• USA Technologies Inc. announced it will work with point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico to make Ingenico contact-EMV hardware available to providers of vending machines and other unattended terminals that use USAT’s network for contactless payments. • In related news, Mastercard Inc. said it is making its Masterpass digital wallet available for purchases …
Read More »TSYS’s Netspend Unit To Pay $53 Million As Part of FTC Settlement
Netspend, the prepaid card unit of processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), will pay $53 million as part of a settlement it reached with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations concerning how it handled some marketing materials. The settlement, announced Friday, calls for Netspend to set aside $40 million to …
Read More »Amends Made, Green Dot Appoints a Formerly Hostile Investor as a Board Advisor
Ten months after prepaid payments specialist Green Dot Corp. made amends with investor Harvest Capital Strategies LLC over a dispute about the company’s direction, Green Dot is adding a Harvest executive as an observer and advisor to its board of directors, the company announced Monday. Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot says Jeffrey …
Read More »As a Hostile Congress Tries to Axe Its Prepaid Rule, the CFPB Proposes a Six-Month Delay
Facing a Congressional effort to overturn its recently released prepaid rule, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday issued a proposal to delay the rule’s effective date by six months. In the 16-page proposal, the agency suggests moving the effective date from Oct. 1 of this year to April 1, …
Read More »First Data And Fleetcor Form a Venture to Consolidate Their Gift Card Businesses
Processor First Data Corp. and Fleetcor Technologies Inc. are forming a joint venture to consolidate their gift card businesses, First Data announced Monday. The joint venture, whose name was not released, combines First Data’s gift card business, digital gift-card provider Transaction Wireless Inc., and its Gyft unit, with Fleetcor’s Stored …
Read More »Green Dot Gets Set for a Major Role in Payroll Cards As It Prepares to Swallow UniRush
Green Dot Corp.’s chief executive on Wednesday hailed the company’s pending acquisition of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau <![endif]–> The company finished 2016 with $718.8 million in total operating revenue, up 3.5% over its 2015 revenue total. Net income for the year came in at $41.6 million, up 8% from $38.4 …
Read More »Retailers’ Late EMV Conversions Continued To Plague Blackhawk in Late 2016
By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The lingering impact of some retailers’ slow conversion to EMV chip card acceptance continued to plague prepaid card services provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. in the fourth quarter. Blackhawk reported late Wednesday that revenues fell short of its expectations in part because of a “continued EMV headwind” …
Read More »Congress Takes Aim at the CFPB’s Pending Prepaid Card Rule
By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The new Republican-controlled Congress and Republican President Donald Trump want fewer government regulations, and the politically vulnerable now that Republicans have full control of Washington. Republicans say the CFPB has imposed excessive regulations on the financial-services industry and that its director, currently Richard Cordray, is not accountable …
Read More »The CFPB Orders Mastercard, UniRush To Pay $13 Million for 2015’s RushCard Glitch
By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced a consent order that requires Mastercard Inc. and UniRush LLC, program manager of the prepaid RushCard, to pay $10 million in restitution to cardholders and a $3 million civil fine as a result of an October 2015 processing glitch …
Read More »Green Dot May Be Interested in UniRush and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• Bloomberg reported that prepaid card services provider Green Dot Corp. is in talks to buy UniRush, a smaller competitor co-founded by Russell Simmons, the music-industry entrepreneur behind the rap label Def Jam. • In another possible deal, U.K.-based accounting and payroll software firm Sage Group plc is mulling a sale of its U.S. …
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