MasterCard charges customers for its payment-related services, primarily based on the volumes they generate on MasterCard-branded cards. MasterCard’s total revenues are largely a function of the number of transactions processed, as well as the gross dollar volume of purchases. Gasoline … Continue reading
As a result of the financial crisis and the sweeping regulatory changes that occurred over the past few years, banks face a crucial question: how to offer sustainable, reasonably priced products to millions of moderate- and low-income consumers. This consumer … Continue reading
BusinessWeek, and various other media outlets, are reporting that the Obama administration will be creating a new office in the Department of Commerce to oversee the government’s implementation of a national online identity ecosystem. A draft proposal entitled the National … Continue reading
More than 8 million consumers stopped using bank-issued credit cards in the third quarter compared to a year earlier, according to a report released Tuesday by credit bureau TansUnion.
Nearly two-thirds of internet users – 65% – have paid to download or access some kind of online content from the internet, ranging from music to games to news articles to adult material. Music, software, and apps are the most … Continue reading
The U.S. Federal Reserve has released its draft proposal for debit interchange rules and is now soliciting public comment. The Board is requesting comment on two alternative interchange fee standards that would apply to all covered issuers: one based on … Continue reading
A major Federal Reserve payments study released last week grabbed headlines for documenting a dramatic three-year increase in electronic transactions, but a closer examination this week by officials who worked on the report highlights a number of subsidiary trends in … Continue reading
There’s a new kind of plastic on the rise. Prepaid debit cards are the fastest growing of all electronic payments, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve System. U.S. consumers loaded $28.6 billion on reloadable prepaid debit cards … Continue reading
The Federal Reserve’s 2010 study of noncash payments released today revealed that “in 2009 more than 75% of all U.S. noncash payments were made electronically, a 9.3% annual increase since the Federal Reserve’s last study in 2007. This growth and … Continue reading
Closed-loop prepaid cards are growing more slowly than their newer, open-loop cousins, but recent numbers from big payment card processor First Data Corp. show the closed-loop sector still has plenty of life. First Data’s monthly SpendTrend report for October shows … Continue reading