Issuing/Originating

A new national survey of debit card holders indicates a significant portion of consumers would be inclined to punish retailers and banks if they imposed fees or tried to restrict the range of accepted payment products. When asked how they would react if a merchant no longer accepted their debit …

Bankers in the U.S. who bemoan the absence of a business case for smart cards may soon find one now that a massive rollout of chip-based credit and debit cards secured with personal identification numbers is well under way in the U.K., a British banker warned today. That's because fraudsters …

American Express Co. this Friday will begin adding more merchants in lower Manhattan in its test of radio-wave technology for payment transactions. Over the next several weeks, three quick-service restaurants near the card company's headquarters will begin accepting the card company's experimental ExpressPay RIFD keyfobs, which communicate with conventional card …

The National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) announced today a change in its rules that will require billers that use NACHA's increasingly popular electronic check conversion service at lockboxes to notify customers they may opt out of the service. The new rule takes effect June 11. It does not specify …

So-called bust-out fraud is an old credit card crime that's not going away, and currently it's responsible for about $800 million annually in largely unreported fraud losses. That sober estimate came this week during a presentation on worldwide transaction-system fraud given by John Schettino, MasterCard vice president for security and …

MasterCard International plans by the end of the year to have in place a program to certify instant card issuance activity in the United States. The bank card company is testing an instant-issuance certification plan in Brazil now, and is concerned enough about perceived risk in instant issuance that it …

In the wake of its groundbreaking announcement last week that it had signed up MBNA Corp. as the first U.S. bank issuer on its network, American Express Co. yesterday said the MBNA deal is non-exclusive and that it is actively pursuing such arrangements with “plans to form additional partnerships” in …

An ambitious multi-application smart card pilot launched late last year in Barrie, Ontario, is ready to move to its next phase, which will involve signing up 40 more merchant locations in February. Toronto-based Scotiabank, the issuer of the cards, will not release how many it has issued so far, though …

The highest delinquency rate ever seen on credit cards did little to dampen transactions on the cards during the critical holiday season. The American Bankers Association reports today that late payments on credit cards reached a record 4.09% of all accounts in the third quarter of 2003, up from 4.04% …

Visa may be offering its debit card issuers a little leeway with regard to its controversial service settlement fee by allowing them to switch their card portfolios to American Express or Discover without incurring any penalties. But some industry observers don't think the offer will make any practical difference to …