Ready Financial, provider of the READYdebit Visa prepaid card and online bill payment and check-writing service, has announced it has completed a $7.0 million Series B round of financing led by Rockbridge Growth Equity, a middle-market private equity firm started by Quicken Loans Chairman and Founder, Dan Gilbert, with participation from Flybridge Capital Partners. READ MORE

The Federal Reserve Board has announced proposed rules that it says "would restrict the fees and expiration dates that may apply to gift cards. The rules would protect consumers from certain unexpected costs and would require that gift card terms and conditions be clearly stated." See the highlights of the proposed rules. READ MORE

In an article in yesterday's American Banker titled "For Wal-Mart, No Bank Charter Is No Problem", Maria Aspan reported on how "not getting a bank charter two years ago may have been one of the best things to happen to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s financial services agenda." Indeed, Wal-Mart has been very successful "with products aimed at the growing market of underbanked and low-income consumers who are largely underserved by the banking industry."

M2 Europe has teamed with fleet technology innovators, Airmax Group, to introduce a transit and corporate payments solution, the Airmax Scope Prepaid MasterCard. The Card combines the benefits of hosted data from vehicles with detailed payment reporting to provide comprehensive online fuel and expense management. READ MORE

The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) has released a statement in response to the introduction of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2009 by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT):

"The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association appreciates the efforts of Chairman Dodd and the Senate Banking Committee to better protect consumer interests. The NBPCA and its members are committed to working with them as this process goes forward. It is absolutely critical that any new regulations not limit access to unique financial products such as prepaid cards, which have become a key tool of financial inclusion for the millions of unbanked and underbanked U.S. consumers who rely on them. READ MORE

Western Union has launched a new Visa prepaid gift card and greeting card offering enabling consumers to send the gift of money using Western Union branded prepaid gift cards available at http://www.WesternUnion.com. READ MORE

Univision Communications has announced a strategic alliance with MasterCard Worldwide to introduce two new prepaid financial services, the Univision Prepaid MasterCard Card® (Tarjeta Univision MasterCard Prepagada®) and the Univision MasterCard Gift Card® (Tarjeta de Regalo Univision®). Both of these prepaid cards will be available nationally in 2010 and are being developed to provide Hispanic consumers with access to relevant, flexible and valuable financial tools that can be used anywhere Debit MasterCard is accepted. READ MORE

Starbucks has announced a new customer loyalty card program called My Starbucks Rewards, which will launch on Dec. 26, 2009 in all U.S. Starbucks stores. Consolidating its two current programs, Starbucks Card Rewards and Starbucks Gold card, the new program "delivers value with no annual fee, allows members to use one registered card (any Starbucks Card) and provides customized rewards that increase with frequency of use." READ MORE

First Data has announced that its STAR Network is the first electronic funds transfer network to launch load and reload support for STAR-branded general purpose prepaid cards. Using patent pending technology, the STAR Network has completed the infrastructure to enable load and reload functionality at participating ATM and POS locations. The expanded transaction set includes activation, load/reload and split tender purchases – with PIN-security and the associated reduction in fraud built in. The new STAR RELOAD service icon denoting load/reload card capabilities will be displayed with the STAR brand on participating cards, merchant point-of-sale and ATM locations. READ MORE

A consumer survey commissioned by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and undertaken by the Opinion Research Corporation earlier this month revealed widespread misunderstanding of general purpose gift cards. According to the CFA, "only 33 percent of a representative sample of 1004 adult Americans know how much these cards cost to purchase, and only 54 percent are aware that “six to twelve months after purchase, some of these gift cards charge a monthly fee.” READ MORE

Coinstar E-Payment Services has announced that it is expanding its Pay As You Go product offerings including a new Amazon MP3-branded Gift Card, a GoCash Game Card for prepaid online gaming offerings, and two new nFinanSe Discover® branded cards in the reloadable prepaid and gift card categories. READ MORE

The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association has announced that, according to an economic study recently completed by Michael Flores of Bretton Woods, "consumers who opt to use a network branded prepaid card could pay as much as 35-70% less in fees as compared to low balance checking and debit accounts, making prepaid cards a far more cost-effective, valuable financial tool for many." READ MORE

Glenbrook's Jacqueline Chilton is attending this week's ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum 2009 in Las Vegas. You can follow her reports from the conference over on our PaymentsViews.com sister site.

Plastyc has introduced iBankUp, a new online banking service that enables "GenY consumers to save money and keep their credit history clean by giving younger, Web-savvy people constant financial oversight and control with no risk of incurring credit card debt or overdraft fees." READ MORE

In an article titled "Prepaid, but Not Prepared for Debit Card Fees" in Tuesday's New York Times, Andrew Martin takes a look at the prepaid card industry - noting that "the reloadable cards [are] among the consumer banking industry’s fastest-growing products. But their convenience comes with a catch: fees, often hidden in the fine print."

NetSpend has produced a new National Spending & Savings Index finding that even though the economy is showing early signs of a turnaround, low-to-moderate-income consumers are still closely watching what they spend on goods and services and spending more this year on groceries, travel/entertainment and utilities. READ MORE

eCommLink, a value-added prepaid processor, has announced that its investors, led by Syntek Capital, have provided $10 million in additional funding to support eCommLink’s domestic and international growth plans. READ MORE

NetSpend has announced the availability of the first “virtual” card to be tied to an existing prepaid debit card account and a suite of online financial management and budgeting tools including a visual spending history report, online budgeting application and budgeting “report card.” NetSpend says these new products and applications "provide a level of convenience and security currently not provided to the estimated 50-100 million underbanked consumers in the United States." READ MORE

InComm has announced the launch of a new business to business (B2B) platform, Smart GiftCard Solutions focusing on the significant growth of prepaid products within the corporate incentive marketplace. READ MORE

NetSpend and Check City, a check cashing and payday loan provider in the Mountain West and Mid-Atlantic regions, have announced a distributor agreement in which NetSpend will be the chain’s exclusive prepaid debit card provider. According to the two companies, "with 70 stores in Nevada, Utah, Virginia, Maryland and Colorado, Check City will increase NetSpend’s check cashing distribution in these regions and is expected to drive significant card sales and direct deposit enrollments." READ MORE

A new Consumers Union report finds that "prepaid cards come with high fees and don't offer consumers the same kinds of protections as other forms of plastic payment. Prepaid cards are reloadable cards that can be used to make payments similar to debit cards and are becoming the foundation of a second tier banking system used by a growing number of low income consumers." A copy of the report can be found at: http://www.defendyourdollars.org/Prepaid%20WP.pdf. READ MORE

Meta Financial Group has reported its financial results for its third fiscal quarter of 2009. Included are the results of its Meta Payment Systems business unit, one of largest prepaid card issuers in the US. MPS quarterly revenue grew by 68%, up from $10.3 million in fiscal 2008 to $17.4 million in 2009. Non-interest income for the quarter more than doubled from $7.6 million in fiscal 2008 to $15.7 million, or 107%, in 2009. MPS said the growth in non-interest income was spread among its prepaid and credit programs.

Seeking Alpha just posted the transcript from Safeway's quarterly earnings call held on July 23. On the call, Safeway CEO Steven A. Burd commented on Blackhawk Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary of Safeway:

To give you a brief update on Blackhawk, the value of total card sales—this is what we offer in terms of face value of the card—increased 24% for quarter two and that leaves us at 25% for the first half of this year.

The sales of closed loop partner cards are an interesting one to follow because essentially those cards represent the gift cards of a lot of retailers who are going through the same kind of economic events that we are. The sales of the closed loop partner cards increased 22.4% in the quarter and are growing at a rate that is much faster than our partners' own card sales.

Year-to-date we are on plan for Blackhawk, both in terms of face value card sales and earnings."

TxVia has announced it has raised $15.5 million in Series C financing, led by Bain Capital Ventures. Also participating were all current institutional investors, including Espírito Santo Ventures, High Peaks Venture Partners and Village Ventures. New York City Investment Fund joined as a new co-investor.

According to the firm, "the funding follows important milestones for TxVia, including successful large-scale client deployments of the company’s groundbreaking platform-as-a-service (PaaS) delivery model for prepaid card processing. Today, TxVia has more than five million reloadable and nonreloadable cards on file in both B2B and B2C prepaid applications." READ MORE

O2 has announced it has partnered with NatWest to launch of O2 Money, a new business within O2 that the company says 'will seek to advance the increasing synergies between mobile and money. The first products from O2 Money, supported by NatWest, are two cash cards, designed to give people greater control of their money." READ MORE

NovoPayment has announced its regional forecast for prepaid general-purpose reloadable mobile and utilities cards - estimating a potential market of nearly US$160 billion annually by 2015. According to the company, "the forecast is part of a larger regional study for prepaid cards covering 15 countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Mexico and Venezuela – that measured factors such as size of labor force, poverty rates, wages, banking and other metrics based on the company’s experience in the field." READ MORE

Metavante has announced that the smartOne Prepaid Solutions division of First National Bank of Omaha has renewed its prepaid card processing agreement with Metavante Corporation. Extending a relationship that began in 2005, First National Bank of Omaha will continue offering its smartOne Prepaid Solutions products and services with account processing and real-time account validation services from Metavante. First National Bank of Omaha’s smartOne Prepaid Solutions portfolio includes payroll, reward/incentive and corporate disbursement (travel expenses and relocation funds) prepaid cards. READ MORE

Ukash has announced that it is partnering with MasterCard and will help facilitate the launch of the MasterCard rePower service in Europe - a service that allows consumers to load cash onto their MasterCard and Maestro prepaid cards at Point-of-Sale (POS) locations. READ MORE

InComm and WiredBenefits have announced an agreement to develop and market a suite of prepaid healthcare cards through InComm’s network of partner retailers. According to the companies, "aligning WiredBenefits’ Healthcare Platform with InComm’s 145,000 store retail network creates a healthcare delivery method a prepaid format that is familiar to consumers and beneficial to retailers." READ MORE

The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Monday that sets aside $4 billion to subsidize new car purchases by consumers who scrap their old clunkers. The legislation is now moving to the Senate and, according to CNN, is supported by President Obama.

Maybe what this country needs is a Clunker Card to go with this "clunker bill". When you make your purchase, the dealer uses the Clunker Card to authorize the subsidy, allowing the Federal government to track usage, etc.? Think of the psychological power that card will exert on consumers who receive it - they'll just have to spend it!

Reminds me of the American Gift Card that Dan Newman first proposed in an op-ed in the Washington Post earlier this year!