Cards

As several banks test consumer response to higher ATM fees, the evidence is growing that financial institutions are getting bolder about exploring new sources of revenue as other channels threaten to dry up.

Online Resources Corp.'s shares fell more than 30% Wednesday morning after the banking technology vendor announced it turned its back on an unsolicited acquisition bid and reported a disappointing first-quarter earnings forecast.

WASHINGTON – Credit union and bank lobbyists hope to convince senators who voted overwhelmingly for last year’s Durbin amendment on debit interchange and may have buyer’s remorse to change their vote and approve a proposed delay.

Visa Inc. is making a bigger play in person-to-person payments by teaming with CashEdge Inc. and Fiserv Inc. for new options in money transfers to and from Visa cards.

SAN FRANCISCO – Visa announced this morning it will be offering its card holders person-two-person money transfers through their credit union or bank in the coming months. The cards company said it is launching its own P2P offerings through separate deals with Fiserv’s ZashPay and CashEdge’s Popmoney. “This is a milestone for Visa. We are extending the utility of our global network from payments at the point of sale, to payments among individuals," said Matthew Dill, global head of personal payments and digital money transfer at Visa Inc. “The exact same Visa card you pull out of your wallet to make purchases at the point-of-sale can now be used to receive a payment from a friend or family member,” said Dill. “For fifty years, Visa has worked to simplify payments; we are now evolving our network capability to make it easier for our cardholders to pay one another.” The new Visa personal payments service was made possible through technical enhancements to VisaNet, Visa’s global payments processing network, and through the introduction of a new Visa transaction type that allows financial institutions to accept incoming funds. Through the separate agreements, CashEdge and Fiserv will have access to VisaNet, enabling them to integrate the Visa personal payment service into their respective person-to-person platforms - Popmoney and ZashPay. This will allow a participating credit unions’ and bank’s customers to send money directly to a Visa account. More than 700 financial institutions have signed up to offer ZashPay, and the service is already live at 500 credit unions and banks. Popmoney is currently deployed at more than 170 leading U.S. financial institutions, including five top 20 US banks. The service provides support for text messaging, WAP and downloadable mobile applications. The first U.S. financial institutions are expected to make Visa personal payments available to their customers through CashEdge and Fiserv by the second half of 2011.

Federal Bank Ltd. has become the latest bank to join the interbank funds-transfer service the National Payments Corp. of India launched last year, a spokesperson for the Kochi-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

Visa Inc.’s continued push to promote its card products in Latin America and the Caribbean region helped produce considerable growth for the company, as sales volume rose 28%, to $270 billion from $211 billion in 2009, according to the card brand.

WASHINGTON—The banking industry saw the first tangible signs of progress March 15 in its fight to overturn the Durbin amendment, as House and Senate lawmakers officially introduced bills that would delay implementation of a plan to restrict interchange fees on debit cards.

Payments-industry representatives rushed to throw support behind legislation introduced March 15 in the U.S. Senate that would delay implementation of new Federal Reserve Board rules that would cap debit interchange beginning this summer.

PayPal Inc. has paid LML Patent Corp., a wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of LML Payment Systems Inc., $7.5 million to settle a patent dispute that stemmed from an infringement complaint involving 19 other financial institutions, LML announced in a press release.

Major credit card networks on March 14 announced they are waiving interchange fees charities otherwise would pay card issuers on donations cardholders make to provide support for Japanese relief efforts in the wake of the devastation caused by last week’s earthquake and tsunami.

Google Inc.’s interest in Near Field Communication technology might be more about advertising than establishing its own payments network, observes one analyst.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Durbin issued a rapid response to today’s introduction of a bill to delay his debit interchange amendment: No. “Every month we delay limiting the amount banks and credit card companies charge merchants means another $1.3 billion bailout for Visa, MasterCard and their big bank allies,” said the Illinois Democrat, who is assistant Majority Leader of the Senate. “The $13 trillion banking industry doesn’t need another handout - especially one paid for by small business and American consumers. I will strongly oppose any attempts to line the pockets of the credit card giants and Wall Street banks by delaying this common sense, pro-consumer legislation.” A Durbin representative told the Credit Union Journal he doubts today’s bill, which would delay implementation of the interchange amendment for two years, will even get a vote on the floor of the Senate, where Durbin is an influential player. “Each month,” said Durbin, “card companies like Visa and MasterCard require small businesses, merchants, charities, universities and government agencies to pay more than $1.3 billion in non-negotiable debit interchange fees to the banks that issue debit cards. Of the $16.2 billion in annual fees, half is estimated to go to just ten giant banks. Interchange fees are fixed by Visa and MasterCard on behalf of their big bank allies. There is no competition in the interchange market and the Visa and MasterCard duopoly continues to raise fees which are passed on to consumers in the form of higher retail prices for gas and groceries.” Durbin’s remarks came just two hours after a bipartisan group of Senators, backed by credit unions and banks, introduced a bill to delay the July 21 implementation deadline of the interchange amendment, which would slash fees charged merchants by credit unions and banks by as much as 70% and open the market to new competition.

WASHINGTON – Senator Jon Tester will introduce a bill later today that would delay implementation of the controversial rule on debit interchange for as long as two years while NCUA and bank regulators study its impact on credit unions and community banks, with a similar bill to be introduced later in the House.

Dm-drogerie markt GmbH + Co. KG, one of the top two drugstore chains in Germany, is deploying more than 3,700 Hypercom Artema Hybrid payment terminals at its nearly 1,200 retail outlets nationwide, terminal maker Hypercom Corp. announced March 15.

A leading consumer group filed a brief in federal court calling for the judge to reject the pleas by credit union and bank groups to block implementation of the Durbin amendment on debit fees, saying consumers will benefit from regulation of the $20 billion-a-year market.

WASHINGTON – Senator Jon Tester will introduce a bill later today that would delay implementation of the controversial rule on debit interchange for as long as two years while NCUA and bank regulators study its impact on credit unions and community banks, with a similar bill to be introduced later in the House. The Montana Democrat’s bill sets up a showdown with Assistant Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin, the Illinois Democrat responsible for the interchange amendment in last year’s Wall Street reform bill. Durbin’s intransigence on the issue means that supporters of the delay will probably need 60 Senate votes to overcome a Durbin filibuster–a steep requirement because Durbin’s interchange amendment easily passed the Senate last spring by a 64-to-37 vote. A separate bill being drafted in the House would also delay the interchange rule but for a year, not two, while regulators, including the Federal Reserve, NCUA, FDIC, Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency study two aspects of the provision: the costs associated with debit transactions and the effect of the Fed’s proposal on consumers, merchants and card issuers, and the network exclusivity and routing reqirements. The two bills come as time is running short to stop the interchange amendment, as the Fed is required to approve a final rule by April 21 and implement it by July 21. Credit unions and banks have mounted opposition to the rule–engineered by the powerful merchants lobby–which would cap fees on debit interchange to as little as 12 cents per transaction and open the debit market to new competition by setting new requirements for routing and network exclusivity. The stakes in the battle are enormous, with merchants paying credit unions and banks $20 billion a year in debit interchange, some $2.5 million alone to credit unions.

Union Bank of India Ltd. has released a request of proposal for the outsourcing of installation and maintenance of 1,000 ATMs.

Diebold Inc. will manage more than 1,100 ATMs in India under an agreement with Axis Bank Ltd., the country’s third-largest private-sector bank, the ATM maker announced March 14.

International energy company National Grid PLC has begun offering electronic bills to its U.S. customers through Fiserv Inc.’s e-Bill Distribution system, the companies announced March 14.