Cards

Anyone who has seen advertisements from Visa Inc.'s "Currency of Progress" campaign can't help noticing a stark contrast in its corporate message.

Hoping to tap an emerging market, Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and American Express Co. have been working to open their networks to third-party developers of software and smartphone applications.

High card-payment transaction costs are helping to keep the number of European vending machines that accept noncash payments low, Jürgen Göbel, chairman of European Vending Association’s cashless committee, tells PaymentsSource. The trade group represents 63 vending-machine companies and 20 national vending associations in Europe, where at least 3.8 million machines produced 2008 revenues of 13 billion euros (US$18.6 billion), the trade group says.

Luup International Ltd. plans to establish a mobile phone-based remittance service for the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, a spokesperson for the Norway-based payments provider tells PaymentsSource. The service will enable the approximately 500,000 Indonesians in the United Arab Emirates to transfer funds home.

So-called power moms–those who meticulously shop for their families–prefer to use debit cards or cash to pay for purchases instead of credit cards, according to CheapToday.com, a Web site that features sale offers from various large U.S. merchants. The site regularly polls its members about financial and retail-shopping issues, says Chris Hill, president and CEO. In a survey earlier this month in which 134 power moms responded, 43% reported using Visa check cards for their holiday purchases, while 14% chose to pay with debit MasterCards. Of the other respondents, 32% reported using cash or checks to pay, 3% reported using retail store cards, 2% reported using American Express cards, and 6% reported using other options such as gift cards and Discover card. Respondents supplied myriad anecdotal comments on why they chose using debit cards instead of credit cards, Hill says. “We got a lot of responses around the credit hangover everyone experienced in 2009,” says Hill, noting that shoppers were specific about singling out credit as an undesirable choice. “One person said used she used her check book and was trying to hard not to use credit this year, so there’s a very conscious movement away from credit.” Survey participants tended to use cash to control how much they spent this year, he says. “When they did use credit, there was a negative connotation. But people love debit cards,” says Hill. For example, one respondent said she “unfortunately” had to use credit cards to get by this year.

As consumers continue to seek ways to control spending in a troubled economy, expect debit card issuers to play a key role, according to Stacey Pinkerd, head of global debit products at Visa Inc. “We expect issuers will continue to focus on developing new, innovative rewards and loyalty platforms designed to increase usage, deepen relationships and to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” he writes in an e-mail to PaymentsSource.com.

No single market for new business surfaced in a recent survey of independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers. The survey findings, contained in the report from Aite Group LLC “ISOs and Merchant Acquirers: Two Sides of the Same Coin,” suggest ISOs and acquirers have different views on where they might find new card-accepting merchants.

Though as many as 46% of Americans are concerned with identity theft, banks that support efforts such as mobile banking should be cautious in how they communicate the issue to consumers, Susan Menke, behavioral economist at Mintel Comperemedia, tells CardLine in analyzing the results of an online Mintel survey of 2,000 Americans delving into their concerns about identity theft.

VeriFone Holdings Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based point-of-sale terminal maker, says the global recession forced it to trim its sales and marketing expenses by 19.7% this year compared with 2008, according to the company’s fiscal 2009 annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. VeriFone’s fiscal year ends Oct. 31.

NCR Corp.’s transition from a manufacturer of ATMs to a self-service technology company is becoming more evident with its expansion into the fast-growing self-service DVD-rental kiosk business.

Maureen Feeney Roser, an administrator for a Delaware merchant group, was not pleased with the administrative burden caused by the organization’s gift-certificate program.

In a move designed to gain entry into a rapidly growing prepaid-payments market, an Atlanta-based middle market private equity firm recently acquired Prepaid Solutions USA from West Suburban Bank Bancorp Inc. of Illinois and renamed it Prepaid Solutions Inc.

The payment terminal is about to become a point-of-sale entertainment center, as VeriFone Holdings Inc. prepares to expand the marketing engine it designed for taxicabs to large retailers.

Cardtronics Inc., which named Steven A. Rathgaber its new CEO Monday, paid him a $200,000 one-time signing bonus to lead the world’s largest ATM independent sales organization, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

NCR Corp.’s recent hiring of Richard Bravman as its first chief marketing officer offers more evidence that the company is transitioning from its traditional role as an ATM manufacturer to a technology company involved in a wide-ranging line of businesses.

The Indian state of Orissa plans to introduce an online-payment system for the payment of electricity bills, a spokesperson for Orissa’s State Power Ministry tells PaymentsSource. “While other states have such systems for electricity for consumers in the urban areas, no one has done (it) in both rural and urban areas like we will,” the spokesperson says. Power-distribution companies in Orissa have signed a memorandum of understanding to offer the service. Consumers with payment cards and Internet access would make payments through an Orissa Web site. Urban utility customers would be able to pay bills using credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards and online funds transfers, according to the spokesperson. Customers in rural areas would use biometric readers that read fingerprint algorithms to make payments from bank accounts. The state expects to deploy at least 5,000 biometric readers, the spokesperson says, noting the service for urban customers is scheduled to begin on Jan. 1 followed by rural service in February.

The Reserve Bank has granted a license to India One Stop Shop Group, a Mumbai-based company that sells rail and bus tickets and other products, to issue prepaid cards, a spokesperson for the firm tells PaymentsSource. The cards will carry the local Done Card brand, the spokesperson says. Consumers may use the cards to buy airtime for mobile phones; pay couriers, medical providers and utility companies; and buy insurance and legal services, the spokesperson says.

NCR Corp.’s transition from a manufacturer of ATMs to a self-service technology company is becoming more evident with its expansion into the fast-growing self-service DVD-rental kiosk business.

Tio Networks Corp. has Georgia on its mind.

When Brian Moynihan next week assumes control of Bank of America Corp., among other challenges he will face daunting new competitive pressure in the credit and debit card arenas. Moynihan, 50, on Jan. 1 becomes the nation’s largest bank’s president and chief executive officer, succeeding Kenneth D. Lewis, who is retiring.'