Competitive Strategies

It was an “I-told-you-so moment” Thursday morning for William A. Cooper, the outspoken chairman and chief executive of TCF Financial Corp. Cooper said many bankers dismissed TCF’s assertion that the Federal Reserve Board, in carrying out the dictates of the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law’s Durbin Amendment, would cut debit card interchange …

The drastic reduction in debit card interchange revenue mandated by the Durbin Amendment will be somewhat favorable for PayPal Inc., an official with the e-commerce processor’s parent company said on Wednesday. “In the short and the medium term, we believe it’ll probably be neutral to positive on our performance,” said …

Mobile payments are getting increasingly competitive, and this week the competition ratcheted up even more. Intuit Inc., maker of the QuickBooks accounting software for small businesses, is now offering a free credit card reader for smart phones to merchants using its GoPayment mobile service. Intuit also is waiving monthly service …

Following through on a tax-season initiative it announced last September, the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday launched a pilot program that could enable more than half a million low- and moderate-income individuals to receive tax refunds via prepaid cards. Next week, the Treasury Department will begin sending letters to 600,000 …

While the news in smart phones this week has been all about Verizon Wireless’s announcement that it will start marketing the iPhone next month, the news that may well be of more importance to mobile payments and mobile banking is the hot streak that Google Inc.’s Android operating system is …

Every corporate merger presents risks to the companies involved and their owners, employees, and customers. Leading U.S.-based point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc.’s planned takeover of smaller rival Hypercom Corp. is no exception: a recent regulatory filing detailing VeriFone’s merger plans devotes 26 pages to a host of risks. Of …

In an apparent effort to calm its smaller debit card issuers, Visa Inc. says it will develop a two-tier interchange schedule, one with regulated rates arising from the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law and the other with unregulated rates applicable to banks and credit unions with fewer than $10 billion in assets. …

As developers of applications for smart phone-based payments and incentives map their plans for what promises to be a breakthrough year in mobile financial services, evidence continues to pile up that they will have to reckon with a market split between three main operating systems. “The race for the lead …

United Bank Card Inc., a big independent sales organization that touched off the so-called free-terminal trend seven years ago, has begun offering merchants full-blown point-of-sale business-management hardware and software at no charge. It is also offering its outside sales representatives a $300 commission per terminal sold. Many merchant-acquiring industry observers …

Total System Services Inc. on Tuesday brought to an end a short-lived joint venture with First National Bank of Omaha by buying the 49% of FNBO unit First National Merchant Solutions LLC it didn’t already own. In the deal, TSYS paid FNBO $169.6 million for the remaining stake, implying a …