Global payment volumes continued to see growth in 2009, despite the financial crisis, according to initial data compiled by Capgemini U.S. LLC, the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, and the European Financial Management & Marketing Association in the 6th annual World Payments Report 2010. The report examines emerging payment trends and discusses the potential impact of payment-related regulatory initiatives on global banking. The study found that cards remain the preferred noncash payment instrument globally, accounting for over 40 percent of payments in most markets, 58 percent worldwide.

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As the holiday season approaches, PSCU Financial Services Inc. recommends prepaid incentive cards as a way for businesses to award high performing employees. Ron Silvia, Director of Debit, ATM & Prepaid Services at PSCU, said offering incentive cards is one way to board small businesses. "Small business owners are an especially attractive segment because they seek multiple services for their personal and business finance needs, including credit, debit and prepaid cards, online bill payment, checking, savings, and 401K retirement plans," he said.

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With 14 states and the District of Columbia on record with laws that permit the sale of medical marijuana, and another eight states awaiting the outcome of proposed legislation or ballot measures that would legalize medical marijuana, the movement toward decriminalization of medical marijuana appears to be gaining momentum. However, under federal jurisdiction, marijuana use in any context remains against the law.

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The Federal Reserve Board issued the official deadline of Jan. 31, 2011, when prepaid card providers must comply with rules that implement mandates prescribed by the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (the Credit CARD Act).

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MasterCard Worldwide recently introduced a chip-embedded card in Taiwan that functions as both a regular credit card and an authenticator for online banking money transfers. The SinoPac Display Card functions the same way a normal credit card does, except a chip embedded in the upper right hand corner generates one-time-use authentication passwords.

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Despite the recent troubles of its main issuing bank, NetSpend Holdings Inc. priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $11 per share on Monday, Oct. 17, 2010. It began publically trading its stock on the Nasdaq stock exchange the following day. Reports had the stock rising 18 percent on its Tuesday debut, climbing to $13.49 before closing at $13.

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A recent webinar hosted by Mercator Advisory Group discussed the spread and standardization of new types of online micropayments happening in line with a burgeoning market for virtual game-based digital content. In "Social Networks and Consumer Payments: Disruptions Ahead!", Patricia McGinnis, Director of Banking Advisory Service at Mercator, described the race between different online payment providers to reach a "critical mass" of adoption in the online gaming space that will allow them to also reach into mainstream payments.

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TCF National Bank, a subsidiary of TCF Financial Corp., filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Durbin Amendment. The suit claims Congress included the amendment without hearings in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, also referred to as the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the Durbin Amendment, the Federal Reserve Board has the authority to cap interchange rates on debit card purchases at a "reasonable and proportional" level commensurate with the processing costs incurred by issuing banks.

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Heartland Payment Systems Inc. published a set of guidelines called the Merchant Bill of Rights Payroll Act designed to promote fairness and transparency in payroll processing. It is an educational tool for merchants about all facets of electronic payroll and what they should expect from their processors, according to Heartland.

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On Oct. 12, 2010, MetaBank made public news that the Office of Thrift Supervision, a federal bank regulation agency, issued a directive for MetaBank to discontinue its iAdvance loan program. The program is offered to consumers through NetSpend Holdings Inc's prepaid cards.

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It's National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Do you know where your data is? (And who's reading it?) To advance data security knowledge, 3Delta Systems Inc. published a white paper titled Stopping Data Cyberthieves in Their Tracks.

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The PCI Security Standards Council released a paper that provides guidelines for payment players considering the implementation of a point-to-point encryption (P2PE) apparatus for protecting cardholder data. The paper is a general roadmap that discusses the use of P2PE solutions, including some of the technologies and methods involved in its implementation, the ways P2PE may reduce the scope of PCI compliance, the PCI standards that bear on P2PE solutions and the path to certification.

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The U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Management Service (FMS) and the U.S. Navy reported the completion of the Navy Cash Stored-Value Card rollout across the entire active Navy Surface Fleet. The last implementation occurred on the USS Frank Cable, FMS said.

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What is interchange? How can I differentiate between a signature debit card and a credit card? What's the difference between a card issuer and an acquirer? These are just a few of the questions the Electronic Transactions Association set out to answer for federal and congressional staffers at an Oct. 1, 2010, educational briefing on Capitol Hill.

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Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and seven states to resolve antitrust allegations involving the companies' U.S. card acceptance rules. The settlement will enable merchants to post the costs of different payment types and to incent various types of payment with discounts or rebates. Joining the DOJ in the action filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York were the states of Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Texas. Meanwhile, American Express Co., the third defendant in the action, is vowing to fight the civil complaint in court.

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The Center for Financial Services Innovation is seeking presentation proposals for its 6th Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum to be held in New Orleans on June 8-10, 2011. As CFSI builds its agenda and forum sessions, it is looking for proposals focused on financial services for underbanked and unbanked consumers.

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ALDI Inc., which operates 1,100 U.S. grocery stores across the Midwest and East Coast, affirmed on Oct. 1, 2010, that tampered POS terminals had been placed in ALDI stores in 11 states, leading to the unauthorized capture of the payment card information of ALDI customers. In a statement ALDI said a "limited number of stores" had tampered terminals and a "limited number of our customers" had been affected. The grocery store chain stated that the tampered POS devices were placed in ALDI stores some time between June and August 2010.

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New research suggests that the market for open-loop, network-branded, reloadable prepaid payroll cards is expanding, with evidence from the acquiring as well as the consumer side of electronic payments lending credence to the belief that payroll cards have a profitable future.

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Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC's acquisition of National Processing Co. in September 2010 is one of three acquisitions arranged since July that are designed to significantly broaden Fifth Third's reach within the payments industry. The NPC takeover, which Fifth Third officials said would be finalized in November 2010, gives the company the processing rights to approximately 350 NPC ISOs that provide services to over 242,000 merchants.

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As part of it Seventh Annual Prepaid Card Forecast, Mercator Advisory Group predicts that the total dollars loaded onto prepaid cards will reach $672 billion by 2013, more than doubling the $330.03 billion load volume in 2009. The reason this surge will take place is because of increased government activity in the prepaid sector, as well as growing consumer adoption of prepaid cards, according to Mercator.

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