Commercial Cards & Regs
CardWeb.com’s CardData Reports today features the “Global Interchange Regulation: Pandora’s Box for Commercial Cards?” report by Mercator.
Debit Rewards
New research reveals that five years after the passage of the Durbin Amendment, debit rewards programs have rebounded such that 50-60% of financial institutions in the USA are offering debit rewards in one form or another.
CPI MC EMV Debit
CPI Card Group announced a new product line that supports MasterCard best practices for EMV debit card issuers in the U.S. CPI is targeting U.S. MasterCard debit cards.
Debit Card Challenges
Issuers of all sizes are experiencing downward pressure on debit profitability. This is a direct result of changes in the regulatory environment, changes in the competitive market, and changes in consumer preferences, a new Mercator report finds.
Retail Merchants Working With Payscout
The use of debit cards has traditionally come at a high price to retail merchants. Retailers have paid upwards of $48 billion a year in “swipe fees”, with nearly $17 billion of that coming from debit card transactions. (1) Transactions processed by debit card had required retailers to pay fees which then resulted in large…
MasterCard Announces EMV Personalization Validation
UL qualified its Collis EMV Personalization Validation Tool through MasterCard. Professional testing of personalized MasterCard EMV/PayPass cards is essential to ensure global card acceptance. In addition, debit MasterCard cards issued in the U.S. must support the MasterCard AID and the U.S. Maestro AID in order to fulfill unaffiliated network routing requirements mandated by Congress in…
Giesecke & Devrient Offers U.S. Debit EMV Solution
Giesecke & Devrient secure payment products and solutions developed and deployed an EMV solution that allows a debit card to meet Durbin Amendment requirements while supporting bank, merchant and consumer needs. As an active member of the Smart Card Alliance’s EMV Migration Forum (EMF), G&D was an integral force in these discussions. Following the EMF’s recommended solution and leveraging decades of experience in developing highly secure payment products, G&D’s EMV debit card products and services offer the most advanced payment deployment, providing extensive functionality to support all of the latest specifications from the major payment brands. A chip embedded in a card serves to provide a higher level of security when compared to present-day magnetic stripe only cards, protecting cardholder data and information stored on the chip. Unlike static magnetic stripe cards, chip cards contain an operating system and support dynamic authentication. Every transaction requires new values produced by the chip to be delivered. Utilizing chip card technology will be seamless to the customer, though they will now be able to execute EMV transactions using a debit card.
FIS Reins on U.S. EMV Smart Card Transition
FIS is furthering EMV production and transitions with its programs for more than 50 financial institutions over the last 12 months. Offering implementation and issuance programs for providers looking to upgrade to the EMV standard used across most of the world, FIS has taken a leading role in several EMV initiatives that support financial institutions, retailers, government entities and individual consumers. Through its NYCE Payments Network, FIS is one of 10 founding members of the Debit Network Alliance (DNA). A collaborative effort of 10 of the largest debit PIN networks, Debit Network Alliance is working to create a standard for EMV debit card processing that will meet Durbin Amendment rules and allow for an open and competitive debit network marketplace. Its Travel EMV Prepaid Card program allows banks to quickly and easily sell prepaid smart cards to customers without implementation costs.
NRF Asks Appeals Court to Uphold Lower Swipe Fee Cap
The National Retail Federation today asked an appeals court to uphold a judge’s ruling that the Federal Reserve set its cap on debit card swipe fees far higher than intended by Congress and that the cap needs to be recalculated at a lower level. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hold a hearing in Washington this morning on the Fed’s challenge of U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon’s July ruling that the 21-cent cap that took effect in 2011 was too high. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by NRF and other groups.
Open Market Flexibilty for ATM Routing
ATMIA has issued a position paper urging payment networks to work collaboratively with ATM deployers to retain open market flexibility in making routing choices. EMV migration is more complex in the United States where multiple networks exist and further confusion has resulted from court rulings on the Durbin Amendment. ATMIA retained Tremont Capital Group, Inc. (www.tremontcapitalgroup.com) to conduct a thorough analysis of routing choices.
Global Economics Group Shows Big Impact from Durbin Fee Caps
Economists at Global Economics Group released a new study examining the impact of the Durbin Amendment on consumers, retailers, and banks showing consumers will lose more than $22 billion as a result of the price caps on the interchange fees banks receive when consumers pay with a debit card. It also shows banks passed on…
NRF Applauds Swipe Fee Decision
The National Retail Federation issued the following statement from Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan on U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s decision that found that the Federal Reserve misapplied Congress’ intent when it implemented required swipe fees reforms:
“From the very beginning, retailers and restaurants knew the Federal Reserve Board of Governors had grossly misapplied the swipe fee law, also known as the Durbin Amendment. They failed to heed Congress’ call to set fee standards that were ‘reasonable’ and ‘proportional’ to the actual cost of a transaction. Instead, the Board manufactured a standard that was two to three times higher than the Fed staff recommended.
“As a result, small ticket transactions, such as those imposed on convenience stores and restaurants, skyrocketed under the misapplied law.
“Congress clearly told the Fed to introduce competition and transparency into the debit card marketplace by making multiple networks available, so as to reduce swipe fees for merchants and their customers. The Fed failed to do so, and the court rightly ruled against them as a result. Today’s decision is the first step in setting these initial wrongs right and will ensure that swipe fee reform is done correctly.”