OTS Gift Card Guidance

GuidanceOffice of Thrift Supervision (OTS)Identity Theft
Information Security
Risk Management

Purpose and Scope

This document outlines the Office of Thrift Supervision’s (OTS’s) supervisory expectations for savings associations’ gift card programs. The purpose of this guidance is to ensure adequate account administration, marketing, and consumer disclosure practices for gift card programs; to encourage more uniform practices among the thrift institutions that offer gift card programs; and to promote consumer protection while continuing to encourage product innovation.

Background

A gift card is a payment card with a preloaded value that one consumer typically gives to another as a gift. Like a gift certificate, a consumer may use a gift card to purchase goods or services from one or more merchants.

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