Cards

BBVA Compass’ decision to start issuing its own reloadable prepaid debit card eventually may help the bank earn revenue from cardholders who want to share an account with other individuals, including those living in other countries, one analyst observes.

PIN-based authorizations should be made compulsory for all debit and credit smart card transactions at the point of sale instead of allowing cardholder signatures to authorize transactions, a Reserve Bank of India committee is recommending.

The Federal Reserve Board’s decision to cut debit card interchange effective Oct. 1 will provide a “kick start” for growth at Global Cash Access Holdings Inc., but other events, including contracts with new casinos opening up, also with help drive revenues over the next 12 to 18 months, the company’s top executive told analysts Aug. 9 during a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings.

University Federal Credit Union plans to open branches that resemble modern airline terminals.

Mirroring its explanation for the previous quarter’s reduction in year-over-year revenue, Global Cash Access Holdings Inc. on Aug. 9 cited continued weakness in the gaming sector and consumer revolving credit and the loss of Harrah’s Entertainment’s casino business, the company’s largest customer, late last year as the chief attributing factors behind the company’s reduction in second-quarter income.

Instead of dipping its toe into the mobile-payments pool, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. intends to make a splash with a retail application that can enable a merchant’s employees to complete sales transactions anywhere in or out of the store.

Visa Inc. has introduced a series of incentives to spur the U.S. to adopt chip cards–a change once considered as likely as the country switching to the metric system.

Online retailers looking to reduce their number of declined transactions from different countries have a new tool available in their payments-processing kit.

One man has shared his Starbucks prepaid card with the world, allowing anyone to spend and reload it using a feature of the card that was once called a security flaw.

Visa Inc. plans to accelerate the U.S. migration to EMV contact and contactless chip technology, the card brand announced Aug. 9.

To garner a bigger share of the country’s lucrative payroll card market, India’s IDBI Bank Ltd. has begun offering a debit card that provides a line of credit when cardholders overdraw their account, the issuer announced Aug. 8.

Many of the bank customers responsible for the biggest overdrafts are not broke. They just happen to be big spenders. Now some banks are trying court them as potentially lucrative customers and reduce overdraft losses.

The private-equity firm buying Hypercom Corp.’s U.S. payment-terminal business says it has no plans to make any disruptive changes.

Cardtronics Inc. has expanded its ATM management services agreement with grocery retailer The Kroger Co., the ATM independent sales organizations announced Aug. 8.

WESTbahn Management GmbH has selected VeriFone Systems Inc.’s PAYware Mobile Enterprise and managed-services products for use with its mobile-ticketing validation and payment operations when the company’s rail service begins in December, the payment terminal-maker announced Aug. 8.

Banks may have trouble performing the higher degree of analysis required by new security rules for payments initiated online, but their options include retraining staff and training software that learns from customers' spending patterns.

JSC Federal Credit Union is the latest of a growing list of credit unions that have agreed to set aside funds to settle consumers’ claims the credit union violated provisions of the notification provisions of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.

Bangladesh is opening the door to accommodate more international electronic funds transfers and payments under a central bank move to allow the payment of fees for studies abroad using credit cards issued in the country.

Cardtronics Inc. cited six different factors that helped the ATM independent sales organization generate a second-quarter revenue boost to $147.3 million, up 10.8% from $132.9 million from the same period a year ago.

A resurgence in demand for online-billing services is helping fuel growth at Online Resources Corp., which is in the midst of restructuring its business.