Cards

The Interac Association, which operates Canada’s sole PIN-debit network, is adding a contactless function to its EMV chip-and-PIN cards. Interac plans a national rollout in early 2011.

ABN Amro NV this week said it completed a “prepilot” of a contactless debit card designed for small-value transactions involving a small number of its employees. The Netherlands-based bank plans to start a broader internal card pilot to test the technology later this summer.

Millions of gift cards that are set to be destroyed under new Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act rules would be temporarily spared under legislation the House passed this week.

Jeff Peiffer was so frustrated that his bank didn't offer an app for his phone that he made one himself, put it online — and watched it become one of the top finance downloads for Android handsets.

The chief sponsor of the Senate’s interchange amendment creating price controls agreed yesterday to exempt all government programs from his provision, eliminating an argument being used by credit unions and banks lobbying against the measure.

Green Dot Corp., which plans to go public, disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month that it issued 2,208,552 shares of Class A common stock to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., sparking speculation the retailer is indirectly trying to gain a toehold in banking following failed attempts to do so three years ago.

Acculynk Inc. on June 16 announced that Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC’s Jeanie electronic funds transfer network later this year will support the company’s Internet PIN-debit payment service.

Mobile-payments firm RegaloCard LLC is bringing its card-based funds-transfer service to Canada. The Miami-based company announced June 14 a distribution agreement with SelectCore Ltd., a large prepaid phone card provider that services 5,000 Canadian convenience stores and other retailers.

Philanthropists in the United Arab Emirates soon will be able to use Dubai-based Beit Al Khair Society’s ATMs to make charitable donations, an official from the humanitarian services provider tells PaymentsSource.

Yandex Money Ltd. has launched a program to enable users of its online-payment service to deposit cash into their electronic wallets using credit and debit cards issued by any Russian bank, the Moscow-based company announced June 9.

(This story was corrected and updated on 6/21/10 a 9 a.m. CDT)

Visa cardholder spending in South Africa increased by 34% during the first quarter ended March 31, to $566 million from $423 million during the same period a year ago, according to an annual tourism outlook report Visa Inc. released this week.

Visa cardholder spending in South Africa increased by 34% during the first quarter ended March 31, to $566 million from $423 million during the same period a year ago, according to an annual tourism outlook report Visa Inc. released this week.

Citigroup Inc. is getting into the mobile shopping game with an application that combines card-specific offers with location-based details.

In the biggest independent lobby against the interchange amendment Navy FCU, one of three credit unions on the wrong side of the exemption from the amendment price-control provision, is calling on its 3.5 million members to urge Congress for defeat of the measure.

The traditional bank branch may be in line for an extreme makeover if Gene Pranger has his way.

Tune Money Sdn. Bhd. expects to increase its prepaid cardholder base by at least five times, to 300,000 cardholders, by the end of this year through various new marketing initiatives, a spokesperson for the Malaysia-based online financial-services company tells PaymentsSource.

Credit Saison Co. Ltd., one of Japan’s largest credit card companies, is in the process of deploying 250 ATMs to make it simpler for customers to pay back their card loans, an official from the Tokyo-based company tells PaymentsSource.

Banks in India increasingly are considering deploying so-called micro-ATMs to help increase their customer bases in rural areas.

Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Kenny Marchant, R-Tex. released a letter Monday with the signatures of more than 100 lawmakers urging conferees to drop the interchange provision from the final reform bill.