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February 11 -
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Starting in March, consumers in rural Australia may pay more for ATM withdrawals than urban consumers, according to an analyst and a consumer-advocacy group. ATM owners on 3 March can start charging customers directly for using cash machines under rules changes imposed by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Under the current system, ATM owners typically collect those charges through consumers' banks, which can pass the costs on to their cardholders and impose their own fees. The revisions also require ATM owners to disclose the fees for using their machines before transactions occur. Backers say the revisions will lower ATM fees for many consumers through increased transparency and competition. The Consumer Action Law Centre, however, worries that ATM charges will be higher in rural areas because of the relative scarcity of cash machines outside cities. Peter Arnold, a financial analyst with Australia-based Canstar Cannex, tells CardLine Global he shares that concern. "In the city, there are often several ATMs within walking distance, so they will all need to charge a similar fee in fear of not getting used," he says. "In the country, an ATM may be the only one for a long way, so there would be nothing stopping [the owner from] charging a much higher price, as people will not have the option of walking elsewhere."
February 10 -
Consumers made transactions worth 8 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion or 905.2 million euros) using China's migrant workers debit cards as of 31 Dec., up 139.5% from 3.34 billion yuan as of the end of 2007, a spokesperson for China UnionPay, the payment card network that helps administer the program, tells CardLine Global. The People's Bank of China established the service in 2005 to enable migrant workers to deposit funds in bank accounts in cities where the migrants work. Accountholders can withdraw funds from rural credit cooperatives near their homes. Some 164 banks in China offer the service, which was expanded to Tibet last month, the spokesperson says. Workers using the service pay fees equal to 0.8% of the transaction amount. China has approximately 140 million migrant workers, Zhang Hua, a China-based banking analyst for United States-based Celent LLC, tells CardLine Global. Other card schemes charge transaction fees not much higher than what the migrant worker program charges, and this will make it difficult for the program to gain market dominance, he adds.
February 10 -
The collective credit card delinquency rate for the five major card issuers in South Korea–Samsung Card, BC Card, Shinnan Card, Hyundai Card and Lotte Card–was 3.43% at the end of 2008, a spokesperson from the country's Financial Supervisory Commission tells CardLine Global. Though the rate declined 36 basis points from 3.79% at the end of 2007, it rose by 15 basis points from 3.28% at the end of September, the commission says. The commission plans to publish complete statistics about delinquency rates for the country's major issuers in the coming weeks, the spokesperson adds.
February 10 -
Venyon Oy , which sells Near Field Communication technology, said Tuesday it is working with Kasikornbank, a financial institution based in Thailand, on an NFC-payment test. The bank launched the trial in Bangkok. Participants can use Nokia 6216 mobile phones to make retail purchases at about 1,000 merchant locations. Charges are applied to their credit card accounts, Finland-based Venyon says in a statement. Neither company said how many consumers are participating or how long the trial will last, and immediate comment was unavailable. Banks, card organizations, transit agencies, merchants and mobile operators globally are testing NFC for contactless payments, ticketing and data transfers, but wide rollouts appear at least a year away, mostly because of the lack of mobile handsets enabled with NFC chips. Finland-based Nokia Corp. and Germany-based smart card vendor Giesecke & Devrient established Venyon to manage NFC applications.
February 10 -
Two Visa Inc. veterans are running a payment start-up that uses the automated clearing house network to offer online merchants low-cost transactions.
February 10 -
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MasterCard Worldwide and France-based Accor Services have established a company that will focus on prepaid cards and payments in Europe, spokespeople from both firms tell CardLine Global. MasterCard will own 33% of the company, PrePay Solutions. Accor will own the rest. The venture will sell prepaid card services to corporations, public agencies, retailers and financial institutions, with MasterCard concentrating on offering prepaid cards to banks. Accor already operates PrePay Technologies, a subsidiary based in the United Kingdom that has helped issue 20 million prepaid cards and has electronic-money licenses in 17 European countries. Accor acquired the UK firm in 2007. "Prepaid is the fastest-growing sector in the payments industry," Javier Perez, president of MasterCard, said in a statement Tuesday. MasterCard and Accor estimate the value of the European prepaid market to be at least 130 billion euros (US$168.1 billion).
February 10 -
National Payment Card LLC, which offers an automated clearing house payment card to gas stations, says it hopes a nonbranded version will boost demand this year for the low-cost transaction format.
February 9 -
Sen. Robert Menendez, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, introduced sweeping credit card legislation Friday.
February 9 -
EBay Inc. has added Moneybookers USA Inc. as a payment option for its auction Web site.
February 9 -
