NEWSAccording to a Federal Reserve Board of Atlanta post on its Portals and Rails blog, consumers could lose payment functionality with prepaid cards due to provisions of the Durbin Amendment to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The blog said general purpose reloadable (GPR) cards can be subject to the interchange fee cap, which could result in prepaid card providers eliminating card features to gain exemption from the Durbin regulations.
Jack Wagner, Auditor General of Pennsylvania, said Pennsylvanian welfare recipients used electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards to make 94,947 out-of-state transactions or cash withdrawals worth $5.2 million in May 2010. However, the legality of the transactions could not be determined because the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare refused the auditor general's requests to provide documentation for them, according to Wagner.
As of May 2010, approximately 750,000 Pennsylvanians had EBT cards which account for about $200 million in spend monthly, the auditor general noted.
At MasterCard Worldwide's annual Investment Community Meeting held Sept 15, 2011, in New York City, an executive said general purpose reloadable, corporate and government benefit cards are central to the card brand's global strategy.
According to Timothy Murphy, Chief Product Officer at MasterCard, prepaid cards will represent an $840 billion global market by 2017, with the fastest growth in the market occurring outside the United States. Murphy said prepaid cards can create a bridge to financial inclusion for 2.5 billion adults worldwide who lack access to mainstream banking services.
ANNOUNCEMENTSThink tank and conference organizer American Conference Institute said the 5th Annual Forum on Prepaid Card Compliance will be held in Washington on Jan. 30 and 31, 2012.
Prepaid program manager Bank Freedom, a subsidiary of PrepaYd Inc., reported that cardholders deposited approximately $50,600,000 in the third quarter of 2011, up from $14,148,000 in the third quarter of 2010, representing 357 percent growth.
The Center for Financial Services Innovation hosted an Innovators Roundtable meeting in New York on Oct. 4 and 5, 2011, focused on helping financially underserved consumers achieve financial stability and prosperity. The Chicago-based advocacy group also launched the Bay Area Financial Capability Innovators Development Lab in collaboration with Charles Schwab Corp. entities – the Charles Schwab Bank and Charles Schwab Foundation.
Gift card processor Ceridian Stored Value Solutions GmbH (SVS) became a founding member of Prepaid Forum Deutschland, a recently formed trade organization for the rapidly growing prepaid card market in Germany.
Health care benefit card processor Evolution1 Inc. was named to the Marcum Tech Top 40, an annual list of the 40 fastest growing technology companies in Connecticut compiled by accounting firm Marcum LLP.
Alex Rodriguez, third baseman for the New York Yankees, became a spokesman for UniRush LLC's Visa Inc.-branded Dynasty prepaid card.
PARTNERSHIPSAntero Payment Solutions Inc., the subisidary of e-commerce platform provider Anoteros Inc., inked a deal with payroll card program manager PayRoll Innovations LLC to offer prepaid payroll card programs via the ISO channel and direct employer relationships.
Check technology provider Chexar Networks Inc. reached agreement with mobile remote deposit capture (RDC) company Cachet Financial Solutions Inc. and prepaid card processor FirstView LLC to enable real-time mobile RDC deposits to FirstView's MasterCard-branded prepaid cards.
The Port Authority Transit Corp., which is operated by the Delaware River Port Authority, and Cubic Transportation Systems, the automated fare collection system provider and Cubic Corp. subsidiary, began a pilot to provide commuters in the Philadelphia/New Jersey region with what they call the world's first transit-branded, open-loop, contactless Visa prepaid card.
ACQUISITIONSFleet card provider FleetCor Technologies Inc. acquired an unnamed prepaid fuel card company in Mexico. The acquired company serves over 10,000 businesses in Mexico with over 800,000 cardholders and beneficiaries, FleetCor said.
APPOINTMENTSNetwork branded prepaid card processor FSV Payment Systems Inc. said Darryl Clukey joined FSV as Senior Vice President of Client Services and Timothy Leonardjoined as Controller. Additionally, Matt Frye was named the company's first Senior Vice President of Product Development.
Brand Acceleration CEO John Lyons was appointed to the Board of Directors of Global Payout Inc. to help develop prepaid debit and closed-loop card opportunities in the retail, entertainment, professional sports and health care sectors.
BillMyParents, the teen payment solutions brand of Socialwise Inc., tapped Michael R. McCoy as the company's new Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. McCoy comes from Wells Fargo N.A. where he served as President and Head of Wells Fargo Consumer Credit Cards.
Gibraltar-based prepaid card service provider Transact Network made several moves, naming Kiran Sidhu as Executive Chairman, Deependra Bhartari as Chief Operating Officer, LeAnna Sidhu as Marketing Director and J. Francisco A. Turner as Business Development Director. Also, Damian Asquez, appointed earlier in 2011 as the company's Finance Director, assumed day-to-day operational management of the company's bank identification number sponsorship business.
Giftango Corp. named Tracy McFadden Wright as the e-gift card provider's Director of Merchant Development and Promotions. Wright was formerly Vice President of Merchant Partnerships at InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions LLC, a joint venture between American Express Corp. and Maritz Inc.
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