In a press release this morning, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS) announced it has "designated Comerica Bank as its financial agent in a new initiative to give millions of unbanked Americans the option of using a prepaid debit card for receiving Social Security and other federal benefit payments. The "Direct Express®" card provides a safer and more convenient alternative to paper checks. Comerica Bank was selected, in part, because of its experience as a prepaid card issuer for millions of benefit recipients, particularly for state government programs." The press release does not provide any information about which card network brand will be on the new cards.   » Continue Reading

KPMG has published a new study "Mobile Payments in Asia Pacific" that "considers how m-payment business models are developing, who the key players are along the value chain, and how these value chains differ according to the economic, regulatory, security and risk factors in each country."

Eleanor Laise reports for the Wall St. Journal on plans by the US Treasury Department to "introduce a prepaid debit card for Social Security recipients in an effort to provide safer and cheaper benefits payments." The card will be issued by Comerica Bank.

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