyalty platforms designed to increase usage, deepen relationships and to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” he writes in an e-mail to PaymentsSource.com.
Visa in the past year was involved in some of the technology innovation.
In November, the payment card brand announced the North American rollout of a service that enables issuers to send immediate mobile phone text-message transaction alerts to credit, debit and prepaid cardholders. With the service, issuers in the United States and Canada for the first time could notify cardholders immediately when they authorize specific types of transactions at the point of sale; previous transaction-alert offerings required transactions to clear and settle before issuers could alert cardholders (see story) (
U.S. Bancorp, which was among those involved in testing the service, now offers it to certain debit cardholders, according to Visa. Bank officials were not immediately available for comment.
Issuers also will seek other ways to strengthen their individual debit portfolios, Pinkerd says. “Data-driven portfolio analytics and segmentation will also likely be a key area of interest for issuers in the coming year, as they look for ways to increase penetration, activation and usage of debit products,” he says.
