Analytics

Two polls suggest consumers might be planning to lean more on credit cards again after overindulging in card use before the recession. And though the economy remains relatively sluggish, fewer Americans seem worried about their personal debt.

Prepaid debit cards that come with celebrity endorsements over the years have showed little staying power while whipping up storm clouds of controversy.

While the pace of foreclosures eased in 2011, a recent spike in default filings could indicate an uptick is coming in 2012, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace of foreclosure filings.

Consumer loan delinquencies fell in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 for the first time in 2011 thanks to improving job and housing markets, the American Bankers Association said.

Payment innovation quickened its pace from technology to strategic partnerships last year, setting the stage for some dominant trends in 2012.

Independent safety-science firm UL LLC signaled its desire to enter growing payment areas such as mobile transactions with its purchase this week of Australia-based payment card security-assessment company Witham Laboratories Ltd.

The Better Business Bureau has named a phishing scam that cites the organization as the top scam of 2011.

Citigroup Inc.'s new Facebook application moves the ball forward for banks that want to combine social media with banking activity, but it also raises concerns about privacy and security of consumer data.

Justice Department lawyers say a former government informant convicted of hacking into TJX and more than a dozen other leading retailers was never authorized by the U.S. Secret Service, which was employing him as an undercover informant, to steal data on more than 150 million credit card accounts.

The economy may be crawling back to normal in some sectors, but credit card industry revenue continues to fall, according to one longtime observer.

Which has their heads in the clouds? Merchants and consumers who fear a lack of data security in a cloud-based payment system? Or the vendors selling the systems that assure they are safer than centralized security platforms?

Ask Texas banker Edward Smith for the key to surviving the worst economic slump in recent memory and he's apt to give a simple response: guns and ammo.

The recent discovery of payment-terminal tampering at 24 outlets of California’s Lucky Supermarkets chain is raising fresh questions about the possible role of insiders in such highly coordinated crimes.

In a trend that gained strength the past year, payments and fraud-protection software and hardware providers continue to view Latin America as a land of opportunity.

A court in the United Arab Emirates has passed a landmark card-fraud judgment, laying the legal ground rules for the responsibilities of all involved parties, including card issuers, cardholders and merchants.

The explosion of mobile applications, especially those involving banking and payments, is almost certain to lead to ingenious new hacker attacks on consumer data next year. After all, why should 2012 be different from any other year, as crooks continually look for holes in security in hopes of reaping financial rewards?

The wild gyrations in credit card charge-off rates of the last two years is finally subsiding, providing more certainty for bankcard issuers planning their loan-loss contingency funds for 2012.

Security managers guarding bank account, credit and debit card data should take protective measures up a notch in 2012, new research suggests. Perhaps even two notches.

The serious mortgage delinquency rate in the 100 largest metropolitan areas has slowed a bit from 10.4% at its peak in December 2009 to 9.3% in June 2011, according to data from Foreclosure-Response.org.

In the realm of payment card data security, 2011 qualifies as the year in which “more” became a key term on many levels.