The Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "The Evolving Landscape for Prepaid Cards in Latin America and Europe".   » Continue Reading

The Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Restricted Authorization Networks: Winner Takes All" by Tim Sloane, Director of Mercator's Prepaid Advisory Service. The report explores "how merchants and others can bring Prepaid Cards and Debit Cards to market, funded by Decoupled Debit and other mechanisms, to help consumers better manage their expenses and deliver meaningful savings - and therefore addressing this growing consumer demand. But most importantly, this report identifies how Restricted Authorization Networks can control how these cards are used in ways that were never before possible."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Roadmap to Profit's in China's Credit Card Issuing Market" that provides both qualitative and quantitative analyses on the profitability of China's credit card issuing market.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced its latest report titled "Mobile Financial Services Security: A New Ecosystem at Risk."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Prepaid Market Forecasts 2007 to 2010" that provides "a forecast of growth for all 33 Prepaid Market Segments" including the load volumes and cards issued.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report titled "Decoupled Debit - Let's Take a Closer Look" that the company says "evaluates the recent emergence of this new and possibly disruptive technology in the financial services industry, decoupled debit. Decoupled debit is an alternative based ACH debit card solution that utilizes two existing systems that are well defined in the financial services industry but were not designed to work in combination with each other, the ACH network and the branded payment networks such as MasterCard, Visa, NYCE, etc."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report titled "Small Business Credit Card 2007 Update: Competition for Segments Intensifies" that examines recent developments in the highly competitive small business credit card marketplace.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Account-Level Processing: Taking a Swipe at Payment and Loyalty Convergence". "The report focuses on Account-Level Processing (ALP), alternately known as Account-Level Management (ALM), which has the potential to revolutionize the payments landscape by optimizing the value that inherently exists within the data created by card-based electronic payments, thereby fundamentally changing the way consumers and merchants transact, as well as the way the general card payment services industry functions."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced its 4th Annual Prepaid Closed Loop Market Assessment, "documenting the spending, growth, and market dynamics for all Closed Loop Prepaid Solutions in 12 Categories and 33 Market Segments from 2003 through 2006."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "The Global and US POS Market: Forecasts and Futures" that reviews global and regional POS terminal shipments and approximate revenues and looks at the future role of POS terminals in the payment ecosystem.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Alternative Payment Services: Moving into Traditional Payment Territory" that offers "an in-depth look at the principle providers of alternative payment services" and "examines the payment modalities supported by these alternative payment services and the consumer demographics they appeal to."   » Continue Reading

The Mercatory Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Business Models and Revenue Streams in Merchant Acquiring: Beyond the Monthly Residual Check" that "focuses on the state of the acquiring market & discusses the market strategy of the industry's most successful players."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "The ATM Turns 40 - Time For a Change" that "evaluates the current ATM environment and the value chain of participants as it exists today and the future of this ubiquitous self-service device."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Global EMV Migration Update: Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America" that discusses the shift from relatively vulnerable magnetic stripe payment cards to more secure microprocessor-based smart cards in Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America regions. The report provides an overview of the state of the payment card market for each region, an analysis of the business case for EMV migration projects, and the progress of these projects.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has released a new report titled "HSA Growth Accelerates In Uncharted Waters" that discusses the significant investments being made to implement Prepaid HSA cards that will provide significant benefits to cardholders and Third Party Administrators.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report titled "Online and Mobile Digital Content Markets" that it says "frames the challenges and opportunities posed by digital content across multiple distribution channels and as advertising or paid content."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report on the plans for the Canadian payment card market to migrate to EMV chip cards over the next few years.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a teleconference titled "U.S. Mobile Banking and Payments: Finding the Seams, Accelerating the Pace" - scheduled for Friday, June 1, beginning at 1 PM Eastern.

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report that "evaluates the changes that have occurred in the Debit Reward marketplace in the last year by comparing the state of the debit reward programs at the top fifty debit card issuers (in annual card holder spending) today as compared to more than a year ago."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced the availability of a new report titled "U.S. B2B Payments: State of the Market." According to Mercator, this report "delivers a B2B payments growth forecast, an overview of Business-to-Business (B2B) payments, how businesses communicate their payments and information, major payments network basics, and leading bank processors."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced its latest report, Solving the Micropayment Problem, Online and at the Point of Sale, that reviews "both the history and challenges of electronic micropayments and examines how the existing rails have evolved to address under $5 electronic payments at both the point of sale and for online transactions."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Smart Cards and Healthcare: An Opportunity For Payments".   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced its latest report, "US Mobile Banking And Payments: Finding The Seams, Accelerating The Pace." According to Mercator, the report "reviews the recent upswing in mobile banking initiatives and mobile payments pilots as well as the drivers behind this charge, examines preconditions for mobile success, key technology advances that make success far more likely than in the past and, most important, examines the business models that have emerged to engage the participation of ALL members of the mobile ecosystem: banks, mobile operators, vendors, and payment network operators."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced an update on anti-money laundering (AML) activity titled "Moving Toward The 'Total Mix'." According to Mercator, this report examines the growing FI-wide approach to AML as well as trends in compliance enforcement, suspicious activity reporting for 2006 and AML vendor consolidation. The report focuses in particular on the markets for and vendors of AML technologies addressing the small and mid-market banking segments.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Commercial Capture Solutions" that examines the rapid growth in check image deposits last year and the increasing use of check images for inter-bank transfers.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "EFT/ATM Network Processing Review: Purchasing Services, Building Volume" - a review of the major EFT and ATM processors' offerings to financial institutions that examines debit processing, the significant cost differences between PIN debit and signature debit, and the impact of rewards programs on issuers, merchants and the consumer.   » Continue Reading

The Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Hungry For Adoption: Pay At Table Viewpoint and Wireless Point-Of-Sale Update" examining the market opportunity in the US for handheld wireless point of sale solutions (wPOS).   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new Prepaid Market Forecast 2006-2009 report including a detailed forecast for both open and closed loop prepaid card segments over the next several years - with specifics on the growth and estimated load volumes in each of 34 prepaid segments.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "U.K. Credit Card Issuing: Across The Pond, But Not Out Of The Woods" that "examines recent downturns in U.K. credit card issuing in terms of receivables and payment volume, which are unprecedented in this traditionally fast-growing card market. Credit card growth rates in the U.K. have historically exceeded those of the U.S., and the decline in growth represents a sudden departure from these trends."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has released a new report, "EMV Beyond Payments: The Bonus Card Case Study". Mercator says "loyalty on EMV is frequently quoted as the magic application for profiting from EMV The liability shift was still many years away when Garanti Bank started its EMV migration project in November of 2000, shortly after its launch of a Bonus Program in April of the same year. Over the past six years Bonus Card program became a huge success for the Garanti Bank and carried it to a leadership position in the Turkish card market. From 2000 to 2005, Garanti Bank gained over 6% market share on the acquiring side and more than 14% on the issuing side."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "A True Test For Contactless Payments: The Market For Open-Network Transit Solutions" that "identifies the potential market size for transit payments in the US and looks internationally at the deployment of closed loop contactless cards. The report explores the potential market across different modes of transportation and the benefits of integrating open payment solutions into presently closed loop transit payment systems. The report considers the challenges to integrating closed transit systems."

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Back To The Future With Alternative And Promotional Credit" that examines the emerging sources of promotional credit, delivered in some cases through new alternative credit providers.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced the first of three reports of its 3rd Annual Survey of the Prepaid Market is now available. This report reveals that Open Networks, including American Express, Discover (Pulse), MasterCard, and Visa, all have established in-roads into a market segment once exclusively controlled by closed systems - In Store Gift Cards. The report notes that "the increasing adoption of the merchant retail locations as a place where consumers acquire their Open Prepaid Cards should be watched closely by financial institutions, since it creates an important new channel."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report titled "The Small Business Credit Card Challenge: Capturing The Large, Messy Opportunity" that explores "the challenges of small business credit card issuing, a key strategic segment for card issuers seeking to grow payment volume at rates above overall industry averages and to add to their portfolio outstandings."   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has released a new report titled "Declining Credit Card Growth: A Glass Half Full" that explores the declining growth rates in credit card outstandings and payment volume.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has released "Extending The PIN: Evaluating The Growth of EFT Networks Into New Markets", a new research report examining the growth of EFT networks.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Countdown To SEPA: The Clock is Ticking" that it says "provides insight into the future of the European Card market, information on the history, the current state, and the future of SEPA for the Cards project, identifies the stakeholders and examines what they need to do to become SEPA compliant in light of the consultative documents published by authorities and related parties and discusses a number of scenarios based on what we know about SEPA so far and what some of the the stakeholders have signaled to the market."

Mercator Advisory Group's latest report explores the topic of "cardholder steering", the process by which card issuers and merchants seek to influence consumers' choice of payment vehicles.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a report on merger and acquisition activity for the first quarter of 2006. According to Mercator, 2006 started off strong with 44 M&A transactions and 8 venture financing deals in the payments industry. The number of payments industry M&A deals tracked by Mercator Advisory Group increased by 42% in Q1 of 2006 from a year earlier.   » Continue Reading

A new research report by Mercator Advisory Group predicts that the market for biometrics will approach $7 billion By 2010, explores the market opportunities for payments-related biometric authentication and reviews the various biometric scanning technologies available.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report: "Mobile Payments In The United States: SMS and NFC Implementations Enter the Market" written by Mike Friedman, Director of Mercator Advisory Group's Emerging Technologies Practice.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has released a new report titled "The Online Opportunity for PIN-Based and "PIN-Less" Debit" that discusses market opportunities to expand usage of PIN-based debit cards in the online environment.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced its latest research report - Predicting Mobile Payment Success in Asia - that explores the relationship between technology, payments, and strategy, as it relates to the success of mobile commerce markets in Asia.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report examining the debit card reward programs titled "Setting Goals For Debit Reward Programs: Balancing Revenue Goals and Brand Loyalty".   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report titled "Contactless Emerges As A Viable Smart Card Platform" by principal analyst Melanie Broad.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new research report titled "Total Transaction Security: Best Practices in Limiting Fraud Exposure Online and Offline" that traces the lifecycle of fraud from theft to detection to identify strategies for protecting payment transactions.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new research report that covers a variety of strategies for credit card issuers to improve portfolio returns by delving more deeply into improving and expanding the uses of portfolio analytics across the account lifecycle.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report: The Payments Industry M&A Report - Q4 2005. The report provides comments and analysis on major deals announced within the fourth quarter of 2005, summary information on the payments industry related M&A deals, contact person(s) related to each deal, and an M&A activity table that summarizes the highlights of each deal. For more information, see: www.mercatoradvisorygroup.com.

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new research report by Evren Bayri titled "U.S. Credit Card Reward Program Review" that examines current credit card reward programs by the top 50 US credit card issuers and ways that marketers can improve them.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has released a new report by Michael Friedman titled "Online Authentication: Response to FFIEC Guidance" that examines the use of online authentication technologies used by financial institutions.   » Continue Reading

According to the Mercator Advisory Group, US credit card issuers are under increasing pressure as their business growth has shrunk to near or below 5% annually. To address the needs of US credit card issuers for growth, Mercator has published a new research report titled "Opportunities for Growth in US Credit Card Issuing".   » Continue Reading

Mercury Payment Systems has announced the addition of a layer of security to the gift cards it provides to merchants. A card validation code, known as the Card Validation Value (CVV), similar to what is used on bank cards to raise the level of fraud protection, is now also included on the gift cards Mercury provides.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced its next monthly teleconference briefing (Wednesday, 12/14 beginning at 11 AM EST) will focus on the impact of identity theft on Internet banking. The briefing will be hosted by Tim Sloane, Director of Mercator's Debit Advisory Service.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced the second report in a two-part series examining the current state of the vPOS market and the potential for growth in the point of sale space.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published the first of three planned reports on prepaid products, the first one by Tim Sloane focusing on open prepaid solutions.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report by analyst Nick Holland titled POSsibilities: The Point of Sale Industry - Global Markets and Players.   » Continue Reading