Prepaid cards

The U.S. shift to EMV — once considered as viable as the U.S. shift to the metric system — is well underway. Here are some of the latest signs of progress, as well as some of the biggest pain points.

Starbucks is prepared to launch a new Starbucks Rewards Prepaid Card with partner JPMorgan Chase, further strengthening its ongoing relationship with the bank.

Uber is starting a pilot program on Thursday in San Francisco for its service, called Instant Pay. Drivers in the program sign up for a bank account with Green Dot Corp.'s GoBank, which usually costs $8.95 a month but is free if drivers make a deposit at least once every six months.

Thames Card Technology Ltd. is providing the plastic payment card production for startup "challenger bank" Mondo in the U.K. to test a debit card paired with a mobile banking app.

A large investor in the prepaid card pioneer Green Dot plans to nominate three directors to the prepaid card company's board, as the activist investor group seeks to remove founder and Chief Executive Steve Streit.

German bank and payments provider Wirecard AG is issuing a new prepaid Visa card to consumers, calling it the first Simply One Visa product in the market to combine the functions of a traditional credit card with a V Pay debit card.

Quick service restaurants often have to make technology decisions faster than other restaurant categories, and the regional fried chicken chain Zaxby's is no exception.

Green Dot reported a larger fourth-quarter loss on higher employee compensation costs and said it will book an extra $11 million in expenses to roll out a new card product.

Silicon Valley companies like Marqeta, Stripe and Braintree cut their teeth on the open network concept, creating a place for themselves at the table of future embedded payments, instant card issuing or instant credit.