The new debit interchange cap offers opportunity to financial services companies and will spur technology sales until year's end, FiServe President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Yabuki told investors on a conference call held to report on his company's second quarter earnings. "We believe the finalization of the Durbin rules will allow financial institutions to make decisions that could positively impact IT spends this year," he said.

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New technology developed by Mountain View, Calif., firm Jumio Inc. turns online card-not-present (CNP) transactions into more secure online card-present transactions. The company believes its new product suite, Netswipe Start, Netswipe Scanning and Netswipe Processing, is a more secure online option for consumers and promises to introduce the technology to smart phones by mid-September 2011.

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At the first Gift Card & Prepaid Seminar Southern Africa held June 28, 2011, in Johannesburg, South Africa, gift card processor Ceridian Stored Value Solutions (SVS) called South Africa an "economic powerhouse" in Southern Africa ripe for prepaid card market growth. "Prepaid cards have been the fastest growing form of payment in Southern Africa for six consecutive years," said Steve Bradbery, SVS Customer Services Director.

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A new tax reporting requirement directed at payment processors and acquiring banks may pose significant compliance difficulties for some companies, as well as economic damages to merchants and processors – unless processors come up with a fast, effective and reliable way to ensure they have valid tax identification numbers (TINs) and business names for every account. The payments industry has known about the requirement to annually file 1099-K forms for most accounts since Congress passed The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

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Three U.S. senators sponsored legislation designed to prevent drug cartels, terrorists and other criminals from employing prepaid cards as money laundering tools. Prepaid card accounts can hold "tens of thousands of dollars" – funds that do not have to be declared when crossing U.S. borders, which allows criminals to move large amounts of money undetected, according to the legislators.

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Call it the settlement that settles nothing. An economic analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston of the recent settlement of antitrust litigation brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide concluded the agreement won't work. The DOJ suit alleges the card companies' rules prevent merchants from telling consumers about differences in card fees and prevents merchants from incentivizing the use of cheaper cards with discounts, rebates and other rewards.

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George Jepsen, the Attorney General of Connecticut, is questioning the expiration date policy of deal-of-the-day website Groupon Inc. By having expiration dates on some of its discount offers, the popular discount provider may be in violation of Connecticut's gift certificate law, according to Jepsen.

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It'll be a swinging time in Chicagoland when the Midwest Acquirers Association holds its annual meeting. Organizers have a full agenda of golf, exhibitors, speakers, awards and prizes scheduled for ISOs, merchant level salespeople and other payment professionals attending the event at the Oak Brook Marriott Resort Hotel in Oak Brook, Ill., July 26 to 28, 2011. "This is going to be a really exciting show," Mark Dunn, President of Field Guide Enterprises LLC and MWAA Treasurer, said. "We're doing a lot of fun things this year."

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A partnership between European law enforcement agency Europol and a new nonprofit group, International Cyber Security Protection Alliance, was initiated to fight international cybercrime. The group will focus on training programs (including accreditation and standards) for law enforcement officials, providing advice and guidance to businesses on securing the Internet, sharing information among enforcement agencies, developing best practices techniques and solutions, and identifying new Internet security threats.

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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, issued the final rule concerning which financial service providers qualify as Money Services Businesses (MSBs) and are therefore subject to the anti-money laundering (AML) regulations contained in the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The final rule announced on July 18, 2011, defines MSB as any business that conducts $1,000 worth of transactions per person per day or any entity that engages in money transmission of any amount. Such businesses must comply with the BSA's AML rules.

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Just as the United States Department of Defense released its DoD Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace (DSOC), new information from law enforcement agencies revealed new and more involved cyber crimes. The DSOC is the first official and comprehensive strategy for protecting the nation's military, intelligence and business operations, including the financial payments industry, Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn told an audience at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., in July 2011.

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Bonneville Bancorp subsidiary Bonneville Bank, located in Provo, Utah, has been exempted from requirements of the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Bonneville Bank appears as an exempted bank on the list published by the Federal Reserve Board on July 12, 2011. The Durbin Amendment stipulates that debit card issuing banks that have assets of less than $10 billion are exempted from the interchange fee restrictions imposed by the Fed and that go into effect Oct. 1, 2011.

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On July 13, 2011, Laura Chambers, PayPal Inc.'s Senior Director of PayPal Mobile, introduced the company's new peer-to-peer (P2P) near field communication technology (NFC) service at VentureBeat's MobileBeat conference in San Francisco. The new service employs an NFC-enabled Google Inc. Android widget that allows people to transfer funds from one person to one another by simply tapping two Samsung Nexus S phones together.

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Prepaid card program manager Tyburn Group Inc. unveiled the TrustCard payroll card to support the families of U.S. military personnel. The card is called the first U.S.-based prepaid card designed specifically to be used by soldiers and their families. The TrustCard allows cardholders to have pay direct deposited onto the cards for the purpose of buying groceries, paying off utility bills and withdrawing cash from ATMs. Service men and women, as well as designated family members, can access accounts online or via cell phones to pay bills, transfer money and review account activity and card balances.

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Visa is ready to compete in the new debit environment," Visa Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Joe Saunders declared in a recent investor conference. Visa, he said, is confident projected revenues for 2011 will remain status quo after the Federal Reserve implements its final rule capping debit card interchange fees. The Durbin Amendment to the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 requires the Federal Reserve Bank to set interchange rates on debit cards.

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Discover Financial Services revealed in its July 2011 quarterly report that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is investigating a fee-based, consumer protection-oriented product Discover markets to its cardholders. If the FDIC determines there is proof Discover improperly marketed and sold its fee-based product called Payment Protection, the company could face enforcement actions. The FDIC is reviewing allegations contained in 2010 complaints made in federal class-action lawsuits that question Discover's marketing of the monthly fee it charges for Payment Protection.

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An Associated Press report said Green Dot Corp. stock rose after the Federal Reserve Board of Governors announced the proposed final debit card cap rule on June 29, 2011. On the news of the ruling to implement the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, an analyst at Janney Capital Markets upgraded Green Dot's position as a publicly traded company, which prompted a rise in Green Dot's shares.

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A U.S. District Court on June 29, 2011 refused a request to issue a preliminary injunction to halt the Durbin Amendment capping debit card interchange fees. The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling of a lower court that Minnesota's TCF National Bank would likely not win an argument that the Durbin Amendment robs the bank of its Fifth Amendment due process and equal protection rights. The Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 directs the Federal Reserve to cap debit card interchange fees at a rate "reasonable and proportional to the actual costs" of card issuers.

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Visa Inc.'s business manager in Malaysia said prepaid cards intended for the disbursement of government pensions are one way of making financial services available to the underserved in the Southeast Asia country, according to the Malaysian national news agency, Bernama. The media outlet said Visa is supporting the financial inclusion objectives of the country's central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, and foresees prepaid products as playing an important role in reaching people living outside the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

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Square Inc. received a $100 million shot in the financial arm from the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and investment manager Tiger Global Management LLC. Square is a startup mobile payment technology firm that allows any Google Inc. Android device or Apple Inc. iPhone or iPad to accept card payments. The cash infusion is new ammunition as Square aims to strengthen its position in the small business and person-to-person marketplace for card-present payment technology.

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