New consumer credit card accounts added by Wells Fargo in the fourth quarter (4Q/16) nose-dived by 47% year-on-year (YOY) reflecting reduced marketing activities and customer reaction to the sales practices settlement, according to CardData. Consumer credit card purchase dollar volume (PDV) was up 6.9% year-on-year (YOY) as purchase transactions (PTX) rose by 10.2% for 4Q/16. The…
New research reveal the number of new credit card accounts (those opened in the previous 24 months) rose 10.7% year-over-year to 87.3 million, with subprime account openings growing the fastest with 27 million new accounts. Subprime accounts remain well below pre-recession levels, comprising 20% of total accounts – roughly equal to 2012 – while prime…
The number of identity fraud victims increased by 16% in 2016 to 15.4 million U.S. consumers. A new study found despite the efforts of the industry, fraudsters successfully adapted to net two million more victims this year with the amount fraudsters took rising by nearly one billion dollars to $16 billion. The 2017 Identity Fraud…
Visa reports the number of EMV (chip) cards in the U.S. nearly doubled in 2016, topping 408 million payments cards. Of the 408.1 million Visa chip cards circulating in the U.S., 188.7 million are credit cards and 219.4 million are debit cards. There were nearly 1 billion Visa chip transactions in December, a 310% annual…
A new report reveals ride-sharing services are now allowed by one-half of all corporate travel policies, a jump from 44% in June 2016. As policies expanded to include ride-sharing suppliers, such as Uber and Lyft, ridership among business travelers increased 21%. A majority of travelers anticipate using these types of services about the same amount…
Seattle-based Blueprint Registry announced its credit card processing fee is approximately 5% less than their competitors, at 2.5%. In addition, Blueprint Registry also announced the launch of two new features that allow users to aggregate existing registries into one account: one-time import and automatic import. The one-time import feature allows customers who have previously created one…
Regulated cannabis sales in North America totaled $6.9 billion in 2016, a 30% increase from the previous year, and sales are projected to grow to $21.6 billion by the year 2021, which represents a 26% compound annual growth rate. Voters in four states – California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine, voted legalize recreational Cannabis this November.…
RwandAir has partnered with Wirecard for its online card payment processing services. Wirecard will enable customers that wish to book their flights online to pay with Visa, MasterCard, Diners/Discover, JCB, China UnionPay or Maestro cards. The Wirecard Group supports all sales channels with credit card acceptance. Wirecard is a principal member of Visa and MasterCard,…
Vantiv is now offering CardFlight’s SwipeSimple mobile POS solution to its merchants. SwipeSimple is a turnkey mobile payment acceptance platform that includes an EMV-enabled mobile chip card reader, a mobile application for iOS and Android, and a back office reporting portal for business owners to take payments and manage their business. The solution will be…
Prepaid card king Green Dot has inked a deal o acquire UniRush. The Company’s operating businesses include the RushCard, an online direct-to-consumer general purpose reloadable prepaid card provider, and Rapid! PayCard, a corporate payroll card provider. The acquisition, which maps to “Step Five” of Green Dot’s “Six Step Plan” to enhance shareholder value, materially expands…
Dallas-based Alliance Data Systems (ADS) reported fourth quarter (4Q/16) year-on-year (YOY) profits sunk due to new legislation in Ontario prohibiting the time-based expiration of reward points associated with all loyalty programs. The cancellation of its 5-year expiration policy necessitated a change in ADS breakage estimate, according to CardData. ADS reported gross revenue rose 4.5% YOY…
A new research report says biometrics will take over passwords the next ten years. The Mercator Advisory Group titled Biometrics: A Market Forecast for Consumer Adoption provides predictions out to 2025 for the penetration of the U.S. market by mobile devices that implement the hardware required to support biometrics, the market availability of persistent biometrics…
