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Visa, Returning to Old Ways, Squelches Competition in Debit

6/26/12 Bank Think

Imagine that a gas station was so large in its local area that virtually all motorists had little or no choice but to purchase some of their gas from it. Now imagine that this dominant gas station instituted a monthly access fee for the right to purchase gas at its stations that drivers must pay no matter how much gas they buy from that station. And then imagine that the gas station gave motorists the ability to offset the access fee, but only if they buy as much gas as possible from that station.

Google Focuses on Digital Goods with New Mobile Wallet Pricing

6/28/12 BTN

Google (GOOG) announced revisions to its mobile wallet that make it a more palatable choice for the sale of digital goods. One of Google's additions, a recurring billing option, echoes a change Facebook (FB) made to its digital payment system this month. Facebook's payments revenue comes primarily from the sale of digital items within the games and apps that run on its social media site, and its updates give merchants more flexibility in how they set prices.

Q&A : ISOs Should Align With Google And PayPal, Says Donna Embry

6/28/12 ISO & Agent

Donna Embry, senior vice president of strategic development at Payment Alliance International, has been with the firm since 2006. Embry is also the incoming president of the Midwest Acquirers Association. ISO&Agent Weekly recently sat down with Embry to get her views on what’s ahead for the industry. Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges to ISOs? A: One of the biggest challenges is trying to keep up. The industry is rapidly changing and expanding, and there are so many different paths that payments can take so it’s very complex for an ISO to keep up.

ISOs, Processors Start to Prepare for a Future of Chip Cards And Mobile Wallets

6/28/12 Digital Transactions

With EMV chip card payments coming and mobile wallets using near-field communication already here, merchant acquirers are beginning to roll out their own hardware and software to handle the new technologies. This week, the big merchant acquirer Chase Paymentech introduced its “Future Proof” point-of-sale terminal and earlier this month, Merchant Warehouse, an independent sales organization, unveiled a service called “Genius” that includes a terminal and software platform for processing card and mobile-wallet transactions.

Google Launches Nexus 7 Tablet, Jelly Bean and Spherical Nexus Q Device for Home Use

6/27/12 ComputerWorld

As expected, Google on Wednesday announced a $199, 7-in. tablet called Nexus 7 that will run on Android 4.1, a.k.a. Jelly Bean. Built with Asus, the tablet can be ordered starting today on Google Play, and will ship in the U.S. and three other countries in mid-July, Google said. Google described the tablet as principally a conduit for Google Play, its cloud-based repository for Google apps and movies, books and other content. Nexus 7 is "built for Google Play."

U.S. First-Quarter GDP Growth Stays at 1.9%

6/28/12 NY Daily News

The outlook for the economy is only getting cloudier. The Commerce Department on Thursday stood by its earlier estimate that the economy ran at a 1.9% pace in January through March. But the details were less encouraging: Consumers were tighter with their cash early this year than previously thought and exports were slower. Consumer spending is a key to the economy’s pace, powering about 70% of growth. In the first quarter, it rose just 2.5%.

Report Says Debit Card Reform Holds Down Consumer Prices

6/28/12 The GreenSheet

Consumers are the winners from reform of the debit-card market. As the fees banks charge merchants to process debit-card transactions fall, the authoritative Moody’s Investors Services reports, “we believe retailers will use [the savings] to help shield customers from the impact of [other] rising costs.” The report says the savings from debit-card reform will especially help retailers whose profit margins are only a few pennies on the dollar to hold prices down as their other costs rise.

Mobile Payments Growth May Require New Rules, CFPB Official Says

6/28/12 Bloomberg

The U.S. government may need to develop rules to keep pace with rising use of mobile-payment systems, a Consumer Financial Protection bureau official told lawmakers in a statement prepared for a hearing tomorrow. “To the extent that technology companies begin to play roles traditionally performed by banking institutions, we may need to reconsider how well our existing regulations apply to a changed environment,” Marla Blow, the bureau’s assistant director for card and payment markets, said in a written statement for a House Financial Services subcommittee.

Revel Systems Debuts An iPad Point-Of-Sale In A Box

6/28/12 Tech Crunch

Revel Systems, an iPad point-of-sale company backed by $3.7 million in funding, is introducing a new hardware product designed to take the place of an Ethernet router. The “Revel Router,” as the device is being called, is an Apple-certified “made for iPad” technology that allows shops to run their POS through an Apple iPad. The router connects other components in a retailer or restaurant’s POS setup, too, including coin dispensers, barcode scanners, scales, kitchen display systems, kitchen printers, receipt printers, and more. And the company is selling the device as a package deal including an iPad, the router, peripherals, and POS software.

Discounts and Surcharges: Implications for Consumer Payment Choice

6/28/12 Federal Reserve Bank of KC

For the past several decades, payment card networks in the United States have employed rules that prevented merchants from steering customers toward payment methods that are less expensive for merchants to accept than network-branded payment cards. The payment card networks argue that these “no-steering” and “no-surcharge” rules, coupled with interchange fees, are important to achieve the right balance between consumer usage and merchant acceptance of their cards.

Prepaid Card Success Shows Consumer Ire at Banks

6/28/12 The Street

Are consumers lashing out at bank fees via prepaid cards? There's more and more evidence suggesting that's exactly what consumers are doing. According to Packaged Facts, a Rockville, Maryland-based publisher of market intelligence data, prepaid card volume will rise by 22.4% this year, reaching $247.5 billion, and up from $202.2 billion in 2011. Packaged Facts says consumers will make 10 billion transactions via prepaid cards this year.

Visa Joins MasterCard In Relegating PCI To An Afterthought

6/27/12 StorefrontBacktalk

Visa recently updated its Security Best Practices for Mobile Payments, and it is interesting to observe how it mirrors key elements of the guidance issued earlier by MasterCard. The good news is that it sends smaller retailers a consistent message on how best to take cards using their smartphones, tablets or personal digital assistants (PDAs). The less good news—at least from a QSA’s perspective—is that Visa seems to have joined MasterCard in relegating PCI to an afterthought.

The Costs of Complying with Dodd-Frank 1073

6/25/12 Portals and Rails

This week's post features an interview with Devon Marsh, senior vice president and treasury management risk manager at Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. We asked Devon for his thoughts on recent amendments to Regulation E as a result of Section 1073 of the Dodd-Frank Act.

24 Busted in Int'l Card Fraud Sting

6/27/12 Bank Info Security

In what is being called "the largest coordinated international law enforcement action in history directed at carding crimes," 24 suspects have been arrested in a fraud scheme likely involving more than 400,000 accounts. The news was announced June 26 by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Federal investigators say the arrests were the result of "Operation Card Shop," a two-year undercover program designed to locate, investigate and expose cybercriminals, as well as disrupt their card-fraud activities.

MasterCard and shopkick Join Forces to Provide Consumers a More Rewarding Shopping Experience

6/27/12 BusinessWire

Beginning today, MasterCard cardholders will have the ability to earn valuable rewards and special offers when making qualifying purchases with their linked MasterCard card at participating retailers across the United States. In a partnership announced today, MasterCard and shopkick, the largest real-world shopping app, offer cardholders the ability to earn kicksTM, a proprietary reward currency.

T-Mobile, Verizon Invest $100M More in Mobile Wallet Venture

6/25/12 Mobile-Financial

Wireless carriers T-Mobile and Verizon are reportedly teaming up to invest $100 million more in Isis, a joint venture that turns smartphones into mobile wallets. Called Isis, the project was launched with AT&T in November and will let customers pay for goods and services with their mobile phones. This newest investment could help Isis compete with Google Wallet, a similar venture rolled out by Google in May.

American Express Launches PAYVE®: A New Digital Service that Streamlines Corporate Payment Processes

6/25/12 American Express

American Express today announced the launch of PAYVE®: a new digital payment service that enables large and mid-size companies to centralize the processing of multiple payment methods through a single, easy-to-use electronic platform. Payment methods include check, ACH, international wire and American Express's web-based payment solution, Buyer Initiated Payments (BIP). PAYVE enables companies to improve working capital and cash flow management while streamlining accounts payable (AP) processes.

FEXCO and First Data Announce Dynamic Currency Conversion for ATMs

6/28/12 First Data

FEXCO, an Irish-based specialist provider of financial transaction processing and the originator of Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), and First Data Corporation, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing, today announced that the companies plan to launch FEXCO’s patented ATM DCC Solution in the U.S., Mexico and Australia.

NetSpend to Sell Prepaid Cards at 7-Eleven Stores

6/28/12 NetSpend

As part of its retail expansion plans, NetSpend Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTSP), a leading provider of general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid debit cards and related financial services, today announced that the PayPal Prepaid MasterCard® card is available at 7-Eleven, Inc.'s participating franchised and company-operated stores nationwide. 7-Eleven is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience retailing industry.

Heartland Payment Systems(R) Eliminates Fees From Acceluraid(TM) Debit Card to Ease Financial Burden on Higher Education Students

6/26/12 MarketWatch

In light of ever-increasing student college expenses nationwide, Heartland Payment Systems, has eliminated three separate fees from its Acceluraid electronic financial aid disbursement solution. Specifically being eliminated from the Acceluraid prepaid debit card fee structure are a $30 dispute fee charge, a $1 bill pay fee, and a 50 cent card-to-card transfer fee.

The Economic History of the Last 2,000 Years in 1 Little Graph

6/19/12 The Atlantic

That headline is a big promise. But here it is: The economic history of the world going back to Year 1 showing the major powers' share of world GDP, from a research letter written by Michael Cembalest, chairman of market and investment strategy at JP Morgan. I'm guessing that your first question, if you started scanning from the left, is: Wait, India was by far the biggest economy at the dawn of AD? Yup, India.