Prepaid Cards

Physical gift cards may want to look over their shoulders, so to speak. Digital gift cards are gaining ground, especially among younger consumers, finds new research from Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc., a Pleasanton, Calif.-based gift card specialist. Chief among the results is that 41% of Generation Z consumers, generally those …

A day long dreaded by the U.S. payments industry came and went on Monday with little fanfare and not much more gnashing of teeth. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s voluminous prepaid card rule finally took effect with sweeping provisions governing matters ranging from fee disclosures to error-resolution rights to consumers’ …

Huntington Bank launched the Zelle peer-to-peer payments service on its mobile and online banking service. Payment Data Systems Inc. said its FiCentive subsidiary will provide its Akimbo commercial prepaid Mastercard-branded cards to the Bowen Center, a behavioral-health company. Zapt, an on-demand platform that lets customers schedule household moves, said it …

Banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. is discontinuing its Chase Liquid general-purpose reloadable prepaid card and replacing it with a checking account called Chase Secure Banking, which has many of the same features but requires the customer to open a Chase bank account. Launched in 2012 and aimed mainly at …

The Federal Reserve announced the 22 members of its new Fraud Definitions Work Group, another component of its sweeping Payment System Improvement Project. The group, which comes from the banking and payments industries, regional Fed banks, and other organizations, will work with Fed leaders on recommendations for improving the quality …

Green Dot Corp.’s diversification from a pure prepaid card management company into banking and other financial-services niches is driving direct deposits into its card accounts and spurring revenue-generating payment volume, according to the company’s latest financial report. Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot said Wednesday that fourth-quarter purchase volume on its cards …

Cincinnati-based grocery giant The Kroger Co. has launched a proprietary mobile-payments service, Kroger Pay, and an accompanying Kroger Rewards debit card. Kroger Pay, available for iOS and Android mobile devices, is a quick-response code-based mobile-payment service, which also includes digital coupons and personalized offers. Kroger Pay, like some other retailer-backed mobile-payments services, …

E-commerce and payment-services provider Shopify Inc. said fourth-quarter gross payment volume hit $5.8 billion, up approximately 65% from $2.3 billion a year earlier. The net loss narrowed to $1.5 million versus $3 million in 2017’s fourth quarter. Merchant acquirer Elavon in partnership with American Express Co. unveiled a service intended …

The concept of push payments is finding favor among payments providers as two companies separately announce new disbursement services. Atlanta-based Repay said its Instant Funding service enables organizations to send funds directly to eligible Visa Inc. debit and prepaid cards via Visa Direct, the network’s real-time debit service. Repay’s lending clients, …

Elavon, the Atlanta-based merchant-acquiring subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, says it plans to hire approximately 500 employees globally over the next three years. Elavon currently employs more than 730 people in Atlanta and more than 4,500 worldwide. BlockChyp Inc., a payment software and gateway provider, said it completed Level 3 certification …