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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked Visa Inc to provide information on a debit card service that may have violated regulations related to the Dodd-Frank Act, the company said. The FTC’s Bureau of Competition requested the company to provide information regarding violations of the Durbin amendment, Visa said in its annual 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, The Durbin amendment, a part of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, lowered swipe fees that are charged by merchants every time a consumer makes a purchase using a debit card. The voluntary access letter was issued by [...]

In a week in which gold prices neared their highest level in three weeks and were seen by one company to reach $ 2,000 an ounce next year, the precious metal is enjoying its time in the sun. It’s also finding its way into the wallets of some of the richest consumers in Kazakhstan – in credit-card form. Visa and Sberbank have begun offering a credit card made of solid gold to Sberbank’s top 100 customers in Kazakhstan as a companion card to the Visa Infinite card, hoping to capitalize on what they see as a “growing appetite for elite, [...]

Visa Inc’s fourth-quarter profit rose 89 percent and the world’s largest credit and debit-card network authorized a new $ 1.5 billion share repurchase program and raised its dividend by 50 percent. Profit rose to $ 1.7 billion, or $ 2.47 per Class A share, from $ 880 million, or $ 1.28 per Class A share, a year earlier. Income was boosted by $ 627 million on the reversal of previously recorded tax reserves, Visa said. Total net operating revenue rose 15 percent to $ 2.7 billion, while payment volumes grew 6 percent to $ 1 trillion. (Reporting by Jochelle Mendonca in Bangalore; Editing [...]

The country’s largest restaurant trade group joined a chorus of detractors claiming that a proposed settlement over credit card interchange fees doesn’t go far enough to foster competition among merchant banks. In a statement to reporters, Dawn Sweeney, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, said that the pending deal with Visa (V), MasterCard (MC), and a host of member banks will not “fundamentally change a broken marketplace in which swipe fees are set.” Sweeney told journalists that small business owners don’t always know what they’re paying for the convenience of accepting credit cards. With little bargaining power, Sweeney [...]

Visa intends to pave the way for merchant acceptance of EMV credit cards with help from a new data encryption service that launches early next year. According to company spokeswoman Ellen Richey, the payment platform provider intends to offer a point-to-point security solution that scrambles customer data at the terminal, reducing the likelihood of credit card fraud and identity theft.Today’s magnetic stripe credit cards date back to the late 1960s and early 1970s, a time when the prohibitive cost of processing tools was enough to deter criminals from stealing account data. Therefore, magnetic stripe data passes, “in the clear,” from [...]

Contactless payments are the future, says Visa Europe CEO ‘Tap and go’ is a way of paying for products by swiping your card or phoneCEO of Visa Europe, predicts phone cashless payments will overtake other methods by 2020The revolution requires putting in place a whole new set of financial infrastructure Contactless payments are poised to radically change the landscape for businesses and consumers across Europe, according to the CEO of Visa Europe.Known as “wave and pay” or “tap and go,” cashless and contactless payments are a way of paying for everyday items like a newspaper or a cup of coffee [...]

I had a reminder today, how easy it can be to take leave of your senses and want to use your credit card for something you can’t afford.My eight-year-old daughter, Lorelei, lost her pet rat today. Looking concerned, she came into my home office where I was sitting at my computer and trying to think of a credit card topic to write about, and said something might be wrong with Racer, Racer the Rat, as he is known around here, and could I check him out?I gamely followed her into her bedroom, and there was Racer, lying very still in [...]

This pcture taken on June 1, 2012 shows a tourist visiting the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. Credit card giant Visa has announced it is entering the Myanmar market Comes in the wake of the growing number of tourists coming to the Southeast Asian nationWestern nations have relaxed restrictions on Myanmar since the nation began political reforms In a sign of the world’s growing rapprochement with Mynamar, credit card giant Visa has announced it is entering the market of the once isolated Southeast Asian nation.”The first priority for Myanmar will be preparing for the influx of international visitors resulting from the [...]

Visa, MasterCard and major banks agreed to pay retailers at least $ 6 billion to settle a long-running lawsuit that alleged the card issuers conspired to fix the fees that stores pay to accept credit cards. As part of the settlement, announced late Friday, stores from Rite Aid to Kroger will be allowed to charge customers more if they pay using a credit card. The pact, which is being called by lawyers involved in the case the largest antitrust settlement in U.S. history, is seen as a major victory for merchants that have long complained about the billions of dollars [...]