GiftCard Partners Blog

We're excited to share our first post of Tom's Takeaways. The B2B gift card industry is constantly evolving and we want a place to share what our company learns from attending conferences and shows, studying recent reports and surveys, and to give you a pulse on what’s to come in 2019 based on the conversations we’ve had with other industry players.

Are you a retailer or merchant looking for the latest information on FinCEN’s final rule? Wayne Chatham, CEO of Card Compliant will be educating retailers, restaurants, merchants, and other card issuers on potential compliance solutions and exemptions to FinCEN’s requirements via a 1 hour webinar on February 29, 2012 at 1pm CT. “We are especially interested in having retailers and restaurants participate in the webinar as this may be the first time many have faced compliance issues generated by FinCEN,” states Chuck Rouse, Card Compliant’s Chairman.  “Among other topics, we will address FinCEN, the FinCEN rule on prepaid access, the closed-loop exemption to the rule, the $2,000 closed-loop value requirement, and the $10,000 seller requirement.” Join in on this learning and sharing session and register for the webinar at no cost: 
Are Your Pre-paid, Closed Loop Gift Cards FinCEN Compliant?  http://www.cardcompliant.com/FinCENwebinar.aspx

With all the hub bub about prepaid technologies like mobile wallets, mCerts and virtual gift cards, Ben Jackson from Mercator Advisory Group, offers us his calming and factual perspective in
“The future form of closed-loop gift cards – Reports of plastic’s demise are greatly exaggerated”. Ben examines 3 great lessons of history to temper the overstated destiny of plastic gift cards and advises “that new technologies do not always completely distance old ones”. The history lessons offer great perspective that “There will always be a place for plastic, but (the) day will soon arrive where virtual cards and mobile cards will be a necessary part of every issuer’s prepaid strategy. The task for issuers is to figure out what needs each form factor fills and tailor their program to make each work towards the best results”, states Jackson. This is great advice for issuers, retailers and merchants as they look to grow their businesses with diversity versus alienating parties via the next big technology.

DPS offers gift cards to encourage parental involvement Detroit Public Schools officials will give a $25 Target gift card to the first 500 parents who sign up for the "I'm In" parent involvement card as a way to encourage parents to become more involved in the Detroit schools. The card will be used to track parent engagement and workshops in the district's eight parent resource centers. Every time parents use their card, they will receive points that will earn them entries into raffles and prizes. This isn't the first time DPS has used Target gift cards to encourage parental involvement. Last September, the district offered $20,000 in Target gift cards — including five $1,000 prizes — to parents who brought their children for a full day on Count Day, when attendance figures are used to determine state funding levels. From The Detroit News:
http://detnews.com/article/20110316/SCHOOLS/103160439/DPS-offers-gift-cards-to-encourage-parental-involvement#ixzz1GsYg2tZq


A look at mobile migration, fraud, closed- and open-loop convergence, and the technological crossroads impeding progress By Marc Dresner, IIR USA