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Why Fraud Alerts Matter—and How to Get Customers to Respond Accurately
One of the challenges of managing card fraud is that so much of our response depends on the cardholder. We can put advanced systems in place to fend off the latest attacks, but if a customer...
Lies Can’t Disguise Fraud: Community Banks Face Rising First-Party Fraud Losses
2025-11-17 Community banks are reporting fraud losses, becoming the largest source of portfolio losses, according to recent data from the Federal Reserve. Among these, first-party fraud—fraud...
Translating industry complexity into competitive advantages for community banks: Introducing Chrissy Ahern
Translating industry complexity into competitive advantages for community banks: Introducing Chrissy Ahern Get to know the staff members that support your bank and its payments business. We’re here...
Fighting holiday fraud through customer awareness
As the holidays approach, Citizens Bank is gearing up for a boost in holiday spending and fraud-related activity. During the holiday season, fraud increases as scammers take advantage of the...
Strategies for Maximizing Debit Card Use
2026-03-31 We’ve come a long way since ATM cards launched at our bank in 1982: Now, debit cards are the payment of choice. According to a U.S. News and World Report study, 56% of consumers indicate...
Navigating a New Form of Authorization Fraud
2026-03-31 Move over traditional card fraud, there’s a new kind of attack in town: nuanced authorization fraud. Move over traditional card fraud, there’s a new kind of attack in town: nuanced...
Debit as a Relationship Asset: Regulatory Developments Community Banks Should Watch
Debit card swipes, dips, taps and tokens are the most common noncash payment method in the United States. Debit serves as the primary relation touchpoint between consumers and their community bank....
Leading with Experience: Building the ICBA Payments Board
We are at a tipping point for payments innovation, and it’s never been more critical that community banks have access to the strategies, technologies, and solutions that allow them to compete with...
Putting Intentionality into Payments
2026-06-25 When the industry talks about card innovation, the conversation almost always centers on scale—who has the biggest technology budget, the most features, or the flashiest apps. However,...
Lending a helping hand when banks need it most: Introducing Miriam Funn and the ICBA Payments Client Relations team
2026-06-25 Miriam Funn, Vice President, Client Relations, ICBA Payments Get to know the staff members that support your bank and its payments business. We’re here to power your potential. See how...
Meet your ICBA Bancard Support Team
Meet your ICBA Bancard Support Team Our mission at ICBA Bancard is to deliver flexible, innovative payments and digital commerce solutions that allow community banks to flourish. ICBA Bancard’s...
Migrating to 8-Digit BINs: Key Information to Consider Before Transitioning
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...
Credit Card Marketing: Driving Engagement and Combating Cardholder Fatigue
2021-03-24 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...
Payments Trends to Watch in 2021
2021-03-24 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...
A Note from the Chairman
A Note from the Chairman “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning,” so attested Bill Gates of the factors behind Microsoft’s decades-long dominance. While he was...
Maximizing Your Credit Card Portfolio in a COVID-19 Environment
Maximizing Your Credit Card Portfolio in a COVID-19 Environment COVID-19 has created financial strain for millions of Americans. For example, 56 percent of consumers have reported difficulties...
A Note from the Chairman
The writer Henry David Thoreau penned the statement, “Things do not change; we change.” Well, I may not be a poet, but I’d say that COVID-19 has proved that verse tenfold. Overnight, our banks were...
Marketing Payments Products to Small Business Customers
Marketing Payments Products to Small Business Customers As community bank payment products become an increasingly central product line for small business customers, community banks are seeking new...
Now is the time for card modernization
2020-12-03 Now is the time for card modernization 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...
Protecting Against Fraud as Adoption of Digital Payments Soar
Protecting Against Fraud as Adoption of Digital Payments Soar The global pandemic has prompted consumers to reimagine how they interact with others, how they handle their daily duties, and how they...
Shift in Spending Habits Spurs Acceleration of Digital Payments Transformation
2020-12-03 Shift in Spending Habits Spurs Acceleration of Digital Payments Transformation Community banks were already planning for a digital payments transformation, but the shift in spending...
Mitigate Fraud and Increase Profitability
Mitigate Fraud and Increase Profitability By Alan Nevels In today’s card risk environment, your bank needs a comprehensive fraud strategy that includes cardholder education backed by powerful...
Your ACE in the Hole: Optimize Your Credit Card Program Today
By Scott Broughton 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...
Leverage the Power of AI to Predict Delinquencies
Leverage the Power of AI to Predict Delinquencies By Rebecca Kruse Artificial intelligence is a hot topic across all lines of business in all industries, and banking is no exception. How an...
Mobile Contactless Fraud Schemes: What You Need to Know
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...
A New Tool to Fight Synthetic Identity Fraud
2019-11-12 What is Synthetic Identity Fraud? Synthetic identity fraud occurs when bad actors use a combination of real and fictitious information to create new (synthetic) identities, which may be...
10 Tips for Community Banks to Fight Fraud this Holiday Season
10 Tips for Community Banks to Fight Fraud this Holiday Season 2019-11-05 While the season of cheer, joy, and family and friends are only a few weeks away, big spending and gift giving brings...
Account Takeover Fraud – Where Does the Buck Stop?
2019-06-17 Insidious with far-reaching consequences for its victims, account takeover fraud (ATO) continues to challenge consumers, businesses, and the financial services industry. According to...
12 Winning Vendor Negotiation Tips
12 Winning Vendor Negotiation Tips 2019-02-26 Finding a new vendor can be a test of your negotiation skills, especially when nearly everything in business is negotiable. Bancard Confidential...
Minnesota Bank Drives Support for Local Non-Profits
2019-02-20 Once many community banks were touting “full service.” Today, Harvest Bank aims to improve upon that concept, to truly champion and assist their communities’ continual survival and,...
Are Biometrics the Future of Payments Authentication?
2019-02-12 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...
Contactless Payments Reboot: Get Ready, Get Set
Contactless payments failed to gain momentum in the United States when they first appeared more than a decade ago. Executed through smart magnetic stripe cards, waving a card was only marginally...
Are You Leveraging Your Card’s Core Benefits?
Are You Leveraging Your Card’s Core Benefits? The Visa Liability Waiver Program ICBA Bancard’s Senior Vice President of Card and Payment Products, Julie Hanson, says that many times when she is...
Visa Examines Digital Trends and Consumer Expectations
Visa Examines Digital Trends and Consumer Expectations A Visa study examines how digital trends are reinventing consumer expectations. This shift in the ecosystem is driven by universal...
How to Create a Successful Fintech Partnership
2018-05-29 What is Fintech? If you asked ten people to define “fintech” you’d likely get ten different answers. (You may also get a few four-letter words that aren’t fit for print!) Fintech is an...
A Eulogy for the Static Password
A Eulogy for the Static Password 2018-05-08 Last month, Visa eliminated the use of static passwords for its Verified by Visa cardholder authentication service. Static passwords were once thought to...
Community Bankers Raise $10K With Charitable Giving Platform
Community Bankers Raise $10K With Charitable Giving Platform Community Bankers Raise $10K With Charitable Giving Platform The Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) recently announced...
3-D SECURE 2.0 FAQs
3-D SECURE 2.0 FAQs Q: What is authentication? A: It is a way to gain better assurance that the genuine customer is using his or her card online. The authentication outcome is added to the...
What Merchants Are Looking For In 2018
2018-02-06 Innovations in online, mobile, and social technologies have created a revolution in merchant services that is intensifying competition between merchant acquirers and new market entrants....
3DS 2.0 Authentication Is Coming!
3DS 2.0 Authentication Is Coming! 2018-01-29 In September, ICBA Bancard partnered with CardinalCommerce to implement a powerful 3-D Secure, 2.0 authentication solution for community bank clients...
Next Gen Security: 3-D Secure 2.0
2017-11-06 According to the U.S. Payments Forum’s 2017 summer market snapshot, 45 to 50 percent of all U.S. credit and debit transactions are now chip-on-chip. Accordingly, the industry has...
ICBA Bancard Is Your On-ramp for Faster Payments
The evolutionary process of payments in banking has always required early adopters and innovators with the courage to advance to that next point of efficiency and value for business clients. Like...
Three New Details Every Community Banker Needs to Know about Faster Payments
Three New Details Every Community Banker Needs to Know about Faster Payments 2017-07-26 When it comes to the future of faster payments in the U.S., it’s a marathon, not a sprint. From the 2015...
Protecting the Loyals
2017-05-22 Loyalty programs are a tremendous customer retention tool, but in recent years have become a target for cyber criminals who are hacking into consumer accounts and siphoning off points...
Serving the Underserved in the Era of Mobile
2017-05-03 According to a new study by the FDIC, nearly three in 10 adult Americans are either "unbanked” (meaning they have no accounts at banks or credit unions) or “underbanked” (meaning that...
You Don't Have to Fall Short with Fall Back
Fallback transactions are a natural side effect of EMV adoption and occur when a chip card cannot be read by a chip-enabled terminal for any number of reasons, including a damaged chip, a terminal...
Consumer Authentication Grows Up – 3D Secure 2.0
2016-10-28 For nearly two decades, issuers, merchants and acquirers have been forced to rely on imperfect technology in an effort to protect themselves in the ecommerce space. This Consumer...
Are You Ready to Get Enabled?
Are You Ready to Get Enabled? A March 2016 study, titled “What’s in Your Mobile Wallet?”, by Javelin Research reported that the proximity payments market is projected to reach $54 billion by 2019...
How Community Banks Can Help Customers Evaluate Buy Now, Pay Later Offerings
2021-05-06 Buy now, pay later or BNPL, is the latest cautionary payments tale for community banks. Much like digital wallets, its appeal—with instant gratification and integrated payment at...
Three Ways Community Banks Can Respond to Generational Digital Payments Needs
When it comes to payments, the generational divide has been shrinking. While Gen Z and Millennials still lead the way in digital payments adoption, Baby Boomers and Seniors (over 76) are increasing...
Faster Payments Have Arrived — Now What?
2021-06-17 Faster payments have arrived. Accelerated by the pandemic, the growth in digital and contactless payments has pushed consumer and business expectations toward the real-time movement of...
How to Digitize the Community Bank Relationship Model
When it comes to community bankers’ technology to-do lists, 35% view investing in digitalization as their top business opportunity. We’ve clearly arrived at a tipping point.
Why Instant Payments Should Be on Your Digital Transformation Road Map
Even if you aren’t hearing the words “faster payments” or “instant payments” directly from your customers, trends and research show the demand is there – and rising. Recent Federal Reserve surveys...
Zelle Fraud: How Community Banks Can Respond to This Cautionary Tale
In 2020, nearly 18 million Americans were defrauded via digital wallets and person-to-person (P2P) services, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. With numbers like that, P2P solutions like...
Six Steps to Your Bank’s Digital Payments Transformation
To support community banks in establishing concrete next steps for their digital transformation efforts, ICBA Bancard has developed the report, “Digital Transformation: The Payments Business Model.”
Building a Concrete Roadmap for Your Digital Transformation
According to a recent survey, 99.8 percent of community bankers feel the adoption of new or emerging technologies to meet customer demand is at least somewhat important, with 64.7 percent labeling...
Myth Busting: 3 Truths About FedNow
Instant payments have arrived. In the five years since the launch of the RTP Network, volumes have steadily increased by more than 10 percent per quarter, and in Q3 2022, the network moved 45...
Faster Payments Have Arrived — Now What About Competition, Fraud, and Strategy? Part 2
Here's part two of a continuing conversation on faster payments, diving into Same Day ACH, competition, fraud, and strategic vision.
5 Ways Community Banks Can Manage the Card Chip Shortage
A semiconductor chip shortage has emerged as a real challenge for banks. Industries from automobile manufacturing to consumer electronics have been reporting issues for months, and now the effects...
How Open Banking Can Help Community Banks Deliver on Digital Expectations
Have you ever been ready to jump into your next meeting only to notice you didn’t have your mobile phone? If so, I’m betting you felt a sense of panic. Because without it, you’d lost your lifeline.