Cards

The digital bank for small businesses is partnering with the financial software company Ramp to help its customers apply for corporate cards and access expense management and bill pay software.

Canadian merchants are now allowed to add a fee for Mastercard and Visa credit card transactions. But early indications suggest few will do so, fearing consumer backlash.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his New York counterpart, Letitia James, urged the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard and American Express to create a merchant category code for guns and ammunition stores. They argued that "all options must be on the table to remedy" the "scourge of gun violence" in the United States.

Customers can use the company's application programming interfaces to set up automatic bill payments and donations, block transactions that would break their budget, and more.

The retail industry, which wants the Federal Reserve to lower a decade-old price cap, has been complaining that higher prices for consumers mean heftier interchange fees. But banks are pointing out that the $10 billion-asset threshold below which financial institutions are exempt from the cap hasn’t been adjusted for inflation.

The U.K.’s Payment Systems Regulator will focus a pair of market reviews on the rising card fees charged by Visa and Mastercard. 

Brian Brooks, an acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency during the Trump administration, says the CEO of one of the largest U.S. banks considered barring customers from using its cards to buy firearms.

Last year, the Cleveland bank stopped providing cards to government benefit recipients in the Prairie State. During the first quarter, it reported a 23.8% decline in noninterest income from cards and payment services.

Bank of America expects 3% GDP growth this year and a 2% improvement next year, even in the face of rising rates. Consumers’ continued willingness to spend and borrow, which was evident in the bank’s first-quarter results, is a key reason for that outlook.

Bank-issued prepaid benefits cards were supposed to help state governments deliver these funds more efficiently. But the pandemic scrambled the economics of these programs.

A handful of snafus, some a decade old, shouldn’t tar an entire line of payment products that are a lifeline for many consumers and have helped millions of Americans access and manage their finances during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bank of America’s consumer clients made $294 billion of total payments last month, up 16% from a year earlier, as the U.S. economy continued its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Bank of America is under investigation in connection with its role as the administrator of a state program that was rife with fraud. The fiasco is one of several involving the prepaid card industry over the last 12 years.

The pandemic-era shift to digital payments gave prepaid cards a jolt worldwide. In Canada, the government's likely adoption of the cards for disbursing benefits and other payments could drive further growth as it did in the U.S.

Startups in the U.S. and Canada are emphasizing features such as virtual issuance and receipt capture in creating expense cards for business owners.

Merchants and banks have taken predictably opposing positions on a Federal Reserve proposal to increase competition among networks that route online debit transactions. But amid the hundreds of comments, it's those from supposedly neutral parties — the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission — that stand out.

Mos, a student financial-aid startup backed by investors including Sequoia Capital and the rap star Jay-Z, is venturing into banking.

The central bank wants financial institutions to enable additional routing options for online purchases, a change industry advocates say would strain the resources of smaller card issuers.

The Federal Reserve's decision to reexamine the Durbin amendment's Regulation II raises a host of concerns for banks and credit unions over the processing of purchases made online.

Stored-value cards are growing in popularity with underbanked gig workers who need an easier way to get paid as well as with younger consumers in Canada who have traditional bank accounts but prefer the cards for e-commerce transactions.