Admin

Originally Posted by Admin

Dear ePassporte Account Holders,

Please be advised that, at 12:00 PM PDT today, September 2, 2010, we were notified that effective immediately, Visa International has suspended our banking partner's (St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank) ePassporte Visa program. The ePassporte e-Wallet program continues to be up and running, except funds cannot be transferred between your Visa Account and your e-Wallet. At this time ePassporte can no longer issue Visa Cards, and the ability for our Account Holders to make point of sale purchases and withdraw funds from ATMs has also been suspended.

At this time we do not know why this drastic action was taken by Visa. To us, it is unconscionable that such action would be taken without the opportunity for ePassporte to fully understand Visa's reasons and to be able to take all steps necessary to keep our program running the way it has so successfully done for over 7 years. But that is what Visa has done.

As soon as we have more information we will be in contact with you.

In the meantime please be assured that your funds are safe.

We are very sorry for the short notice and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. The ePassporte team is working diligently to rectify this situation.

We kindly ask you to bear with us while we work through this issue.

Please feel free to contact us via the message center or at our call center, should you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Thank You,

Christopher Mallick

Very bad news in my opinion and we do hope that they figure out what happens and what is required in order to sort things with the bank and Visa.

The reason for all this may be the new Visa regulations which came into effect and which are made by the Credit Card Act of 2009 and which require an increase in the data and information to be collected for Debit Cards! These data need to be reported to the network accordantly.

It may be a challenge in the future to buy pre paid cards on the Internet and in the stores around, even the large e-wallet providers who are able to issue debit cards may get in troubles with this regulations and their business.

Beginning June 28, 2010 the public will have 30 days to comment on the rules, which requires financial companies not licensed as banks to provide:

File suspicious activity reports (SARs) with the government on suspicious activity of more than $2,000. Suspicious Activities Reports are Treasury Department forms already required of banks, casinos, poker rooms, securities and futures firms and others in the money services business. More than 5.6 million have been filed since they were first mandated in 1996 (see chart). The proposed rule would add nonbank card providers to the ranks of those required to file forms with the government when their suspicions are aroused.
Collect customer information anytime a card is reloaded at someplace other than a bank.
Maintain transaction information.

The regulations focus on the below:

Don't have the value clearly labeled on them.
Are reloadable at places other than banks.
Can have a maximum lifetime value of more than $1,000, including reloads.
Can be used anywhere -- especially if they can be used internationally.
Can have the value transferred to another card.
Are purchased in large amounts or seem otherwise suspicious.