All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
News Digest
Based on the most recent data from the Federal Reserve (Fed), 100 billion transactions would represent a 4 percent increase compared with 2006 and leave the CAGR of non-cash payments over the past 30 years at just over 3 percent
The importance of customer retention
In light of current economic circumstances, the importance of customer retention has never been more in focus A new report from VRL, publisher of Cards International, explores customer retention in the credit card industry and outlines the factors issuers need to consider when implementing a successful retention strategy. The importance of customer retention for credit card issuers has grown in the wake of the economic crisis
Stretching loyalty across the bank
The concept of bank-wide loyalty, where customers earn rewards for holding a range of accounts within the same financial institution, is rapidly gaining traction worldwide, with banks realising that it is easier to retain and reward existing customers than recruit new ones In the payment card space, loyalty has become a hot topic recently, although there are many definitions of what loyalty means to consumers and to banks
Mixed results for Australian card reforms
Regulatory scrutiny in Australia has been closely watched by payment players around the world, and while some in the industry argue about how effective recent reforms have been, Australian consumers continue to move away from cash to electronic payments in all forms. John Hill reports. The year 2009 has been no exception, with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) placing continuing scrutiny on interchange rates as well as looking into both ATM fees and online payments.
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Prepaid’s prospects in the Middle East
CI recently hosted a round table in the United Arab Emirates on the outlook for prepaid solutions in the Middle East Representatives from Citi, Visa, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Emirates NBD, TSYS and other leading payment players in the region joined together for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. The latest in the series of industry roundtables hosted by Cards International took place in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in late September, in which we invited a broad array of industry players across the entire cards value chain to discuss the prospects for prepaid in the Middle East region
The changing dynamics of debit income
The issue of how to generate profit on debit cards is a long-standing one that issuers have grappled with As more consumers turn to debit at the expense of credit, which fees are being hiked up And how will a rising tide of regulatory pressure impact profitability strategies
Paper cut on the cards
The paper credit card statement could soon be a thing of the past, with several issuers taking the bold step of eliminating them on the grounds of cost and environmental reasons However, some issuers are using this as an opportunity to bring in fees for consumers who wish to continue receiving them, as Charles Davis reports To the list of bygone US banking relics such as the free toaster for opening a current account, add those free paper credit card statements that land in American mailboxes every month
Increasing the interchange pressure
Visa and MasterCard will be hoping that US lawmakers were not paying attention to the latest interchange-related punishment that has been meted out to the payment networks, this time in Hungary and not long after the networks incurred a similar fate in New Zealand (see CI 428).Visa, MasterCard and seven Hungarian banks have been hit with fines totalling $10.42 million after the countrys Competition Authority (GVH) concluded that the introduction of a uniform interchange fee structure in 1996 inhibited, distorted and limited competition Visa and MasterCard were fined HFT477 million ($2.6 million) each, while the commercial banks OTP, Budapest Bank, MKB Bank, CIB Bank, Erste Bank, K&H Bank and ING Bank were fined a total of HFT954 million
Card issuers learn to hit the target
Card issuers have learned that in order to stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace, their offerings must take on a level of differentiation that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago Victoria Conroy looks at some of the latest product offerings aimed at specific consumer segments The one-size-fits-all concept is rapidly becoming outdated when it comes to the development and marketing of payment cards, reflecting the growing awareness that consumers have around all forms of payment cards, which in turn has led to increased sophistication and expectation of the kinds of features consumers expect as standard on their payment cards.Crdit Agricole has scored a notable success in the French market, with the launch of its Double Action card in mid-2008