The electronification of transit fare payments: a look at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's New Payment Technologies Project

Over the past decade many of the nation's largest public transit providers have gone from fare-payment systems based on cash and coin to more modern electronic systems that implement payment cards, including agency-issued prepaid cards, credit cards, and debit cards. On September 16, 2008, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a workshop to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) as it attempts to redesign its transit-fare payment system to accept payment cards. Jerry Kane, manager of SEPTA's New Payment Technologies Project, led the workshop. This paper summarizes Kane's presentation and the ensuing discussion. In addition, this paper offers some thoughts on why the modernization of transit-fare payment systems has begun around the country; what obstacles still stand in the way of using credit, debit, and prepaid cards to pay fares; and what this movement means for consumer payments generally.Payment systems ; Credit cards ; Debit cards ; Transportation

The Credit CARD act of 2009 and prepaid cards

Recently enacted federal legislation contains a number of provisions that will affect the prepaid card industry. This note highlights some of these provisions, discusses how they might shape the prepaid card industry, and outlines the debate over whether prepaid cards should be defined as "monetary instruments" under federal law.Payment systems ; Credit cards ; Debit cards ; Law and legislation

Consumer testing informs policy: overdraft regulation as a case study

In November 2009, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued regulations that protect consumers from being charged certain fees when, under a discretionary overdraft service, financial institutions pay transactions from a deposit account that contains insufficient funds. Under the regulations, consumers must receive notices that explain any discretionary overdraft services offered to them by their bank. In addition, consumers may not be charged overdraft fees for ATM or one-time debit transactions unless they have opted in to this service. During the rulemaking process, the Board extensively interviewed consumers and tested model notices to understand how consumers think about and use overdraft services. This paper describes banks’ overdraft programs, examines lessons learned from consumer testing, and explains how information obtained during consumer testing influenced the rulemaking. In addition, this paper presents some insights about more effective ways of conveying key information about overdraft services to consumers.Consumers' preferences ; Overdrafts ; Regulation

Legislative responses to data breaches and information security failures

On July 23, 2008, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a workshop to discuss federal and state legislative responses to data breaches. The workshop addressed several laws and legislative initiatives designed to create greater safeguards for personal consumer information frequently targeted by data thieves and often subject to the failures of information security protocols. Diane Slifer, J.D., M.B.A., who has frequently presented at forums on data security and has represented clients in matters related to data breaches, led the workshop. Slifer examined several highly publicized data breaches and explained how various laws and regulations have been put in place in order to protect and inform consumers whose personal information has been compromised. Additionally, she discussed several legislative initiatives designed to potentially create a more structured and secure environment for private consumer data overall. This paper summarizes Slifer's presentation, the ensuing discussion, and additional Payment Cards Center research. In addition, it offers a brief overview of recent data breaches, a description of various ways that federal and state laws operate, and some thoughts on how effective these laws and regulations have been.Payment systems ; Identity theft ; Fraud ; Law and legislation

The electronification of transit fare payments: Examining the case for partnership the case for partnerships between payments firms and transit agencies

Several of the nation’s largest payment-card-issuing banks are working with public transit agencies to enable consumers to pay fares by using payment cards, and more such partnerships may be on the horizon. On April 23, 2009, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a workshop to discuss the potential adoption of electronic payments by transit agencies from the perspectives of several subject matter experts from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. James Lock, vice president and senior advisor, Treasury Services Global Advisory Solutions group; Jameson Troutman, strategy manager with Chase Card Services; and Krista Gallagher, from Chase’s retail banking team, attended the workshop. This paper looks at several electronic transit-fare payment models and the potential opportunities these models present to transit agencies and payments firms — such as the opportunity for transit agencies to reduce costs and to operate a more efficient payments infrastructure or the opportunity for the payments industry to increase consumers’ use of contactless payment technology. This paper also identifies significant obstacles to widespread adoption of systems that allow consumers to use their credit, debit, or prepaid cards to pay fares directly.Local transit ; Point-of-sale-systems ; Public-private sector cooperation

Conference summary: federal regulation of the prepaid card industry: costs, benefits, and changing industry dynamics

On April 8-9, 2010, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a conference that brought together leaders in the prepaid card industry, regulators, consumer groups, law enforcement agents, and industry researchers to discuss the economics of prepaid cards and the benefits and costs of their regulation from the standpoint of several different product categories. In particular, the conference examined ways in which prepaid card products can differ, how the industry has developed over time, ongoing industry dynamics, ways in which the usefulness of prepaid products to criminals might be limited, whether consumers who use prepaid cards are adequately protected, and the challenges facing regulators. This paper summarizes the highlights from the presentations given at the conference and the discussions that ensued.Point-of-sale-systems ; Consumer credit

The laws, regulations, guidelines, and industry practices that protect consumers who use gift cards

This paper discusses consumer protections available to gift-card users. Specifically, it examines the ways in which value loaded at the time of purchase is protected for future card use or returned to consumers when the card is not used or has expired. The consumer protection information included in this paper is derived from a number of sources, including several types of state statutes, Federal Trade Commission decisions, financial industry regulatory agency guidelines, and previous interviews with payments industry experts regarding practices concerning network-branded gift cards. This paper expands research begun by the Payment Cards Center in 2004 into prepaid cards generally and the protections available to consumers who use gift cards specifically.Payment systems

Gravitational waves: search results, data analysis and parameter estimation

The Amaldi 10 Parallel Session C2 on gravitational wave (GW) search results, data analysis and parameter estimation included three lively sessions of lectures by 13 presenters, and 34 posters. The talks and posters covered a huge range of material, including results and analysis techniques for ground-based GW detectors, targeting anticipated signals from different astrophysical sources: compact binary inspiral, merger and ringdown; GW bursts from intermediate mass binary black hole mergers, cosmic string cusps, core-collapse supernovae, and other unmodeled sources; continuous waves from spinning neutron stars; and a stochastic GW background. There was considerable emphasis on Bayesian techniques for estimating the parameters of coalescing compact binary systems from the gravitational waveforms extracted from the data from the advanced detector network. This included methods to distinguish deviations of the signals from what is expected in the context of General Relativity

Phase 1 Study of Two Merozoite Surface Protein 1 (MSP1(42)) Vaccines for Plasmodium falciparum Malaria

OBJECTIVES: To assess the safety and immunogenicity of two vaccines, MSP1(42)-FVO/Alhydrogel and MSP1(42)-3D7/Alhydrogel, targeting blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum parasites. DESIGN: A Phase 1 open-label, dose-escalating study. SETTING: Quintiles Phase 1 Services, Lenexa, Kansas between July 2004 and November 2005. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty healthy malaria-naïve volunteers 18–48 y of age. INTERVENTIONS: The C-terminal 42-kDa region of merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1(42)) corresponding to the two allelic forms present in FVO and 3D7 P. falciparum lines were expressed in Escherichia coli, refolded, purified, and formulated on Alhydrogel (aluminum hydroxide). For each vaccine, volunteers in each of three dose cohorts (5, 20, and 80 μg) were vaccinated at 0, 28, and 180 d. Volunteers were followed for 1 y. OUTCOME MEASURES: The safety of MSP1(42)-FVO/Alhydrogel and MSP1(42)-3D7/Alhydrogel was assessed. The antibody response to each vaccine was measured by reactivity to homologous and heterologous MSP1(42), MSP1(19), and MSP1(33) recombinant proteins and recognition of FVO and 3D7 parasites. RESULTS: Anti-MSP1(42) antibodies were detected by ELISA in 20/27 (74%) and 22/27 (81%) volunteers receiving three vaccinations of MSP1(42)-FVO/Alhydrogel or MSP1(42)-3D7/Alhydrogel, respectively. Regardless of the vaccine, the antibodies were cross-reactive to both MSP1(42)-FVO and MSP1(42)-3D7 proteins. The majority of the antibody response targeted the C-terminal 19-kDa domain of MSP1(42), although low-level antibodies to the N-terminal 33-kDa domain of MSP1(42) were also detected. Immunofluorescence microscopy of sera from the volunteers demonstrated reactivity with both FVO and 3D7 P. falciparum schizonts and free merozoites. Minimal in vitro growth inhibition of FVO or 3D7 parasites by purified IgG from the sera of the vaccinees was observed. CONCLUSIONS: The MSP1(42)/Alhydrogel vaccines were safe and well tolerated but not sufficiently immunogenic to generate a biologic effect in vitro. Addition of immunostimulants to the Alhydrogel formulation to elicit higher vaccine-induced responses in humans may be required for an effective vaccine

Influence of Prior Influenza Vaccination on Antibody and B-Cell Responses

Currently two vaccines, trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) and live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), are licensed in the USA. Despite previous studies on immune responses induced by these two vaccines, a comparative study of the influence of prior influenza vaccination on serum antibody and B-cell responses to new LAIV or TIV vaccination has not been reported. During the 2005/6 influenza season, we quantified the serum antibody and B-cell responses to LAIV or TIV in adults with differing influenza vaccination histories in the prior year: LAIV, TIV, or neither. Blood samples were collected on days 0, 7–9 and 21–35 after immunization and used for serum HAI assay and B-cell assays. Total and influenza-specific circulating IgG and IgA antibody secreting cells (ASC) in PBMC were detected by direct ELISPOT assay. Memory B cells were also tested by ELISPOT after polyclonal stimulation of PBMC in vitro. Serum antibody, effector, and memory B-cell responses were greater in TIV recipients than LAIV recipients. Prior year TIV recipients had significantly higher baseline HAI titers, but lower HAI response after vaccination with either TIV or LAIV, and lower IgA ASC response after vaccination with TIV than prior year LAIV or no vaccination recipients. Lower levels of baseline HAI titer were associated with a greater fold-increase of HAI titer and ASC number after vaccination, which also differed by type of vaccine. Our findings suggest that the type of vaccine received in the prior year affects the serum antibody and the B-cell responses to subsequent vaccination. In particular, prior year TIV vaccination is associated with sustained higher HAI titer one year later but lower antibody response to new LAIV or TIV vaccination, and a lower effector B-cell response to new TIV but not LAIV vaccination