Cards

The Federal Trade Commission on June 28 asked a federal court to halt an international identity-fraud scheme that it says generated more than $10 million in fraudulent micropayment charges on U.S. consumers’ credit and debit cards.

New obstacles to speedy passage of the financial-reform bill emerged June 29 that likely will postpone a Senate vote on legislation that would reshape the debit card interchange landscape.

Suppose Congress approves the Dodd-Frank Act, and small issuers with less than $10 billion in assets are exempt from debit card-interchange rates the Federal Reserve Board eventually deems “reasonable and proportional.” How will merchants know whose debit cards are exempt?

The Federal Reserve banks will start offering same-day settlement for some automated clearing house transactions in August, but several major payments companies say there's no need for it.

With a July 1 deadline looming for new rules affecting overdraft protection programs, more than 700 financial institutions have launched such programs this year, although a substantial number have also exited the business, according to a new analysis.

Springbok Services Inc.’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing suggests the prepaid card market is beginning to enter into a period of uncertainty off the heels of new government regulation and slimming margins, observes one analyst.

Consumers in Qatar now may pay their water and electricity bills at ATMs deployed by Qatar National Bank, according to a spokesperson for Kahramaa, which also is known as the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corp.

Citizens of Myanmar soon will be able to obtain and use bankcards for the first time, according to local media reports.

MasterCard Worldwide has promoted Ajay Banga, president and chief operating officer, to chief executive officer, effective July 1. Banga also was named a member of MasterCard’s board of directors. Banga succeeds Joseph W. Selander, who will become executive vice chairman until his retirement on Dec. 31. MasterCard also promoted Alfredo Gangotena to chief marketing officer from global products and solution lead for MasterCard in Europe. Gangotena replaces Lawrence Flanagan, who is retiring.

With Congress expected to approve the regulatory reform bill this week, including the much debated interchange amendment, banks are bracing for a significant hit to their debit card revenue.

A year or so from now, merchants likely will be paying less to accept debit cards, and financial institutions will be earning less revenue issuing them. And some issuers may have to reacquaint themselves PIN-debit brands not associated with Visa Inc. or MasterCard Worldwide.

MasterCard Worldwide June 24 launched an initiative dubbed MasterCard Partners in Prepaid designed to strengthen its partnerships with various prepaid card industry players.

Visa Inc. says it intends to work with merchants that fail to meet two July 1 payment-security deadlines.

RBS WorldPay Inc. recently selected GDS Link LLC’s technology with the goal of improving portfolio segmentation and helping identify fraudulent merchant fraud identification, Dallas-based GDS Link announced.

National Australia Bank Ltd. plans to roll out software technology first introduced by its subsidiary Bank of New Zealand Ltd. that is designed to reduce card fraud. The technology works by changing numbers on a card's magnetic stripe each time a transaction occurs at an ATM.

When final debate on the financial reform bill ended in the early hours of June 25, the new rules surrounding debit card interchange stood unchanged, beyond a few key carve outs announced June 21.

Issuers appear to have lost the battle with retailers over debit card interchange fees, but that does not mean they can't compensate, at least in part, for declines in revenue.

Card issuers’ potential losses from impending debit-interchange legislation could range from as low as $5 billion to more than $10 billion annually, a PaymentsSource analysis based on industry observers’ projections shows.

The pace of payments-executive recruitment is increasing again after a long lull caused by the economic downturn and overall industry uncertainty, according to top payments executive recruiters.

Co-op Financial Service June 23 announced it is testing software it developed on an NCR Corp. ATM that supports multiple functions across different institution platforms.