Cards

Achieving the coveted “top of wallet” status is tough for banks, not least because their own credit and debit cards often compete with one another for priority status with the same customers.

Achieving the coveted “top of wallet” status is tough for banks, not least because their own credit and debit cards often compete with one another for priority status with the same customers.

Over the past five years, the slow-but-steady rise of mobile wallets seemed to signal the end of the plastic card era. But that's not how things played out.

Banks such as TCF Financial and Citigroup are adding Near Field Communication to their EMV cards to address consumers' displeasure.

Engage Financial Technology, a provider of prepaid card programs for banks, healthcare providers, retailers and other organizations, has partnered with software provider Ensenta for a cloud-based approach to loading funds to prepaid cards.

Since the Dodd-Frank Act was passed in 2010, bank industry representatives have confidently predicted that the next year would bring significant changes, only to see their hopes dashed amid partisan divisions over proposed fixes. Until now.

In another move that furthers India's movement away from cash, police in Pune plan to initiate a cashless policy by the end of the first week of January.

The wheels are already turning on one of the biggest fleet card portfolio flips in North America, with South Portland, Maine-based WEX Inc. poised to take over in 2018 as the issuer of Chevron and Texaco fleet cards, replacing FleetCor Technologies, which is looking to make up revenue growth elsewhere.

Consumers, particularly younger people, are placing an importance on being able to obtain a plastic card in a branch and use it right away.

The large scale of the U.S. payment card market prompted many issuers to keep things simple by sticking with contact-only chip cards when they finally moved to support EMV, but now certain issuers are taking a new tack by adding Near Field Communication technology to their chip-enabled cards.