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In an article titled "Two sides to every story", this week's Economist takes a look at the raging debate in the US over credit card interchange fees - noting that "the tentative evidence from Australia is that caps on interchange fees for retailers have not been offset by any gain in the form of lower consumer prices."
In an article titled "In House, a Bid to Hasten a Credit Card Law", Reuters (via the New York Times) reports that Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services believes that "recent actions by credit card issuers prove that lawmakers should move up the date of new restrictions on interest rates and fees." Frank's committee held a hearing on the matter earlier today in Washington - along with a look at credit card interchange fees.
The House Committee on FInancial Services is holding a hearing today on interchange fees - and, specifically, H.R. 2382, the Credit Card Interchange Fees Act of 2009. The website has been updated with today's witnesses and, where available, their prepared testimony.
First Data has announced an agreement with PayPal that allows debit cardholders in First Data’s STAR Network to quickly link their STAR debit card to a PayPal account online. First Data says its STAR Network is "the first electronic funds transfer network to offer this innovative service to its member financial institutions." READ MORE
Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson writes about the Same Day ACH session at this week's Association for Finance Professionals conference in San Francisco.
Carol writes: "The same day ACH proposal has most typically been talked about as a service which will apply to check conversion transactions – to enable electronics to clear as fast as paper would (don’t you love that). But I had not realized before that the Fed is also talking about this applying to WEB transactions. This would mean all those alternative-payment schemes for eCommerce could clear faster than card transactions!" Click to read more!
Citibank has launched Citi Mobile en Espanol to enable customers who prefer to bank in Spanish to do so from their smartphones. According to Citi, "the Spanish-language service lets customers manage their accounts, pay bills, locate Citibank branches and more - all from the convenience of their cell phones. Citibank is the first major U.S. bank to offer mobile banking in Spanish."
READ MORE
Archstone Consulting has announced the results of its 2009 Gift Card Trend Report examining the performance of the gift card market, consumer and retailer trends, and government action.
"Gift cards are still the gift of choice among consumers, but gift card purchases reflect the challenging economic times; values per card are down, and the focus (similar to last year) is on the pragmatic not frivolous," commented Dave Sievers, Principal and the Consumer Products and Retail Practice lead at Archstone Consulting. READ MORE
The latest Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit report is out for the month of August 2009 showing that consumer credit outstanding overall decreased at an annual rate of 5-3/4 percent in August 2009. Revolving credit outstanding decreased at an annual rate of 13 percent, and nonrevolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 1-1/2 percent. The rate of decline in revolving consumer credit is the steepest reported in several years.
Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated. For job opportunities available for payments professionals, visit PaymentsJobs.com. Employers looking to hire payments professionals can post their job openings there as well.
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