Published Sun, Jun 16, 2024 · 11:00 AM
Discover Financial Services unit Pulse Network has agreed to settle a lawsuit in Texas accusing Visa of obstructing competition in the multibillion-dollar debit card network services market, causing merchants to pay higher fees. Pulse and Visa disclosed the accord in a court filing on Friday (Jun 14) in federal court in Houston, where Pulse had sued the payment card giant in 2014. Pulse said it was dismissing its case with “prejudice”, meaning that it cannot be refiled. The court filing, signed by both sides, did not reveal the terms of the settlement. The companies did not respond to requests for comment or additional information. Pulse’s lawsuit said Visa set up a monthly and per-transaction pricing structure that unfairly incentivised merchants against switching to other card networks. The lawsuit sought compensation for lost profits and a court order to “promote healthy competition for general purpose debit card network services”. A trial was scheduled for 2026. Visa had denied any wrongdoing. SEE ALSO

Visa settles Discover unit's antitrust lawsuit over debit card network

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Greater Consumer Awareness and Merchant Acceptance Sparked a Rise of Over 87% Year-over-Year in Point-of-Sale Mobile Wallet Purchases
The 2023 PULSE Debit Issuer Study, commissioned by Discover® Financial Services’ PULSE debit network and conducted by West Monroe, finds consumer demand for digital experiences, mobile self-service capabilities and fraud management is commanding the attention of financial institutions. Following the volatility experienced during the pandemic, issuers reported slight growth in the total number of debit transactions, up 1% year-over-year (YoY) in 2022, while dollar volume increased 3%. “After two years of historic disruption in payments, 2022 was a year for the industry to catch its collective breath and ensure investments are truly meeting the needs of consumers,” said Steve Sievert, executive vice president of Marketing and Brand Management with PULSE. “This year’s study found consumers further embraced contactless cards and mobile payments, while many issuers are focused on securing top-of-digital-wallet position for their debit cards.”
Payment Trends that Surged have Endured
Nearly 80% of issuers reported seeing increased use of mobile wallets in 2022, and mobile wallet transactions at the point-of-sale rose more than 87% YoY. Increased mobile wallet use is being fueled by greater consumer awareness and merchant adoption of NFC-enabled payment terminals. Meanwhile, the sharp growth over the past 2 years in account-to-account (A2A) transactions, which include peer-to-peer payments, business-to-consumer disbursements and gig-economy wage payments, moderated in 2022 with a 6% YoY increase. Meeting Consumer Demand for Mobile Capabilities
With consumers favoring seamless digital experiences and mobile capabilities, issuers are seeking to keep pace by prioritizing customer experience. More than one-third of respondents (35%) reported accelerating the rollout of new digital capabilities in 2022, with an emphasis on self-service features. Many issuers are investing in a broad range of mobile-app capabilities that allow consumers to perform functions such as ordering, activating, freezing or unfreezing a debit card. Fraud Management is Top Concern
When asked about trends impacting their debit programs, key focus areas and priority investments, fraud management emerged as issuers’ top concern in 2022. Nearly 90% of issuers reported increased attention on fraud issues, and nearly 45% said fraud initiatives were high-impact. Three-quarters of respondents (76%) reported they enhanced their fraud models to reduce fraud losses and false positives, which negatively impact cardholders. Four out of 10 said they are working to improve the cardholder-dispute experience. Steady Year-Over-Year Performance
The 2023 Debit Issuer Study found modest improvement in debit key performance indicators from 2021 to 2022. Debit usage per active card remained flat YoY, at more than 29 transactions per month. Debit penetration rates rose marginally to 84.5% of accounts (up 0.2%), and the active rate (the percentage of issuers’ debit cards used regularly) increased slightly to 68.6% (up 1.2%). The average debit ticket increased 2.4% to $48.49 per transaction, likely due to inflation. For more information, visit the PULSE Debit Issuer Study resource center. About the Study
The 2023 Debit Issuer Study is the 18th installment in the study series, commissioned by PULSE and conducted by West Monroe, a digital services firm. The study provides an objective fact base on debit issuer performance and financial institutions’ outlook for the debit business. Study respondents included large banks, credit unions and community banks. The sample is representative of the U.S. debit market in terms of institution type, geography and debit network participation. About PULSE
PULSE is a leader in debit payments, cash access and account transfers, and we deliver exceptional value, choice and convenience to clients across the payments ecosystem. We enable reliable and secure digital money movement for a wide variety of debit card programs by leveraging our PULSE Network, the Discover® Debit program, an advanced fraud-detection platform and partner-support services. Our commitment to continuous improvement, innovation and prioritizing the unique business needs of our clients empowers payment solutions that meet the evolving demands of consumers. PULSE is a Discover (NYSE: DFS) company and part of the Discover Global Network. For more information, visit PULSEnetwork.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230817589342/en/
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PULSE® Study Finds Debit Issuers Focused on Digital Payments, Mobile Self-Service, Fraud Mitigation

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Relationship supports the network’s enhanced fraud-management capabilities
PULSE, a Discover® Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) company and operator of the PULSE debit network, has agreed to an extension of its partnership with global analytics software provider FICO (NYSE: FICO). PULSE and FICO collaborate to deliver market-leading fraud-detection technology that reduces losses and risk exposure for financial institutions, merchants and consumers worldwide. This extension supports PULSE in continuing to enhance its DebitProtect® suite of advanced fraud-mitigation solutions, powered by the state-of-the-art FICO® Falcon® Fraud Manager. PULSE’s network-level deployment of Falcon Fraud Manager employs learnings from its 9,000 participating financial institutions. Institutions using DebitProtect and DebitProtect Authorization Blocking for, respectively, fraud alerts and automated authorization blocking benefit from that dynamic data pool. PULSE has deployed FICO’s latest fraud model, which segments card-not-present transactions separately from card-present transactions. This enhanced scoring improves the network’s ability to identify fraudulent transactions in e-commerce and other card-not-present channels. This capability is key as consumers continue to adopt digital-payment methods and fraudsters increasingly focus their efforts there. “Our enhanced fraud-detection and blocking capabilities have become more important than ever with the Federal Reserve’s Regulation II clarification expected to shift more card-not-present transaction volume to unaffiliated debit networks such as PULSE,” said Jim Lerdal, executive vice president of Operations with PULSE. “Extending our close partnership with FICO enables us to continue enhancing our ability to prevent and respond to the latest trends in debit fraud.”
“PULSE and FICO have outstanding, innovative teams and are constantly adapting to provide tools financial institutions can use to mitigate evolving security risks,” said Adam Davies, vice president of Fraud at FICO. “Our Falcon Fraud Manager model benefits from the fraud learnings fed into it from PULSE’s large network of debit card issuers. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with PULSE to protect all debit stakeholders.”
The forthcoming 2023 PULSE Debit Issuer Study, conducted for PULSE by West Monroe, confirmed that debit issuers are heavily focused on fraud-prevention and mitigation efforts, with nearly 90% of survey respondents reporting increased impact of and attention to fraud in 2022. While 76% of respondents said they enhanced their fraud models last year to reduce fraud losses and false positives, other mitigation efforts included sharing and promoting educational materials with customers, enabling self-service capabilities, modifying rules and investing in authentication tools. For more information, visit PULSE DebitProtect. About PULSE
PULSE is a leader in debit payments, cash access and account transfers, and we deliver exceptional value, choice and convenience to clients across the payments ecosystem. We enable reliable and secure digital money movement for a wide variety of debit card programs by leveraging our PULSE Network, the Discover® Debit program, an advanced fraud-detection platform and partner-support services. Our commitment to continuous improvement, innovation and prioritizing the unique business needs of our clients empowers payment solutions that meet the evolving demands of consumers. PULSE is a Discover (NYSE: DFS) company and part of the Discover Global Network. For more information, visit PULSEnetwork.com. About FICO
FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in nearly 120 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO® Score, used by 90% of top US lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the US and other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency. Learn more at www.fico.com. FICO and Falcon are registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the US and other countries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230809594028/en/
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PULSE® Extends Debit Fraud Detection Agreement with FICO®

Relationship supports the network’s enhanced fraud-management capabilities
HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–PULSE, a Discover® Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) company and operator of the PULSE debit network, has agreed to an extension of its partnership with global analytics software provider FICO (NYSE: FICO). PULSE and FICO collaborate to deliver market-leading fraud-detection technology that reduces losses and risk exposure for financial institutions, merchants and consumers worldwide. This extension supports PULSE in continuing to enhance its DebitProtect® suite of advanced fraud-mitigation solutions, powered by the state-of-the-art FICO® Falcon® Fraud Manager. PULSE’s network-level deployment of Falcon Fraud Manager employs learnings from its 9,000 participating financial institutions. Institutions using DebitProtect and DebitProtect Authorization Blocking for, respectively, fraud alerts and automated authorization blocking benefit from that dynamic data pool. PULSE has deployed FICO’s latest fraud model, which segments card-not-present transactions separately from card-present transactions. This enhanced scoring improves the network’s ability to identify fraudulent transactions in e-commerce and other card-not-present channels. This capability is key as consumers continue to adopt digital-payment methods and fraudsters increasingly focus their efforts there. “Our enhanced fraud-detection and blocking capabilities have become more important than ever with the Federal Reserve’s Regulation II clarification expected to shift more card-not-present transaction volume to unaffiliated debit networks such as PULSE,” said Jim Lerdal, executive vice president of Operations with PULSE. “Extending our close partnership with FICO enables us to continue enhancing our ability to prevent and respond to the latest trends in debit fraud.”
“PULSE and FICO have outstanding, innovative teams and are constantly adapting to provide tools financial institutions can use to mitigate evolving security risks,” said Adam Davies, vice president of Fraud at FICO. “Our Falcon Fraud Manager model benefits from the fraud learnings fed into it from PULSE’s large network of debit card issuers. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with PULSE to protect all debit stakeholders.”
The forthcoming 2023 PULSE Debit Issuer Study, conducted for PULSE by West Monroe, confirmed that debit issuers are heavily focused on fraud-prevention and mitigation efforts, with nearly 90% of survey respondents reporting increased impact of and attention to fraud in 2022. While 76% of respondents said they enhanced their fraud models last year to reduce fraud losses and false positives, other mitigation efforts included sharing and promoting educational materials with customers, enabling self-service capabilities, modifying rules and investing in authentication tools. About PULSE
PULSE is a leader in debit payments, cash access and account transfers, and we deliver exceptional value, choice and convenience to clients across the payments ecosystem. We enable reliable and secure digital money movement for a wide variety of debit card programs by leveraging our PULSE Network, the Discover® Debit program, an advanced fraud-detection platform and partner-support services. Our commitment to continuous improvement, innovation and prioritizing the unique business needs of our clients empowers payment solutions that meet the evolving demands of consumers. PULSE is a Discover (NYSE: DFS) company and part of the Discover Global Network. For more information, visit PULSEnetwork.com . About FICO
FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in nearly 120 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO® Score, used by 90% of top US lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the US and other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency. Learn more at www.fico.com . FICO and Falcon are registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the US and other countries. Contacts

Latest banking news
A study found a good majority of banks are loath to venture into the metaverse, Citizens Financial closed its $3.5 billion acquisition of Investors Bancorp, and Chase and Dollar Bank unveiled new branch features. Scroll through to see what you might have missed this week in banking, payments, M&A and more. Most banks are hesitant to enter the metaverse
Several financial institutions — including JPMorgan Chase and American Express — are edging toward a presence in the metaverse , or virtual reality environments. But despite these big names making forays, most banks are hesitant. In KPMG’s closing survey of more than 700 banking professionals following its quarterly Banking Symposium at the end of March, it found that 2.4% of respondents planned to establish a presence in the metaverse within the next six months and 2.7% within a year. But more than 70% were unsure and nearly 20% had no plans to enter this online world. — Miriam Cross
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Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg News
JPMorgan Chase, in partnership with the electric vehicle charging network EVgo, is piloting the addition of charging stations for at 50 of its U.S. branches this summer. The new eco-friendly initiative comes as part of the bank’s mission to make retail locations more environmentally sustainable, with plans to expand on-site solar power to 400 additional locations by the end of 2022. “We’re always listening and taking feedback from customers when it comes to the branch experience, and we know environmental sustainability is important to them,” Jennifer Roberts, CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, said in a press release Thursday. — Frank Gargano
Dollar Bank unveils video interactive branch
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Dollar Bank in Pittsburgh this week opened a branch in Chesapeake, Virginia, outfitted with terminals that let customers speak with tellers over video calls. The Personal Teller Machines , stationed inside the branch and at the drive-thru, also allow customers of the $11.5 billion-asset bank to make deposits and withdrawals. — Frank Gargano
Citizens closes Investors Bancorp deal ...
Bloomberg
Citizens Financial Group in Providence, Rhode Island, this week completed its purchase of Investors Bancorp in Short Hills, New Jersey, a little over two weeks after the Federal Reserve approved the $3.5 billion deal . The acquisition, announced in July , expands Citizens’ Northeast footprint with the addition of more than 150 branches in the New York City metropolitan area, Philadelphia and New Jersey. In February, Citizens acquired 80 former HSBC branches, including 66 in the metro New York area. — Allissa Kline
... and hires data chief from JPMorgan
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Citizens Financial hired a JPMorgan Chase executive to fill the role of chief data and analytics officer. Ben Vinzant, who has been at JPMorgan since 2018, most recently as managing director and head of sales science, will join Citizens on June 27 and report to Beth Johnson, the Rhode Island company’s chief experience officer. Before joining JPMorgan, Vinzant spent more than a decade at Wells Fargo. — Allissa Kline
Cannabis banking company names investment chief
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News
Safe Harbor Financial, a cannabis banking company in Arvada, Colorado, hired Paul Penney as chief investment officer. Penney, who was most recently the investment chief at KreditForce Capital, will lead Safe Harbor’s lending strategy, investor relations and investment opportunities, and help with the company’s mergers-and-acquisitions strategy, it said. Safe Harbor, which was established in 2021 as a subsidiary of Partner Colorado Credit Union, announced in February that it would be sold to Northern Lights Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company, for $185 million in cash and stock. — Allissa Kline
Debit network may proceed with antitrust case against Visa
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Pulse Network, the ATM and debit network owned by Discover Financial Services, has been cleared by an appeals court to pursue an antitrust lawsuit against Visa over its debit card routing practices. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana on April 5 ruled that a U.S. District Court judge in Texas improperly dismissed Pulse’s original case in 2018. The three-judge appeals court ruled Pulse may proceed with two counts of its original case alleging that debit card network fees Visa set after the Durbin amendment took effect in 2010, along with preferential network-routing agreements Visa reached with certain banks and merchants, are anti-competitive. — Kate Fitzgerald
Washington Trust rolls out financial literacy program
Washington Trust Bancorp in Westerly, Rhode Island, is launching a financial literacy initiative that will see the $5.9 billion-asset company donate $165,000 to local nonprofit groups, make web-based financial education curriculum available to middle and high schools throughout Rhode Island, and unveil a financial wellness center on its website. “We believe financial literacy is critical in helping consumers, businesses and nonprofits become more money-wise, confident, and economically empowered,” Chairman and CEO Ned Handy said in a press release. — John Reosti
Oxford Commercial Finance acquires factoring firm
The commercial finance subsidiary of Oxford Bank in Oxford, Michigan, said it acquired the assets and certain unspecified liabilities of FSW Funding, a factoring firm based in Phoenix. The $751 million-asset Oxford recruited all of FSW’s employees and appointed the firm’s owner and managing member Robyn Barrett to oversee its working capital division as senior vice president and managing director. “OCF will bring the only missing piece to grow which is liquidity and capital,” Barrett said in a press release. Embassy National in Georgia has a new president
Embassy National Bank in Lawrenceville, Georgia, named Steven F. Smith as its president. Smith joins the $118 million-asset bank from the $1.6 billion-asset CoastalStates Bank in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where he was regional president for its North Georgia market, according to his LinkedIn profile. — Frank Gargano
Robert Sarver, who is majority owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, will retire from his longtime role on the board of directors of Western Alliance Bancorp. in June, the company said. Sarver and the Suns are being investigated by the National Basketball Association regarding allegations of racism and misogyny within the Suns organization.

Latest banking news

FICO focuses on predictive analytics and data science in financial services, insurance, and telecommunications. The company provides products aimed at operational decisions, managing consumer credit risk, and fraud protection. FICO's solutions utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to influence business outcomes and customer engagement. It was founded in 1956 and is based in Bozeman, Montana.

FICO

PULSE , a Discover Global Network ® Financial Services company and operator of the PULSE debit network , has agreed to an extension of its partnership with global analytics software provider FICO .

`` We 're thrilled PULSE selected FICO and our team to build and deliver new real-time fraud-detection services collaboratively , '' said TJ Horan , vice president of product management at FICO .

PULSE and FICO Deliver Debit Fraud Service Innovation to Financial Institutions

PULSE Network and FICO have been partners in the fight against debit fraud since 2018 , when PULSE Network transitioned to its current DebitProtect ® fraud-detection platform , powered by FICO .

PULSE and FICO team on payment fraud prevention

Eufiserv Payments develops, manages and maintains facilities in the field of financial services with a special focus on the area of payment service. It is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Eufiserv Payments

First Busey Corporation (Nasdaq:BUSE) is a $3.5 billion financial holding company headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. Busey Bank, First Busey Corporation's wholly-owned bank subsidiary, is also headquartered in Champaign, Illinois and has twenty-eight banking centers serving Illinois, a banking center in Indianapolis, Indiana, and seven banking centers serving southwest Florida.

Busey Bank

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PULSE Network operates as a debit/ATM network in the United States. The company provides transaction routing and settlement services for various electronic payment products; and links cardholders with ATMs and POS terminals at retail locations in the United States.

First funding	11/16/2004
Last Funding	11/16/2004
Investor	Discover
Rounds	1 Acquired
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Type	Bank
Location	Illinois

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Date	11/16/2004
Round	Acquired
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Valuation	$XXM
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