Cards

In a move that will certainly cause friction across the card payments industry, Amazon announced a new service called Amazon Prime Reload, which incentivizes newcomers to the program to load funds using a debit card or bank account with a 2% cash back on purchases.

Fintech is full of payments technology ideas in search of a mission, and Wholesome Wave, whose mission is to improve low-income consumers’ nutrition, has searched for years to find a better way to reimburse its constituents for buying healthy food.

Consumers who use person-to-person payment apps are twice as likely to hold a prepaid card, but the two payment methods are not always interchangeable.

Android Pay achieved a broad and rather sudden rollout in Canada this week when the nation’s domestic debit network, Interac, announced its support for the mobile payment service days after Google officially launched Android Pay there.

Apple’s announcement of its upcoming launch of P-to-P capabilities was no surprise. But the details should come as a shock to many of the banks that have bent over backwards to support Apple Pay on Apple's strict terms.

Biometric scans provide security and convenience, but still carry risk that requires additional technology, writes ValuePenguin analyst Robert Harrow.

Contactless cards are becoming the global standard for most markets except in the U.S., where tap-to-pay card distribution lags far behind the rest of the world, according to the Smart Payment Association (SPA), a Munich-based organization that tracks global card manufacturer data.

Netspend is focusing on "overlooked and emerging segments" to expand its prepaid card services, according to company president Chuck Harris. And it's making some very unconventional alliances along the way.

Gift card marketplace provider Raise is launching a mobile wallet for gift cards to turn them into somewhat of an alternative currency.

Nigeria-based United Bank for Africa (UBA) has introduced a Mastercard debit card available via instant-issue at its branches in Cameroon in a new phase of its push to expand debit usage throughout Africa.

Unlike some other family spending tools in which parents dictate what their children can spend on prepaid cards, Malauzai Software and payment technology provider Vantiv are delivering an application that encourages users to let the child decide what to spend.

U.S. payment companies frustrated by Chinese regulations blocking direct access to its vast consumer market could get a break under the terms of a new U.S.-China trade deal.

Digital wallets are maturing, meaning card plays will increasingly resemble Chase Sapphire, targeting a specific higher end demographic, writes Alyssa Arredondo, director of financial vertical marketing at Entrust Datacard.

Visa and Cambia Health Solutions, a Portland, Ore.-based health care technology company, are teaming up to offer consumers health care reimbursements directly through debit cards, instead by check or bank transfer.

Republican leaders acknowledged that they will not be able to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn the CFPB's prepaid card rule.

The Pasadena, Calif., firm also reported growth in the number of active prepaid cards for the first time since the second quarter of 2015. Profits rose by 24%.

The Durbin Amendment is on the chopping block , which could reverse years of savings for merchants and consumers.

Using mobile apps to control payment cards has become a popular security option among issuers.

The card network and the aid organization have also worked together in China and Myanmar.

While approval is likely in the Republican-dominated House, a Senate bill needed for the plan to become law would face a tougher path because the party’s narrower majority in that chamber.