All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
Region round-up
Deutsche Bank has launched a credit card operation with Huaxia Bank in China, which marks the first co-operative product release following Deutsche Banks acquisition of a 9.9 percent stake in Huaxia in May 2006… The Finaref subsidiary of French bank Crdit Agricole has launched the Madelios private-label card in France… Jordan Kuwait Bank has become the first Jordanian bank to issue the Visa Infinite card, aimed at high-income affluent consumers…
Japan’s mega-banks buy into cards
Mega-mergers in Japan have produced banking giants that are turning their attention from the corporate to the retail sector in search of profit from cards and consumer finance The mega-mergers that have taken place in Japan have produced three banking giants Japan Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui with close to 500 branches each in the metropolitan Tokyo area alone
Debit cards in the post-SEPA landscape
At the Cards & Payments Europe 2007 conference, Wiebe Ruttenberg of the European Central Bank outlined the regulators long-term vision for the Single Euro Payments Area, including a call for a challenger to the debit schemes of Visa and MasterCard When it comes to discussing the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), it is rare to find agreement between card issuers and regulators: card issuers regard the initiative as a necessary evil in order to facilitate more efficient payments, and regulators regard it as the gateway for fairer consumer pricing and greater competition
Capital One shakes up the US debit market with new card concept
The rising popularity of debit card payments in the US is good news for banks that profit from the interchange generated by increasing numbers of transactions, and those that are also benefiting from an uplift in current account sales, but an innovative new debit product from Capital One threatens to upset the status quo by severing the link between a cardholders debit card and current account.
Debit card fraud taking a toll on issuers
But the cards are also the targets of increasingly sophisticated criminals who, if unchecked, hold the potential to severely damage consumer confidence
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Foreign issuers await China approval
The China Banking Regulatory Commission is reviewing applications from the locally incorporated units of four foreign card issuers to issue yuan-denominated debit cards Citi, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Hong Kongs Bank of East Asia were the first foreign issuers to receive regulatory approval to locally incorporate their mainland China operations earlier this year, which is a prerequisite for offering local currency services to Chinese retail customers. Under Chinas Administrative Rules on Foreign Banks, which took effect in December 2006, foreign banks can issue their own brand of bankcards when they register as local entities
Wal-Mart and GE Money to launch prepaid card
The unbanked consumer segment is often identified as a prime target market for prepaid cards, and now the worlds largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is teaming up with its financial partner, GE Money, to launch a prepaid card aimed at its unbanked US customers. The Visa-branded Wal-Mart MoneyCard will be a major expansion of Wal-Marts financial services for mostly low-income customers an estimated 28 million US residents do not have a bank account, and many of them are regular shoppers at Wal-Mart.
US government awards major charge card contracts
Four US card giants Citi, GE Consumer Finance, JPMorgan Chase and US Bancorp have been named as the winners of the worlds largest charge card service contract, which has been awarded by the US General Services Administration (GSA), a federal agency The contracts are valued at an estimated $26 billion each year for ten years, and continue the government-wide purchase, travel, fleet and integrated charge card services currently provided by GSAs SmartPay programme, the largest of its kind in the world
Region Round-Up
NETS, the debit card network owned by Singapores three local banks, plans to increase its administrative fee substantially from July… UK card issuer Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to offer a data-sharing service as part of its expanding range of card-not-present fraud management tools..
The booming Baltics
The Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are among the fastest-growing cards markets in Europe, underpinned by economic growth and stability, foreign entrant expertise and improved infrastructure The cards markets of the three Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have grown dramatically in both volume and value