Cards

Targeting underbanked consumers in the United States, US Alliance Group Inc. and Chexar Networks Inc. have launched a check-cashing product that enables consumers to deposit checks directly into accounts tied to MasterCard-branded prepaid cards, US Alliance Group announced on Dec. 15.

Australia’s ongoing migration to using chip technology on payment cards instead of magnetic stripes, which the country will complete in 2013, should reduce the country’s card-fraud losses, according to the Australian Payments Clearing Association, a self-regulatory body of the Australian payments industry.

Teens may be interested in receiving reloadable gift cards as holiday gifts, but parents have not been on board with the trend, suggest the results of a recent survey from BillMyParents, a provider of reloadable prepaid card for teens.

Contrary to expectations, the Federal Reserve Board’s draft report on debit interchange did not resolve the debate on the cost of fraud in card payments.

Many indicators from financial institutions, consumers and merchants suggest the United States payments industry is ready to adopt EMV chip-and-PIN technology, a new report suggests.

PMX Communities Inc. has deployed its first “Gold to go ATM” in the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton, Fla., the Boca Raton-based company announced Dec. 17.

Ten merchants have signed on to use First Data Corp.’s eGift Social system for sending virtual gift cards online, the Atlanta-based transaction processor announced Dec. 17.

For Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and competing payments networks, a more critical provision than interchange pricing remains unresolved in the Federal Reserve’s proposed debit rules.

Ingenico SA early Monday plans to announce its reaction to a nonbinding stock offer to buy the payment-terminal maker in a deal whose value could approach 1.34 billion euros (US$1.9 billion). The France-based company would not say who made the bid.

ATM manufacturers and operators saw a modest bump in their stock prices Dec. 16 following the Federal Reserve Board’s release of proposed rules that would dramatically restrict the interchange fees issuers receive for most debit card purchases.

Russian credit cardholders will spend 10% more this month on their holiday spending compared with what they spent last December, ZAO Citibank predicts in a Dec. 13 report.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board's proposal to restrict interchange fees on debit cards came out much tougher than expected on Thursday, causing one industry representative to dub it "horrendous" policy and spurring a stock drop at the two largest payment networks (see proposal).

Henry Gaillard, senior vice president of global operations at point-of-sale terminal maker Hypercom Corp., has resigned from the company, effective Dec. 13.

The promise of personal financial management is to provide account data in a single view — but not all viewers are single.

The 258 McDonald’s restaurants in Russia now accept bankcards, the fast-food provider’s acquirer Russian Standard Bank announced Dec. 13.

Merchant cash-advance company AmeriMerchant LLC says the hundreds of merchant-services sales offices working with transaction processor First Data Corp. will have an easier time selling AmeriMerchant’s services through an agreement announced Dec. 14.

Consumers again are spending with their credit cards to purchase discounted goods early in the holiday season, suggests First Data Corp.’s November SpendTrend payment card transaction analysis of all store sales activity that First Data processes.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has begun issuing Visa-branded prepaid cards to participants of a New York transit trial for disabled passengers, city transit officials announced Dec. 16.

Discover Financial Services is banking on a mobile future. Executives at the Riverwoods, Ill.-based company said during a Dec. 16 conference call with analysts to discuss its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that its deal with wireless carriers AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. will play heavily in its future.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board is considering a 12-cent fee cap on interchange fees for debit transactions as part of new regulations to rein in merchant costs of processing payments (see proposal).