ACH Network volume soared in the first quarter—increasing by 11.2 percent to 7.1 billion payments in compared to the first quarter of 2020 and setting two new records, Nacha reported.

Over the last month, the contours of growth for 2021 came into sharper focus. Nonfarm employment rose by 916,000 in March, while consumer confidence hit its highest mark since the start of the pandemic.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the economy is at an “inflection point” and could experience rapid growth upwards of 6 percent or 7 percent this year in an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes.

ICBA Bancard, the payments services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America, today announced Malallai “Mal” Zalmai as vice president, project manager.

Last year as millions sheltered at home, e-commerce proved crucial to keeping retail sales flowing. Now, as outbreaks begin to subside and mobility returns, e-commerce’s share of total sales has fallen from its 2020 peak, raising questions about the lasting impact of the abrupt shift to e-commerce.

Reps. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and French Hill (R-Ark.) recently introduced legislation directing the Federal Reserve to work with other agencies to study and issue a report on central bank digital currencies.

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors said 13 nationwide payments firms have undergone or are undergoing their single comprehensive exams during the first quarter as part of the "One Company, One Exam" program.

Visa requires that all U.S. Visa bank branches must honor and enable cash disbursements for all valid Visa Prepaid cards, whether or not the card is embossed or personalized with the cardholder’s name.

Nacha's new rule allowing Same Day ACH transactions to be submitted to the ACH Network for an additional two hours every business day takes effect on at 4:45 p.m. (Eastern time) Friday, March 19.

ICBA Bancard, the payments services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America, today announced Laura Pierce as vice president, relationship manager.

ICBA said it supports Nacha's plan to raise the individual same-day ACH transaction limit from $100,000 to $1 million in 2022. However, ICBA urged Nacha to assess the impact of such an increase before proceeding with its plan to remove dollar limits altogether in 2024.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a proposed rule to increase transparency of certain transactions involving convertible virtual currency or digital assets with legal tender status.

This month’s report includes details on: how advanced economies have recovered faster from the economic downturn; three distinct ways in which consumers have adapted in those markets; the COVID-19 Economic Impact Index; and regional recovery updates.

Wayne Best, Chief Economist at Visa, shares that “small businesses are far less likely to be delinquent on their credit cards. See full report for details on small business payments trends.

The Visa Business and Economics Insights team reports on consumer confidence in October.

The Bank for International Settlements reported sizable growth in digital payments across many leading economies prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest Global Economic Insights report from Visa provides a COVID-19 Economic Impact Index, plus insights on travel and tourism recovery and small and medium-sized business reopenings.

ICBA and other groups this week urged Congress to get involved in the OCC's efforts to grant commercial companies like Amazon or Facebook a national payments charter.

Community banks welcome technological innovation, but we must also recognize that technological change underscores the importance of a robust legal framework to ensure consumer protection as well as the safety and soundness of our institutions.

Visa economists report on GDP growth, labor market conditions, home sales, and trade. They also provide a view of longer-run GDP growth with their 2022 forecast.

The Independent Community Bankers of America today called on the Federal Reserve to accelerate implementation of its FedNow real-time payments service.

ICBA Bancard, the payments services subsidiary of ICBA, announced the launch of its interactive tool to help its community bank clients create a custom digital payments strategy in support of their small business customers.

Visa’s economists provide a look at consumer spending, including retail sales (excluding autos), personal disposable income data, and labor market recovery.

Visa economists report that COVID-19’s impact on consumer spending is similar to consumer spending in retirement.

Join us for ICBA Bancard’s webinar, presented by Fintel Connect to learn how to improve your digital presence with a campaign-driven approach to winning customers online.

After solid job growth and robust consumer spending readings in May and June, the U.S. economy was cruising along at a decent speed of recovery.

Visa’s economists report on the dip in consumer confidence in July, how back-to-school spending will differ in 2020, and expectations for business conditions over the next six months.

The Federal Reserve Board released details of its forthcoming FedNow real-time payments service, which it is seeking to launch in 2023 or 2024.

ICBA and other groups expressed opposition to the OCC's recent discussions to offer a narrowly focused payments charter.

In this brief, you’ll learn how a holistic approach to payments security can dramatically reduce the incidence of digital fraud.

Our mission at ICBA Bancard is to deliver flexible, innovative payments and digital commerce solutions that allow community banks to flourish. ICBA Bancard’s client relations and relationship management teams are here to assist and are just an email or phone call away.

ICBA Bancard’s partner card networks, Visa and Mastercard®, have released several notices and bulletins regarding the migration to 8-digit Bank Identification Numbers or BINs, but many banks are left wondering why it is happening and what they need to do to prepare.

Community banks that issue consumer credit cards are faced with some common challenges: how to match their card options (rewards vs. non-rewards) with the best promotions to produce a positive return on investment (ROI), and how to keep their cardholders engaged.

Few would disagree that COVID-19 was a catalyst for significant changes in the way that Americans shop and manage their money. In fact, many experts believe years of behavioral transformation occurred over a matter of months and many of these changes will endure even after the pandemic subsides.

As community bankers, we rely on our partners for solutions from customer-facing technology to back-end efficiencies. With our emphasis on customer relationships, we have to get our partnerships right to ensure our customers stay satisfied and engaged with our banks.

As community bank payment products become an increasingly central product line for small business customers, community banks are seeking new ways to connect with this important segment in today’s digitized environment.

COVID-19 has created financial strain for millions of Americans. For example, 56 percent of consumers have reported difficulties paying bills due to loss of employment or income, and another 76 percent of small businesses have acknowledged cash flow shortages.

Digital transformation isn’t just a buzzword—it’s become a critical need that will determine winners and losers in the coming year. The delay in innovation within banking has meant that many card issuers are now rushing to catch up with the technology adoption seen in other industries.

The global pandemic has prompted consumers to reimagine how they interact with others, how they handle their daily duties, and how they conduct their financial business.

Overnight, our banks were called upon to enhance and expand our digital offerings not because they perhaps needed a technology upgrade, but because our customers needed to be able to transact in new, remote ways.

Community banks were already planning for a digital payments transformation, but the shift in spending habits during the coronavirus quarantine caused many community banks to accelerate, or prioritize, that transformation.

In today’s card risk environment, your bank needs a comprehensive fraud strategy that includes cardholder education backed by powerful fraud prevention and detection technology.

A banker asked me recently how to increase the profits of his bank’s credit card program. This Midwest bank had been issuing cards for more than a decade, but recent growth had been stagnant, and the banker was looking for strategies to improve the portfolio.

Artificial intelligence is a hot topic across all lines of business in all industries, and banking is no exception. How an institution views AI’s place in its organization varies from one bank to the next.

Recently, with the growing popularity of mobile wallets and contactless cards, we are seeing criminals using contactless near-field communication (NFC) acceptance as an alternative way to monetize stolen magnetic stripe data. With the number of cardholder payment options available to consumers (e.g. magnetic stripe, mobile, contact chip, and contactless chip) it is increasingly important for issuers to take a comprehensive validation approach across the different form factors and interfaces through which a payment can be made. Use of best practices for point-of-sale (POS) entry modes validation is an essential step for identifying and preventing fraud.

In order to help combat synthetic identity fraud, Electronic Consumer Based Social Security Number Verification, or eCBSV, is being developed as a result of section 215 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, Public Law (PL) 115-174.

Account takeover fraud (ATO) continues to challenge consumers, businesses, and the financial services industry. This article examines today's ATO landscape and offers recommendations and protections for consumers, merchants, and financial institutions.

Finding a new vendor can be a test of your negotiation skills, especially when nearly everything in business is negotiable. Follow these 12 tips from ICBA's executive vice president and chief digital strategy officer, Prabash Shrestha, to glean his winning tips and strategies for vendor negotiation.

In the latest issue of Bancard Confidential, Kimball, Minnesota-headquartered Harvest Bank shares how it has leveraged ICBA Bancard's charitable giving platform to help support local non-profits and charitable organizations in the communities it serves.

Could a fingerprint or iris scan be the answer to consumer password fatigue? Perhaps. In China, several face-detecting technologies are being used to authorize payments, with the Alipay “Smile to Pay” mobile app among the most popular.

The time has come for community bank card issuers to begin ramping up their contactless payments strategy. More than half of the top 100 U.S. merchants are already contactless enabled and smaller merchants are also speeding to adopt contactless point-of-sale technology in a bid to improve the cusotmer experience.

ICBA Bancard’s Senior Vice President of Card and Payment Products, Julie Hanson, says that many times when she is discussing debit and credit card portfolio strategies with community bankers, they are unaware of the many core benefits that are baked into their Visa and Mastercard programs.

A Visa study examines how digital trends are reinventing consumer expectations. This shift in the ecosystem is driven by universal connectivity, prevalent social media use, the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and increasingly interactive user experiences along the entire customer journey and across all channels.

As more community banks look for ways to deliver innovative solutions to their customers, they will most likely have to find ways to work with financial technology companies.

Last month, Visa eliminated the use of static passwords for its Verified by Visa cardholder authentication service. Static passwords were once thought to be an easy and secure way to verify a consumer’s identity, but with more than 1.8 billion compromised accounts floating around on the Dark Web, these stolen credentials are now said to be responsible for more than 80 percent of all hacking-related breaches.

Community bankers raised more than $10,000 for the youth non-profit Project 150 with ICBA Bancard’s new charitable giving platform, powered by FIS at the ICBA Community Banking LIVE this past March. ICBA Bancard’s new charitable giving platform helps move charitable donations to the web and can help banks drive organic portfolio growth while raising awareness for qualifying local charities or disaster relief programs.