Cards

Green Dot Corp., which last month became the first major prepaid card company to go public, posted a 44% jump in operating revenue in the second quarter.

Imposing a fee on debit cards would drive many consumers back to cash payments, according to a report released Thursday by Mercator Advisory Group.

A security vendor is trying to sell transaction monitoring services directly to consumers, a technology that until now has been offered primarily to banks.

The largest U.S. card issuers could lose more than $2 billion annually in debit card-related revenues from the combination of new regulations cutting into overdraft fees and pending debit-interchange regulation, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research.

The newest updates to the PCI Data Security Standard and the Payment Application Data Security Standard consist mostly of clarifications and additional guidance, says Bob Russo, general manager of the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council that oversees the standards.

Newspaper publishers are recognizing consumers are using less cash and are making a move toward accepting plastic at vending machines.

Singapore American School has selected The CBord Group Inc.’s CS Gold one-card program to manage the school’s card program that also will meet the needs of Singapore’s contactless marketplace, the Ithaca-based company announced July 27.

The ramifications of a federal court's order for Wells Fargo & Co. to repay $203 million in overdraft fees (see story) extend far beyond the price tag one company has to pay for its California operations.

A unique merchant-funded cardholder rewards program just got a powerful new marketing channel — and, thanks to regulatory reform, a stronger pitch to make to banks.

KeyBank is offering customers text-based banking services through Fiserv Inc.'s Mobile Money program, the Brookfield, Wis., bank technology vendor said Wednesday.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ramped up pressure Wednesday on the banking industry to curb overdraft fees, releasing proposed guidelines that would go beyond recent Federal Reserve Board rules.

Israel Postal Company Ltd. plans to launch Visa debit cards in the first quarter of 2011, adding to its existing banking operations, an official from Israel’s national postal service tells PaymentsSource.

Wells Fargo & Co. must pay more than $200 million in restitution to California banking customers for deliberately manipulating debit card transactions in order to trigger overdraft fees, a federal judge ruled on Aug. 10.

Though no independent industry data exist to support the notion that “virtual” gift cards are on the rise, internal research from prepaid companies suggests consumers more often are opting for the product’s convenience instead of plastic.

TechProcess Solutions Ltd. will provide online-payment services to customers of Standard Chartered Bank India under a deal the Mumbai-based company announced last week.

Thailand’s Bangkok Smartcard System Co. Ltd. has inked a partnership deal appointing Vix Erg Pty. Ltd. as a partner in the design and delivery of a smart card clearinghouse service for micropayments, the Australia-based technology vendor announced last week.

Mirroring the explosive growth of the prepaid debit card market, Green Dot Corp. had 3.4 million active cards as of March 31, doubling the 1.7 million it had a year earlier, PaymentsSource data show.

Apriva, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based wireless-payments company, says it is working with MWJ LLC, an Atlanta-based vending-machine operator, on cashless vending services at 48 vending machines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Now that they can do so without violating contracts, merchants are expected to more aggressively steer customers toward less expensive payment methods in the coming months.

First Data Corp.’s formation of the Banc of America Merchant Services LLC alliance with Bank of America Corp. in June of last year is paying dividends for the transaction processor.