Cards

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission this week granted interim approval of an ATM-sharing deal between Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and Suncorp Metway Ltd. that will allow the institutions’ customers to access each other’s ATMs free of charge, an official at the regulator confirms.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate turned away the concerns of community banks, credit unions and the vast majority of Republican members this afternoon to vote final passage of the financial reform bill by a vote of 60 to 39, sending the measure on for President Obama to sign into law.

Visa Inc. announced July 15 the launch of the first phase of a national U.S. marketing campaign to increase the awareness of the benefits of using reloadable prepaid cards instead of cash.

Regulatory reform survived its last significant hurdle Thursday with the Senate moving to block further changes and hold a final vote on the bill.

The prepaid card market has come a long way over the past two decades, and T. Jack Williams has been there since virtually the beginning. As director of membership services at Blockbuster Entertainment, Williams played a key role in creating the world’s first merchant gift card program in the spring of 1994. He later went on to help launch the Kmart Cash Card in 1997 while at Stored Value Systems, at the time a division of National City Bank (see bio). This was the first merchant gift card that also included AT&T long-distance minutes.

San Antonio-based Firstmark CU announced a deal yesterday to place its brand on three Cardtronics-owned and operated ATMs in Costco warehouses located in the San Antonio area.

Iowa Republican Charles Grassley announced yesterday he will change his vote on the bank reform bill and vote no this time, but the Democrats still appear to have the 60 votes they need to overcome a planned filibuster by the Republicans when the Senate moves for final passage, expected as early as today.

Bank of America Corp. is charging some customers to receive their monthly statement in the mail, the industry's most aggressive move yet to encourage paperless banking.

The Senate has passed legislation delaying the implementation of some of the provisions of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, potentially avoiding the destruction of millions of gift cards.

SoftBank Telecom Corp. on July 5 began offering the first cloud technology-based transaction-clearing service in Japan, according to the Tokyo-based technology company.

Over the past two years, Acculynk Inc. has worked to become the industry standard for PIN-debit transactions on the Internet with its PaySecure product.

Merchants do not need to retain a full 16-digit card number to resolve a transaction dispute, despite demands from some acquirers and processors, according to Visa Inc.

Businesses of all sizes are increasing their use electronic forms of payment to help improve their cash flow, the results of a recent Aberdeen Group study show.

Barclays Bank PLC on July 8 launched an updated version of an account offering designed to give university students more control over their finances by enabling them to select their own overdraft limits and receive alerts when funds are low.

With the votes lined up, the Senate is set to vote as early as Thursday on financial regulatory reform. It would then go to President Obama, who is expected to sign the sweeping bill into law soon.

Fremont, Calif.-based Patelco Credit Union has become the first financial institution in the U.S. to launch Mobile Popmoney, which will enable Patelco's members to send an electronic payment directly to another person via an e-mail or text message from their mobile phone.

Monitise PLC, a United Kingdom-based provider of mobile banking and payments services, on July 13 announced plans to raise £32.4 million (US$48.6 million or 38.7 million euros) through the sale of company shares and a subscription by Visa Inc. that will raise the card brand’s shareholding interest in the company to 14.4% from 12.6%.

Merchants may pay recurring bills using a portion of their payment card settlement funds through PayFast, a service Integrity Payment Systems LLC launched earlier this month.

MOL Global Bhd. has inked a deal with Facebook to enable Asian consumers to purchase virtual goods, such as online games and applications, using the U.S.-based social network, the Malaysia-based online-payments provider announced recently.

The final vote on the massive bank reform bill is expected as early as this week, and despite the fact it is almost guaranteed to contain the Durbin interchange amendment bitterly opposed by credit unions, the battle is not over.