Last week, we looked at the history of card fraud losses in the UK from 2001 through 2011. This week, we're taking a look at the history of counterfeit card fraud in Canada on Interac cards - Canada's national debit card scheme - based on skimming.

Interac reports that these losses decreased to $38.5 million in 2012 - representing just 0.012 percent of domestic Interac card volume) from a high of $142 million in 2009. Interac also reports that the number of cardholders affected by this form of card fraud fell to 93,800 in 2012 from 238,000 in 2009.

Over the last few years, Canada completed a migration chip card technology - with essentially all cards now equipped with chip and nearly 90 percent of POS terminals upgraded to support chip.

The Payments System Research Department at the Kansas City Fed has published two documents:

In an article titled "The U.S. Adoption of Computer-Chip Payment Cards: Implications for Payment Fraud", Richard J. Sullivan, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, takes a look at what has happened to payment card fraud in other countries following their migration to EMV-based chip cards.

U.S. regulators and industry leaders should expect shifts in the nature of payment card fraud and take proactive countermeasures. But the United States currently lacks effective tools to gauge what types of fraud are on the rise. Establishing a comprehensive monitoring system could help in assessing the level of payment card fraud, tracking trends in the fraud, and measuring the losses sustained by its victims.

On the web:

• Possible Fed Successor Has Admirers and Foes - NY Times - A look at Janet L. Yellen, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, by Binyamin Appelbaum.
• Federal Judge Threatens to Hold Merchant Trade Groups in Contempt Over Swipe-Fee Websites - WSJ - Judge John Gleeson is irritated about the website: http://merchantsobject.com/
• The Future of Mobile Payments: How to Make Sure You’re Ready
• PW Interview: Amber Feng, Stripe API, The Payment Web - Programmable Web - "Before Stripe, online payments mainly consisted of decades-old banking infrastructure grafted onto the web, resulting in an exceedingly complex process for businesses and a cumbersome experience for their customers..."
• Tesco: NFC payments are too complex and offer too few benefits - NFC World - "NFC was revolutionary 10 years ago but I think it just might have passed its sell-by date…"
• The Redesigned US$100 Note - coming October 8, 2013
• NACHA Positions the ACH Network To Be a P2P Payments Player - Digital Transactions - "...NACHA last August submitted an ACH P2P payments proposal for for comment last August and gave it final approval March 7."
• NACHA PAYMENTS 2013: Highlights from Day One and NACHA PAYMENTS 2013: Day Two Highlights - GXS' All About B2B Blog - Patty Hines
• 2013 Advanced Payments Report - Edgar Dunn - "The Advanced Payments Report 2013 … is based on a review of the global payments landscape, surveys of payments industry stakeholder opinion…"
• Total System Services Management Discusses Q1 2013 Results - Earnings Call Transcript - "…on the issuing side of our business, we kicked off what I would describe as our most significant business and technology initiative since, really, the launch of TS2."
• American Express streamlines expense tracking via mobile app - Mobile Commerce Daily - "The ReceiptMatch program is being rolled out for American Express Open business card users…"
• Prepaid Popularity on the Rise - The Members Group Blog - "The American Bankers Association study also found that more than 50 percent of U.S. FIs currently offer, or plan to offer, prepaid or reloadable debit cards."
• Visa Survey: Prom Spending Surges 33% Nationwide - "Prom season spending is spiraling out of control as teens continuously try to one-up each other…"

On the wires:

• Tabbedout Launches Powerful Merchant Marketing Tool 'Periscope' - "Periscope gives merchants the ability to monitor customer use of Tabbedout, review their customer's purchase history, collect and respond to guest reviews and create mobile marketing campaigns…"
• CPI Card Group Expands EMV Card Manufacturing Capabilities to Support EMV Migration in the U.S. - "The migration to EMV in the U.S. is unprecedented in terms of size and scale."
• Consult Hyperion joins Open Identity Exchange - "OIX is a non-profit trade organization driving the adoption of new and existing online identity products and services through the development of trust frameworks and listing services."
• FactorTrust Launches Underbanked Index - "Every three months, the Underbanked Index will provide a range of data points including demographic, loan behavior, seasonal effects and others, to help shed light on underbanked consumers."
• Too Busy to Save Money: Research at Stanford Graduate School of Business Examines Why Consumers Pass Up Store Discounts - "Seiler's look at individuals' purchases over time likewise suggests they're trying to minimize search costs."
• PULSE and fisoc Announce Agreement to Provide Buzz Points Rewards Program to Financial Institutions - “In this digital age, our solution enables PULSE to offer its financial institution participants a fully turn-key rewards program. This will provide a distinct advantage to PULSE in the highly competitive debit industry.” (See: Buzz Points)
• NCR Introduces Anti-Skimming Technology to Help Banks Increase Consumer Trust and Reduce Costs - “There were approximately 20,000 skimming incidents in the United States last year. The average cost per incident approached $50,000 and skimming costs across a U.S. bank’s entire ATM network is equivalent to about $2,500 per ATM each year."

On the web:

• M-Pesa fraud losses less that 1% - Safaricom - "Chief executive Bob Collymore said the money lost in M-Pesa fraud averages 0.006 per cent of the amount transacted which currently stands at Sh2 billion daily."
• Bitcoin Buzz Draws Western Union, MoneyGram - Fox Business
• Credit Unions: Reinvent P2P Lending - Ron Shevlin - "I’m just thinking about how smaller FIs are going to compete with the big ones for the coveted lending market."
• Fewer Bank Accounts May Lead to More Savings, Study Finds - NY Times Bucks Blog - "In this research, we demonstrate that individuals allocating their earnings to a single account saved more than those who spread their earnings across multiple accounts…"
• A new way to pay restaurant bills - Seattle Times looks at the "RAIL" payment system...
• The real opportunity for payment startups: simplicity - VentureBeat (Jon Soberg) - "Intermediaries, paperwork, antiquated systems, processes, and regulations still play a prominent role in today’s ecosystem."
• US PIN Debit Consolidation - Tom Noyes - "I have a strong bet that the US banks will consolidate around a single PIN provider within the next 18 months."
• Adam Davidson Explains Bitcoin To Stephen Colbert (video) - Planet Money
• Visa Europe is holding its Insights 13 Conference today - follow the news in Visa Europe's Twitter feed. See pictures from the conference on Visa Europe's Pinterest board.
• “Mobile is the end game”: VeriFone discusses the future of payments as a service - My-Retail Media - "Ultimately, retailers' business is about making a sale. You either need to take a payment or redeem that value to a retailer."
• Bitcoin exchange BitFloor halts operations, shuts down - CNet - "Bitcoin exchange BitFloor announced Wednesday it is closing its trading operations and plans to return its remaining funds to its users."

On the wires:

• DeviceFidelity Adds Multiple NFC Patents to its Extensive Portfolio, Totaling 40 Granted and Allowed Patents Worldwide - "DeviceFidelity’s extensive portfolio of patents covers the implementation and management of NFC technology, security and unique miniaturization and amplification solutions…"
• Moneris Solutions and LightSpeed to Provide Integrated Mobile Payment Solutions for Canadian Retailers - "Our partnership with Moneris represents an important milestone in Canadian retail, which has been newly empowered by mobile, iPad(R) and Mac solutions that engage customers in an interactive and re-energized shopping environment…"
• Mobile Users Well Aware of Fraud but, for Many, Convenience Trumps Security Concerns - "Users may be willing to accept risk now in favor of convenience, but this tolerance will weaken as fraud continues to grow."
• Alliance Data Reports Record First-Quarter 2013 Results - "Revenue increased 18 percent to $1.05 billion while adjusted EBITDA increased 18 percent to $357 million for the first quarter of 2013."

Fiserv this morning announced that its debit payments network, formerly known as ACCEL/Exchange®, has a new name - Accel™. According to the company, "the new name reflects the network’s ability to accelerate funds transfers across retail, biller and social person-to-person payments, and positions the network within the Fiserv portfolio of payments capabilities to create the world’s leading real-time network."

Fiserv updated the network’s name to reflect the 24x7-always-connected world we’re living in,” said David Keenan, general manager, Network Solutions, Fiserv. “Accel helps consumers move money when and how they want. Our real-time payments platform, developed over the last 40 years, has expanded from ATM and retail payments to enabling social payments, as we demonstrated last year with the integration of Accel with our person-to-person payments service, Popmoney®.”

The Secure Remote Payment Council has announced that the ten debit network members of its Chip and PIN Workgroup have agreed to adopt a common debit application identifier (AID) and will work with Discover Financial Services to license its D-PAS as the foundation of a common debit card EMV solution in the U.S.

"We are honored to have been chosen by the SRPc Chip and PIN Workgroup and feel that the strength of Discover's D-PAS technology, coupled with our universal and choice-centric EMV approach, will enable the market to move forward," said Diane Offereins, President of Payment Services at Discover. "Discover has deployed D-PAS for the past four years and already has millions of cards in market among international issuers. We are confident it is the right path forward for U.S. debit networks."

Visa and MasterCard are not part of the SRPC Chip and PIN Workgroup.

The Federal Reserve Board has published a report containing summary information on the volume and value, interchange fee revenue, certain debit card issuer costs, and fraud losses related to debit card transactions in 2011.

The Board does not plan to propose revisions to the Regulation II interchange fee standard or the fraud-prevention adjustment based on these survey data.

The report is the second in a series to be published every two years pursuant to section 920 of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA).

TSYS has announced the results of its second annual nationwide primary consumer research study. More than 1,000 consumers who owned a debit card were surveyed on payment choice, perceptions of value, and what might influence them to change how they pay. Key findings include:

• Debit cards continue to be the preferred payment type for everyday purchases, driven in part by the desire of many to manage their money on a near-daily basis.

• Merchant discounts and offers are the most effective way to influence consumers to use a payment type more often.

• Awareness of alternative payment accounts and methods is high, and consumers’ overall understanding of and interest in mobile payments has advanced considerably since last year.

• Consumers continue to be focused on the security, ease of use, control and speed at check-out, and incorporating these features into new or expanded offerings will result in greater consumer adoption.

You can request a copy of the research results at www.tsys.com/debit.

Debit cards continue to gain global market share from credit cards, and the use of electronic and mobile payments continues to show exponential growth concludes the World Payments Report 2012 released by Capgemini, RBS, and Efma.

“Debit card transactions continue to take market share from other types of payment methods because they easily allow people to bypass the use of cash,” said Kevin Brown, Global Head, Transaction Services Product, International Banking, RBS. “As more and more consumers move to mobile and other electronic payments, we’ll continue to see the exponential growth of innovative payment solutions.”

The World Payments Report 2012 also highlights that Brazil now the third largest non-cash market in the world after the US and the Eurozone.

On the web:

• College Debit Cards: Hidden Costs Of Convenience - NBC News
• ‘European Square’ iZettle Now Works With Android; Visa Europe Dispute Drags On - TechCrunch
• Google To Sponsor Free Wi-Fi Experiment To Drive Google Offers Sign Ups - GigaOM
• National Payment Preference by Card Type - Litle & Co. Blog

On the wires:

• Visa and IDB Partnership Brings Financial Inclusion to Complexo do Alemão in Brazil
• PAYBOX from VeriFone’s Point Group Drives Mobile Orders to McDonald’s in France
• Capario Launches Integrated Solution to Streamline Patient Payment Processing

According to PULSE, debit issuers participating in the 2012 Debit Issuer Study expect to see a 15% growth for PIN debit, and 8% growth in signature debit transactions this year.

The debit market is expanding at the low-end, with small-ticket transactions continuing to displace cash. While the average ticket on a debit transaction is $38, the median is just $19, with more than 30 percent of transactions now less than $10.

Visa and MasterCard have announced that they, and several major US issuers, have reached a $7.25 billion class-action settlement with US merchants. Visa's statement is here; MasterCard's statement is here. Specific terms of the agreement include:

• Distribution to class merchants of an amount equal to 10 basis points of default interchange across all credit rate categories for a period of eight consecutive months, which otherwise would have been paid to issuers and which effectively reduces credit interchange for that period of time.

• Modifications to card company rules to permit retailers to impose a surcharge on credit transactions subject to a cap and a level playing field with other general purpose card competitors. The rule changes on surcharging likely would be implemented in early 2013.

• Agreement that card companies will meet with merchant buying groups that seek to negotiate interchange rates collectively (e.g., independent drug stores).

The card-issuing banks participating in the settlement include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Capital One among others.

National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), one of the class plaintiffs in the lawsuit, announced that they have rejected the proposed settlement.

On the web:

• New Rules for Money Transfers, but Few Limits - NYTimes.com
• The New Consumer Protection Agency Looks At Prepaid Cards - Portals and Rails
• Keith Rabois: Why Square’s Handcrafted Approach To Payments Can Win (interview) - GigaOM
• Hit by Durbin, Visa’s U.S. Debit Volume Shrinks by Double Digits in April - Digital Transactions
• Square Dongles Now Being Sold At Walgreens, FedEx Office, and Staples -VentureBeat
• Four Mobile POS Systems Tested And Compared - Macworld

On the wires:

• PayAnywhere APIs Now Available for Android Developers
• Seamless and MICROS-Fidelio enter into a contract for mobile payments in the Nordic countries
• Security Service Federal Credit Union Selects Tyfone to Deliver Next Gen Mobile Services
• Sovereign Bank Launches "First in Mobile Wallet" Promotion With LevelUp
• Western Union Pursues Web-Savvy Consumers

According to a recently released Intuit GoPayment survey, 55% of the nation’s 27 million small businesses do not accept credit cards.

Intuit estimates that each business that does not accept plastic misses out on approximately $7,000 in sales annually, equating to approximately more than $100 billion in collective lost revenue. This missed opportunity represents a combination of new sales and sales that go to other businesses that accept credit cards.

Visa has announced financial results for the Company's fiscal 2Q 2012 which ended March 31, 2012. Highlights include:

• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended December 31, 2011, on which fiscal second quarter service revenue is recognized, was a positive 11% over the prior year at $993 billion.

• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended March 31, 2012, was a positive 11% over the prior year at $956 billion.

• Cross-border volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, was a positive 16% for the three months ended March 31, 2012.

• Total processed transactions, which represent transactions processed by VisaNet, for the three months ended March 31, 2012, were 13 billion, a positive 8% increase over the prior year.

A webcast replay is available on the Visa investor website.

In related news, Visa also reveled that the U.S. Department of Justice is starting to look into its new acquiring-side fee structure. Digital Transactions has a good summary of the investigation.

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson has an interesting post entitled "The NFC Debit Challenge". Carol is just back from an FTC conference on Mobile Payments and observes:

Simply put, the United States is a debit card market. I find that more-or-less affluent payments professionals still have difficulty getting their minds around this – after all, they themselves habitually use credit cards in preference to debit cards. But you can’t argue with the data. And debit issuers, still reeling from the combined impacts of the new overdraft rules and Durbin, simply don’t have any money. Certainly not enough to afford the TSM provisioning charges and wallet “rents” being proposed.

On the web:

• C-Store Group Decries Card Costs at Pump - Digital Transactions
• PayDragon Takes On Mobile Payments With LA Market Trial - socalTECH.com
• Startup 'Leaf' Aims To Overhaul The Payments Experience For Local Merchants - TechCrunch
• Pay by Phone: More Merchants Embrace Direct Mobile Billing – USATODAY.com
• Facebook Credits: The Gaming Currency of the Future - EContent Magazine
• Online and Mobile Banking Create Many Front Doors - Portals and Rails

On the wires:

• Seamless Launches LA Market Expansion
• New Mercator Report on Debit Processing Solutions
• Jumio Taps Into $154 Billion of Worldwide Processing Volume in Q1
• InComm Removes Gift Cards from All Stores in New Jersey, Effective June 30
• Gas Retailers Gained a $1 Billion Subsidy from Durbin, With No Evidence of Lowering Gas Prices
• ShopNBC Turns to Litle & Co. for Payments Management & Intelligence Services
• NewNet Launches Enhanced Mobile Broadband Payments Gateway
• New Juniper Report on Mobile Money Transfer & Remittances
• Allied Wallet Adds Support For Diners Club

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness takes a look back at payments in 2011.

At Glenbrook, we thrive on thinking about how payments are evolving and how these changes will affect us in the years ahead. In this look back at the important payments themes of 2011, we share a summary of some of our best thinking over the course of 2011 from our PaymentsViews.com web site.

On the web:

• Your Next Credit Card Is Your Last - Fast Company
• Wal-Mart, McDonald's Execs Sour on New Debit Rules - chicagotribune.com
• Starbucks Finds Success in Mobile Payments - TMCnet.com
• International Fraud Awareness Week is Here - Portals and Rails
• PayMate To Launch NFC Based Mobile Payments Product in India - MediaNama

On the wires:

• USA Technologies Maintains Branded Credit and Debit Rate Structure for Small-Ticket Markets
• Digital River Offers Enterprise Software Publishers New Revenue Channel
• Euronet Expands its Polish Network with ATM Acquisition from Diebold’s cash4you Network
• Wright Express Announces International Capabilities for Single-Use Virtual Payments
• Cubic Integrates Video Interface in Next-Gen Ticketing Machines
• 3 Point Alliance chooses Transactis as EBPP Partner
• New Celent Report on State of Remote Deposit Capture

In response to customer feedback and the changing competitive marketplace, Bank of America has announced that it no longer intends to implement a debit usage fee.

“We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee,” said David Darnell, co-chief operating officer. “Our customers’ voices are most important to us. As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so.”

In related news, Wells Fargo also announced that they were canceling their $3 per month debit card usage fee pilot.

On the web:

• Google’s NFC Wallet Predicament - NFC Times
• Mobile Payments Arrive on BlackBerry Phones - NFC World
• Understanding the Durbin Amendment: A Fun Timeline InfoGraphic - NerdWallet

On the wires:

• CashStar Secures $12 Million in Funding
• Chase Paymentech Launches Safetech in Canada
• SafetyPay Partners With Brazil’s 6th Largest Bank, HSBC Bank Brazil
• VeriFone Announces H5000 Hybrid Terminal with Swipe, EMV, and NFC Support
• AccountNow Customers Can Conveniently Access MoneyGram’s Global Network While Online
• iSend Passes Milestones on Way to Global Coverage in Cross-Border Electronic Payment Services
• Aconite Launches Mobile Application Management Solution For Secure Elements
• Tru.ly Launches First Ever Age Verification API Based on Government Issued Data
• Paytoo Expands Its Presence in Latin America

On the web:

• BofA, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Sued by ATM User Over Fees - Bloomberg
• USPS Eyes Prepaid Card Market - MyBankTracker.com
• Whole Foods Stores Stop Accepting Checks - Raleigh Durham News & Observer

On the wires:

• Durbin to Wells Fargo: Your Numbers Don't Add Up
• Bethpage Federal Credit Union Announces “No Fee” Free Checking Guarantee
• Western Union and Societe Generale International Retail Banking extend Global Money Transfer Agreement
• Chase Strengthens Partnership with United’s MileagePlus to Offer Ultimate Rewards Cardmembers Expanded Travel Flexibility
• New Report from Mercator on Online Bill Management

Heartland Payment Systems has released the state-specific data about the legislation’s actual effects on business owners in various states across the country.

“Merchants are wondering how the percentage of regulated versus non-regulated transactions in their states would impact their savings, and this data provides insight into exactly that,” said Bob Baldwin, Heartland’s president. “By providing business owners a frame of reference for how much money, on average, their peers across their state are saving from Durbin, they have an idea of what their own savings may be."

On the web:

• House Lawmakers to Propose Repeal of Durbin Swipe-Fee Rule - BusinessWeek
• Lemon.com Lets You Store, Organize Your Receipts In The Cloud - TechCrunch
• Mobile Payments Looking at Turbulent Times - CNET Reviews
• $4.7 Billion in Digital Goods Will Pass Through PayPal This Year - Mashable

On the wires:

• PULSE and NETS Sign Long-Term Network Agreement to Increase POS and ATM Acceptance
• Digital River Extends Global E-Commerce Agreement with Nuance Communications
• Upromise by Sallie Mae Spreads Holiday Cheer with Increased Cash Back for College
• Western Union Business Solutions Online FX Service Now Available in France, Germany, Ireland and Italy

Fiserv has announced that its ACCEL/Exchange debit payments network "brought nearly 250 financial institutions to the global PIN debit ATM and debit network in the first half of 2011, bringing total membership up to more than 2,900 financial institutions. Concurrent with the addition of these new members, Fiserv has seen transaction volume in the network increase as well. Transactions at both ATMs and point of sale (POS) are up 31 percent for the first six months of 2011."

Co-op Services Credit Union has announced that it is challenging people to shred their bank debit cards in protest of new debit card usage fees.

Co-op Services' "Shred My Card" program gives people the opportunity to take their bank debit card to any Co-op Services location, open a new free checking account with direct deposit, e-statements and a debit card then shred their old bank debit card, to receive $105.

Details of the credit union's challenge are available at www.ShredMyCard.com.

On the web:

• Debit Card Fees Are Robbery (Lloyd Constantine Op-Ed) - NYTimes.com
• BillGuard's Monthly Credit/Debit Card Scan Report - NetBanker
• Office Max on board with Google Wallet - NFCNews
• Cyberspace Trust: Proving You're Not a Dog - Portals and Rails

On the wires:

• American Express and Virgin America Team Up on Reward Redemption
• Pier 1 Imports and Alliance Data Sign New Private-Label Credit Card Agreement

On the web:

• Letter to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin
• Citi Announces New Fees on Checking Accounts - CNNmoney.com
• Nine Ways To Avoid Debit Card Usage Fees - Fox Business
• Skrill, Born Moneybookers, Extends Rebranding Campaign - AuctionBytes
• Beggars Can be Choosers (Panhandlers Taking Plastic) - Dave Birsch Blog
• Coming Soon To A Store Near You: Tagtile, A Square-Like Mobile Loyalty Service - TechCrunch

On the wires:

• Heartland Payment Systems Releases First Actual Durbin Impact Statistics
• Weather Underground Inc. Chooses Recurly for Subscription Billing Management
• NEBA Introduces SMS Text Messaging System for Credit and Debit Card Issuers
• Pandora One Gift Cards Now Available for the First Time
• Dynamics Inc. Announces Multiple Volume Launch Agreements for Next-Generation Magnetic Stripe Payment Cards
• PenFed Eliminates Foreign Transaction Fee From Remaining Credit Card Programs in Card Portfolio
• BluePay, a Leading Chicago Credit Card Processor, Announces Acquisition of Primax Merchant Portfolio

On the web:

• Bank of America risks Reputational Capital with Debit Card Fees - Washington University News Analysis

On the wires:

• Turkish Airlines Enlists CyberSource to Combat Online Fraud
• Avira Chooses GlobalCollect as Preferred Payment Service Provider