DataMatrix Promotions, a marketing fulfillment company, has announced it has enhanced its rebate management capabilities by offering Chase Rebate Cards as part of its suite of payment methods. DataMatrix’s customers now can choose from prepaid debit cards, check disbursement or both when creating customized consumer rebate programs.   » Continue Reading

Visa today unveiled a new look for the ATM kiosks to be installed specially for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. According to Visa, "the artwork on the ATM kiosks has been inspired by Chinese culture and calligraphy. It uses blue and white brush strokes and traditional signature seal designs which are most recognizable on traditional Chinese porcelain vases."   » Continue Reading

Visa has announced "significant milestones in the adoption of Visa’s contactless technology feature, Visa payWave, demonstrating continued global momentum for the technology around the world. Visa payWave-enabled cards allow consumers to simply “wave and go” making every day transactions faster and more convenient."   » Continue Reading

Adam Levitin, associate professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, writes on the Credit Slips blog (where interchange fees are this week's topic) about Visa's changes to interchange fees for fuel transactions announced last week.

Also, Levitin's recent paper titled "Priceless? The Economic Costs of Credit Card Merchant Restraints" (to be published in the UCLA Law Review) is available online.

Earlier today, the US Department of Justice and Visa announced that Visa agreed to changing its operating rules to allow PIN-based debit transactions on small purchases without requiring cardholders to enter their PINs. At the end of the day, the card issuer decides whether their debit cards will support this mode - or not.

Coverage of the Visa rule change late today included an article titled "Visa Stops Requiring PIN For Debit-Card Purchases" by Robin Sidel in the Wall St. Journal and an article in Digital Transactions titled "A Visa Rule Change, Prompted by DoJ, Could Foster PINless Debit".

Visa Inc. has announced that it has "revised its U.S. Operating Regulations to expand the conditions under which non-Visa debit transactions can be processed without PIN validation on Visa-branded debit cards, effective July 1, 2008. The revision to the Visa USA Operating Regulations was made in response to inquiries by the Department of Justice and the Attorneys General of Washington, D.C., Ohio and New York. It will give merchants and financial institutions more processing options."

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that, as the result of a DOJ antitrust investigation, "Visa Inc. has rescinded a rule that required merchants to treat Visa-branded debit cards differently when used as a PIN-debit card (and processed via non-Visa networks) from the same cards when used as signature debit cards and processed on the Visa network. The Department said that it had been investigating whether the rule adversely affected competition in the debit card industry by restricting certain PIN debit transactions, particularly small-value and Internet transactions, and by potentially interfering with the introduction of new types of PIN debit services."   » Continue Reading

In May, L.L.Bean announced it was terminating its card issuing relationship with Bank of America. Today, L.L.Bean and Barclays announced the launch of the new L.L.Bean Visa card, which will be available tomorrow, July 1. According to the two companies, "the card rewards loyal customers with coupon dollars good toward L.L.Bean merchandise every time they use the card, plus a wealth of new and improved benefits to make the card even more rewarding than before." As part of the deal, Barclays earlier this month opened a new call center in Maine.   » Continue Reading

In a press release today, the Merchants Payments Coalition commented on yesterday's announcement by Visa of changes to its interchange fees and authorization holds for fuel purchases.   » Continue Reading

In a press release this morning, Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, praised a plan announced yesterday by Visa to "virtually eliminate excessive holds on debit card transactions beginning this October when customers pay for gas at the pump. Right now, many gas stations impose a hold on funds in their customer's bank accounts for an amount that exceeds what has been spent on gas. These debit holds can last for up to three days and can be particularly burdensome for consumers in today's economy." Consumers Union called on gas stations to take advantage of the new procedure and for MasterCard to adopt a similar policy.   » Continue Reading

Visa has announced that it is "implementing processing and rate changes that will result in benefits for American consumers and fuel merchants frustrated by rising prices at the pump. Visa’s new processing approach for fuel transactions will enable consumers to buy gas more easily and allow motorists and station owners to better avoid the risks and inconveniences associated with pump limits and holds on funds. Visa also will reduce interchange rates for fuel transactions, which can lower costs for oil companies and service stations and can be passed onto consumers at the pump."   » Continue Reading

American Express has announced that it has reached an agreement with MasterCard Inc. to drop a lawsuit alleging that MasterCard had illegally blocked American Express from the bank-issued card business in the United States.

"Under the terms of the agreement, MasterCard will pay American Express up to $1.8 billion. This follows an earlier agreement with Visa to settle similar claims for up to $2.25 billion. Subject to certain performance criteria, American Express would receive more than $4 billion for agreeing to drop its claims against the two credit card networks. The combined antitrust settlement is the largest in U.S. history."

American Express and Visa had announced a settlement earlier - on November 7, 2007.   » Continue Reading

In his Washington Post column today (scroll down to the bottom of that page), Jeffrey H. Birnbaum writes about the activity in the House Judiciary Committee as it considers legislation that would "force credit card companies to reduce the fees they charge merchants." He writes about visits paid on lawmakers last week by banking industry representations.

Visa has unveiled the Visa Business Network, calling it "the first-ever application dedicated to connecting small businesses on Facebook. The Visa Business Network has been created with small businesses, for small businesses, and is a unique environment built on Facebook Platform for the small business arena."   » Continue Reading

Javien has announced that Javien Micropay now helps merchants meet Visa’s new guidelines for online micropayment transactions of Visa credit, debit or prepaid cards. Additionally, Javien says Micropay provides an auditable, provable method of managing online micropayment aggregations that conforms to Visa’s new rules.   » Continue Reading

Visa has released an updated commercial payment card best practices study that it says "reveals procure-to-pay (P2P) automation is among leading factors contributing to more efficient business processes and cost savings at today’s companies across the globe."   » Continue Reading

Hugh Son reports for Bloomberg that documents unsealed today in the Discover Financial Services antitrust litigation against Visa and MasterCard say that Discover is seeking $6 billion in damages.

Springbok Services and Visa have announced an agreement that enables Springbok to offer Visa-branded prepaid card programs. According to Springbok, "the addition of the Visa brand allows Springbok to pass along Visa-specific advantages to its clients, which use Springbok prepaid cards for reward, incentive, promotion and rebate programs. Springbok prepaid card programs are designed to positively motivate behavior and enhance loyalty among corporate employees and/or their customers."   » Continue Reading

Orbitz Worldwide has introduced a new Orbitz Visa Credit Card powered by Capital One No Hassle Rewards, a new credit card that it says "makes it easy for travelers to earn triple Capital One No Hassle Rewards points by booking airfare, hotel accommodations and vacation packages on Orbitz.com."   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank has announced it has partnered with Visa to issue debit cards with the Visa payWave feature to debit cardholders in California, Colorado, Missouri, and Utah.   » Continue Reading

Visa has announced an expansion of its fraud recovery process to include Plus and Interlink ATM network transactions to better help financial institutions recoup counterfeit fraud losses. The extension becomes effective November 1, 2008.   » Continue Reading

The testimony of several of the witnesses at today's heading on interchange fees by the US House Judiciary Committee is now available online in PDF format. Included is testimony from: Thomas L. Robinson (Vice President of Regulations, National Association of Convenience Stores), Joshua R. Floum (General Counsel and Corporate Sec., Visa Inc.), Steve Cannon (Chairman, Constantine Cannon, LLP), Joshua Peirez (Chief Payment System Integrity Officer, MasterCard Worldwide), John Blum (Vice President of Operations, Chartway FCU), and Edward Mierzwinski (Consumer Program Director U.S. PIRG).

Visa Inc. has announced the Visa Meetings card, the newest member in its suite of commercial payment solutions to help businesses more strategically manage this expense category.   » Continue Reading

As announced last week, today Visa Inc. has made available its various regional Operating Regulations on its corporate web site - except for Visa Europe which remains and separate entity.

In an article titled 'Welch pushes bill to trim back credit card fees on businesses' in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, Peter Hirschfeld reports from Vermont about Rep. Peter Welch's news conference yesterday where he attacked 'rising credit card fees' and announced plans to introduce new legislation concerning them later this week. "It's a near monopoly they have," Welch said of VISA and MasterCard. "And, as is often the case with monopoly power, it's abused." More information is available on Welch's web site.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has partnered with Chase to change the way benefit payments are issued by the state’s Unemployment Insurance Program. Recipients will be issued a Visa debit card called a Colorado Automated Payment (CAP) Card and benefits will automatically be deposited into their CAP Card account. The CAP Card can be used for purchases anywhere Visa is accepted. An FAQ on the CAP Card is available on the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment's web site.   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. has announced that it will for the first time make its Visa International and Regional Operating Regulations available publicly, effective May 15, 2008. According to Visa, the Operating Regulations, which will be available on Visa's corporate website at http://www.corporate.visa.com, are 'the set of rules which govern the participation of issuing and acquiring financial institutions in the Visa system.' Visa also said that 'to protect cardholder and merchant safety and the Visa system, Visa has omitted proprietary and competitive information, as well as certain details from the rules relating to the security of the network. For example, in the merchant rules, Visa has omitted authorization limits by country and processing codes which could aid fraudsters.'   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. has announced its first corporate responsibility program at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) mid-year meeting, where Visa was recognized as the first CGI "commitment to action" of 2008.   » Continue Reading

In the UK, Barclaycard and InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) have announced the launch of the Priority Club Rewards Visa credit card.   » Continue Reading

Yesterday, Visa Inc. announced its first quarter of financial results since going public. The press release and an accompanying presentation are available online along with a webcast of the conference call held yesterday discussing the results.

Visa Inc. has reported financial results for its second fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2008. Net operating revenue was $1.5 billion with Visa's payments volume growing 19% year over year to $681 billion.   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. will be announcing its financial results for the first quarter 2008 later today after the markets close. A conference call has been scheduled for 2 PM Eastern to discuss the results and will be available via webcast.

AAA has announced it has enhanced its prepaid card products using Visa Inc. and MetaBank as key program partners. The new AAA Visa TravelMoney card and Visa Gift card are now available at participating AAA locations across the country.   » Continue Reading

Members of the payment card industry in Canada - Interac Association, MasterCard Canada, Visa Canada and many of their respective card issuers and payment processors - have reported positive preliminary results from an industry trial of chip technology in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.   » Continue Reading

CNNMoney.com carries an AP story on the on-going debate between the card companies and US merchants over payment card interchange fees. 'Visa and MasterCard defend the fees as a way to pay for the convenience and security of credit card transactions. The banks that issue cards are on the hook for any fraudulent transactions, rather than consumers, and the banks also take the credit risk that the consumer may not pay.'

Visa Inc. and Visa Canada have announced the appointment of Tim Wilson as Head of Visa Canada effective May 30, 2008. Wilson will be replacing Derek Fry, who recently announced his retirement after 12 years as the President of Visa Canada.   » Continue Reading

Bank of America has announced the launch of the Bank of America Visa Supply Shelf card, 'a prepaid debit card that allows teachers to make quick, hassle-free purchases of classroom supplies. The card, ranging in value from $25 to $750, can be used at designated school supply merchants, either in their stores or from their websites.'   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank and Anheuser-Busch have announced they are partnering to offer the Budweiser Rewards Visa Platinum Card that will enable cardmembers to earn points toward gift cards good for Anheuser-Busch merchandise.   » Continue Reading

Visa has announced the global expansion of its merchant offers program for small businesses. 'Visa Business cardholders now can access more than 130 discount offers, including country specific, regional and global offers. Discounts are currently available on products and services in 17 merchant categories- including car service/rental, computer/electronics, entertainment and telecommunications.'   » Continue Reading

On the Credit Slips blog, Adam Levitin reacts to yesterday's Wall St. Journal editorial about the Credit Card Fair Fee Act. His stepping off point is the editorial's reference to the recent US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit court decision in the Kendall v. Visa U.S.A. litigation . Levitin concludes: "Like with WSJ, I’m all for a market solution to excessively high interchange fees. But I’m doubtful that the market will solve the problem if left solely to its own devices. Court or legislative intervention is necessary."

From their press release: 'The European Commission has decided to open formal antitrust proceedings against Visa Europe Limited in relation to its multilateral interchange fees (MIF) for cross-border point of sale transactions within the EEA using Visa branded consumer payment cards, and the 'Honour-All-Cards-Rule' as it applies to these transactions. The proceedings will seek to establish whether these practices constitute infringements of Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement, which forbid restrictive business practices such as price fixing.'   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. began trading this morning on the New York Stock Exchange - stock symbol V - in early trading the shares traded up over 30 percent from the $44 offering price. Visa has added a new Investor Relations section to its corporate web site. Visa Inc.'s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Joseph W. Saunders, made a statement following the launch of trading: "This is an exciting and historic day for Visa. It marks the culmination of a more than two-year process that led to our global reorganization and our becoming a public company."   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. announced today that it has priced the initial public offering of 406,000,000 shares of Class A common stock at $44 per share. Visa's shares will begin trading on March 19, 2008, on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "V". Visa expects net proceeds from the offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, to be approximately $17.3 billion.   » Continue Reading

Adam Levitin, Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University, posts on the Credit Slips blog about this week's scheduled Visa Inc. initial public offering.   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. has filed with the SEC Amendment No. 5 to its Form S-1 Registration Statement along with employment agreements for several senior executives.

Several SEC Form 10-K Annual Report filings have been completed by various payments-related firms over the last few days including: TSYS, American Express, Fiserv, MasterCard Worldwide, Discover Financial Services, and Visa Inc.

In an article titled 'Visa IPO success hinges on share price', Sam Zuckerman writes for the San Francisco Chronicle. He writes: 'Visa Inc.'s upcoming initial public offering is shaping up to be this year's hottest ticket on Wall Street. But should individual investors try to crash the party?'

Reuters reports that VisaNet Brasil, owned in part by Visa Inc, is expected to sell shares in an initial public offering later this year.

Robin Sidel writes for the Wall St. Journal about Visa's planned initial public offering - scheduled for the week of March 17. Randall Smith writes for that Wall St. Journal about the fees ($350 million) that Wall St. firms may earn from the Visa IPO. Eric Dash writes about the Visa IPO for the New York Times.

Floyd Norris, chief financial correspondent of the New York Times, posts about the Visa IPO - asking how much of the Visa IPO proceeds will stay in Visa to help the company grow?

Visa Inc. has filed with the SEC Amendment No. 4 to its Form S-1 Registration Statement along with an amended Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2007. The amended S-1 indicates Visa plans to sell up to 46,600,000 shares of Class A common stock at a proposed maximum offering price of $42 per share raising $18.757 billion. Andrew Edwards writes for the Wall St. Journal that Visa's IPO could be the largest in US history.

U.S. Bank and Visa Inc. have announced that they have signed a multiyear partnership agreement through which U.S. Bank will continue to offer the full range of Visa payment platforms to its consumer and business customers.   » Continue Reading

Aite Group has announced a new report titled "Card Networks' Rebates and Incentives" that "addresses the strategic implications of card networks' rebates and incentives for industry stakeholders, including details concerning networks themselves, issuers, merchants, acquirers and regulators."   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. has filed with the SEC Amendment No. 3 to its Form S-1 Registration Statement along with an amended Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2007.

Visa and Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) have announced that they will support the Visa Money Transfer remittance service from 51 designated post offices in Singapore enabling the transfer of money to to Visa cardholders in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United Kingdom. This is the first time Visa Money Transfer has been made available through a postal service provider.   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. has filed with the SEC Amendment No. 2 to its Form S-1 Registration Statement along with a Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 and Amendment No.1 to its Form 1-K for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2007.

Wachovia Bank and Visa Inc. have announced that "they have signed a partnership agreement, renewing their long-standing relationship. Under terms of the deal, Wachovia will continue to offer Visa-branded credit and debit products to its customers as a major component of its consumer and small business payments business."   » Continue Reading

IBC Bank, a member of International Bancshares Corporation, and Visa Inc. have announced signing a five-year partnership agreement that will result in IBC converting its entire debit portfolio of 450,000 debit cards in the United States to Visa-branded products as well as using the Visa Debit Processing Service (DPS) for debit card processing.   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. has announced that "as of the end of 2007, more than three-fourths of the largest U.S. merchants (those processing six million or more Visa transactions annually) and nearly two-thirds of medium-sized merchants (those processing between one million and six million Visa transactions annually) have now validated their compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Merchants in these two categories account for approximately two-thirds of Visa's U.S. transaction volume."   » Continue Reading

Thomson Financial reports on comments by president and chief executive of Visa Europe Peter Ayliffe regarding the need to advance discussions with the European Commission on interchange fees. Ayliffe also spoke out strongly against surcharging.

Chase Card Services and Office Depot have announced the new Office Depot Worklife Rewards Visa Signature Card for both business owners and consumers.   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. has filed a Form 10-K Annual Report with the SEC as well as the first amendment to its previously filed Form S-1 Registration Statement.   » Continue Reading

Michael Barbaro reports on MasterCard's latest SpendingPulse report - which surprisingly shows "spending on women’s apparel dropped nearly 6 percent during the first half of the Christmas season". Meanwhile, Visa says it's expecting that "overall retail sales in the United States will recover as last-minute discounts and extended store hours attract value-conscious consumers."

Visa has introduced a Government ePayments Adoption Ranking (GEAR) that "measures the extent to which governments in 43 countries provide key payment services on electronic platforms." The GEAR study, underwritten by Visa, and conducted independently by the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranks Canada as the world’s leading nation for government electronic payments (with a score of 92.4 out of 100), because of the government’s comprehensive electronic administration procedures.   » Continue Reading

The TJX Companies has announced that "it has entered into a Settlement Agreement with Visa U.S.A. Inc. and Visa Inc. Under the agreement, an alternative recovery offer will be made to eligible U.S. Visa issuers that issued payment cards potentially affected by TJX’s previously announced unauthorized computer intrusion(s), and Visa will recommend the offer."   » Continue Reading

Bank of America has announced that it has teamed with the organization Brighter Planet to "offer a credit card that helps customers reduce their contribution to climate change and invest in the development of clean, renewable energy projects."   » Continue Reading

Visa has announced "mobile payment trials in Brazil, Canada and Malaysia based on the Visa mobile platform. The trial in Brazil is testing mobile remote payments, while trials in Canada and Malaysia will test mobile Visa payWave transactions at contactless acceptance locations."   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. has announced that "it has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to a proposed initial public offering of its class A common stock." A copy of Visa's Form S-1 Registration Statement is available on the SEC web site. The Wall St. Journal reports that the Visa IPO could be worth $10 billion.   » Continue Reading

The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association has announced results from a recent survey about gift cards that carry the American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa logo that finds that extremely high levels of consumer satisfaction are driving their triple-digit annual growth. The survey, conducted by Dan Horne, professor at Providence College, found that more than 93% of consumers who buy branded gift cards are satisfied with their purchase.   » Continue Reading

Eric Dash reports for the New York Times on yesterday's announcement of a settlement in the antitrust litigation between American Express and Visa. Dash notes that there is still pending litigation between American Express and MasterCard as well as between Discover and both MasterCard and Visa. Jane J. Kim reports on the settlement for the Wall St. Journal.

It's official - American Express has announced that "it has reached an agreement to drop Visa as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging that MasterCard, Visa and their member banks had illegally blocked American Express from the bank-issued card business in the United States. Under terms of the settlement agreement, Visa will pay a maximum amount of $2.25 billion to American Express. Individual banks named in the lawsuit will also be dropped as defendants. These include: J.P. Morgan Chase, Capital One, U.S. Bancorp, Wells Fargo and Providian. The agreement is subject to the approval of Visa’s member banks."

Separately, Visa Inc. announced the settlement - saying: "The member institutions of Visa USA - and not Visa Inc. - bear the responsibility for funding the settlement through the application of Visa's retrospective responsibility plan. The plan includes a multi-step mechanism to fund financial obligations of Visa USA and Visa International related to certain litigation, including the American Express case. Through this mechanism, any payments made by Visa Inc. as part of this settlement ultimately will be reimbursed by Visa USA member institutions."

Following up on a report earlier today on CNBC, Jane Kim and Nathan Koppel report for the Wall St. Journal that "American Express Co. and Visa USA Inc. agreed to settle an antitrust case for $2.25 billion, according to people familiar with the situation."

Aite Group has published a new report titled "The Future of Card Networks: Gauging Battle-Readiness for a Post-Visa IPO World" that "considers how the world will look in a post-Visa IPO world, in which the four major card networks, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, are publicly traded companies."   » Continue Reading

RBC and Visa Canada have announced they are teaming up to be "the first in Canada to pilot a mobile payment service that uses cellphones rather than traditional credit cards for making Visa purchases. This Ontario-based pilot is expected to be completed in 2008, and involve multiple phases including in-lab testing, an RBC staff pilot and a consumer trial." A video is available.   » Continue Reading

Highmark has launched the Healthcare Visa Gift Card - saying "the card provides an easy way for consumers and recipients to cover out-of-pocket expenses related to maintaining personal health and wellness."   » Continue Reading

Jaikumar Vijayan writes for Computerworld about last week's announcement by Visa of new payment application security mandates. "Basically, they require any company that accepts payment card transactions to ensure that all third-party payment applications they use to store, process or transmit cardholder data comply with a set of minimum security requirements from Visa."

Visa has announced that 65 percent of the largest U.S. merchants (those processing six million or more Visa transactions annually) have now validated their compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), up from 36 percent in December 2006. Among medium-sized merchants (those processing one to six million Visa transactions annually), compliance grew from 15 percent in December 2006 to 43 percent as of September 30, 2007. The merchants that comprise these two categories account for approximately two-thirds of Visa's U.S. transaction volume.   » Continue Reading

Visa has released a new white paper - “Commercial Cards and Financial Compliance” - "to help organizations meet financial accountability requirements in many countries around the world. The paper identifies best practices in electronic payment programs for the travel and entertainment (T&E) management process and Procure-to-Pay function deployed by companies worldwide to help satisfy compliance requirements and achieve more control and visibility over spending."   » Continue Reading

Visa has announced that it is extending its Visa Money Transfer service in India with a new mobile capability developed by mChek. Visa Money Transfer, launched by Visa in India in 2004, is a domestic card-to-card money transfer service that enables a Visa cardholder to transfer money conveniently and securely to another Visa account number. mChek is providing the software for mobile handsets and processing capabilities to link up to VisaNet, Visa’s global transaction processing network, for the new mobile service.   » Continue Reading

Bank of America has announced the re-launch of the BankAmericard. According to the bank, "the original BankAmericard credit card, the first nationally accepted bank credit card, changed the landscape of financial opportunity and convenience for consumers. Today's BankAmericard Rewards Visa card builds on that heritage of innovation, offering one of the industry's richest and most flexible rewards programs with no annual fee."   » Continue Reading

Visa Inc. has announced "the completion of its restructuring, having received broad member approval for the series of transactions by which Visa Canada, Visa U.S.A. and Visa International have become subsidiaries of Visa Inc. Visa Europe will remain a membership association and will become a licensee of, and own a minority interest in, Visa Inc."   » Continue Rea