NEWSGreen Dot Corp. held its Initial Public Offering on July 21, 2010, in which it raised approximately $164.1 million in its first day of trading, according to Reuters. Shares sold for $36 apiece. On the next day of trading, Green Dot's share-price soared to $43.99, up 22 percent, said the Los Angeles Times.
In addition, NetSpend Holdings Inc. filed plans for its own IPO on July 16. The Austin, Texas-based prepaid card provider estimated that it could raise $200 million with its IPO, according to The Associated Press.
The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association praised Congress for passing H.R. 5502, the ECO-Gift Card Act, to avert the "needless destruction of over 100 million plastic cards and ensure consumer access to these popular gifts during the busy holiday shopping season."
The Federal Reserve originally mandated an Aug. 22, 2010, deadline for gift card providers to comply with regulations designed to implement the 2009 Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act. Providers now have until Jan. 31, 2011, to comply.
Appleseed, a Washington-based nonprofit advocate for immigrants, said remittance transparency standards included in The Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 will help "ensure the safe and affordable transfer of money from immigrant workers to their families abroad."
According to Appleseed, the law will require remittance providers to disclose "vital service information" - such as the amount of money transferred, the amount to be received by the designated recipient, any fees charged by the provider and the exchange rate to be used in the transfer - prior to transactions.
ANNOUNCEMENTSBillMyParents, the online teen-payments division of Socialwise Inc., reported it surpassed 10,000 user accounts for its Supervised Shopping program. The service allows teens to purchase items online by clicking on the BillMyParents button next to the items. The items are then placed in a shopping cart that await parents' approval or denial.
Money transfer specialist MoneyGram launched what it called state-of-the-art, anti-fraud that identifies suspicious transactions, employs computer and behavioral authentication and anti-phishing capabilities, and will "dramatically" reduce third-party consumer fraud at agent locations and online.
Additionally, MoneyGram signed two national post offices - the Kazakhstan Post and Moldova Post - to its international agent network.
NetSpend reportedly lowered to $3.95 the reload fee on its prepaid cards used at MoneyGram International locations. NetSpend did not divulge the previous reload fee level, but a 2008 Yahoo! Answers post said the fee was $4.95.
TransCard LLC intends to expand its automated bill payment platform into a suite of payment settlement and reconciliation services. The new services will take advantage of TransCard's bill pay, card, check, funds transfers, and person-to-person payments to provide tools for managing, monitoring and recording payments.
Visa Inc. began the first phase of a national marketing campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of using reloadable prepaid debit cards over cash. Visa said the campaign is targeted to the approximately 80 million financially underserved consumers in the United States.
The Western Union Co. reported it expanded the availability of the Western Union cash payment option for Google AdSense to the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Croatia, Moldova, Slovenia and Tunisia. AdSense allows online publishers to make money from ads placed beside online content. Publishers can get paid for ad click-throughs via Western Union accounts.
PARTNERSHIPSMulticurrency payment processor First Atlantic Commerce, gateway provider Mercadotecnia Ideas y Tecnología (MITec) and Smart Voucher Ltd.'s e-commerce payment provider Ukash integrated their systems to provide Ukash voucher payments to the Mexican market. Using FAC's Internet payment platform, MITec implemented Ukash payments in over 600 retail outlets in Mexico, FAC said.
POS hardware manufacturer Radiant Systems Inc. and epay, the prepaid division of Euronet Worldwide Inc., teamed to offer epay's prepaid cards through Radiant's Point of Sale for Petroleum and Convenience Retail. The integration will allow retailers to add the epay program to Radiant's existing systems with no additional hardware or expenses, according to epay.
APPOINTMENTSThe reward, incentive, loyalty and gifting company Wolfe.com LLC welcomed Kieran Chung as Chief Technology Officer to oversee Wolfe's development and engineering teams. Kathleen Henderson also joined the company as Executive Vice President of Merchant Partnerships for GiftCodes.com. And Ron Hannah was appointed Executive Vice President of Business Development focusing on the ATM Channel.
Chuck Harris, formerly General Manager of the Payment Solutions Division at Intuit, joined NetSpend as President. Harris will be responsible for NetSpend's partner, direct and corporate paycard lines, as well as its customer service operations.
FNDS3000 Corp. made a series of management changes and appointments designed to strengthen its position in the South African payments market. Robert Klein was appointed President and Country Chief Executive Officer, South Africa.
To support Klein's efforts FNDS3000 named Kotie Coetzee Chief Operating Officer, South Africa; Lenus LeRoux Head of Operations; and Alex Braude Chief Technology Officer.
Catalina Card Services Inc. hired Matt Montes, the founder and former Chief Operating Officer of AccountNow Inc., as President. Montes will be responsible for Catalina's prepaid card processing business and is expected to play a pivotal role in shaping the company's strategic direction.
MoneyGram named James E. Shields Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Previously, Shields was Senior Vice President Finance and Treasurer for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. He is expected to help position MoneyGram for long-term future growth.
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