Analytics

Microsoft Corp. insists the online service associated with the Xbox 360 video-game console did not experience a security breach despite some United Kingdom consumers who say they fell victim to a phishing scam tied to the system.

Average consumer credit card debt in October fell 11%, to $6,600, from a year earlier but rose 1% from the previous month, according to Credit Karma’s latest U.S. Credit Score Climate report.

Consumers sued a total of 498 different collection agencies and creditors between Oct. 16 and 31, down 17% from 597 during the first half of the month, according to data from U.S. district courts.

The U.S. is in a balance-sheet slowdown: overleveraged households are tightening their belts and holding back on consumption, thereby choking off the economy's main engine.

In light of recent Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council recommendations regarding advanced encryption, acquirers and processors are giving greater attention to the hardware-security module used to protect card data while transactions are processed, a technician who specializes in security devices suggests.

The U.S. is in a balance-sheet slowdown: overleveraged households are tightening their belts and holding back on consumption, thereby choking off the economy's main engine.

Consumers’ outstanding credit card debt rose incrementally during the third quarter, while the proportion of consumers falling behind on their monthly card-account payments rose for the first time in nearly two years, according to a report TransUnion LLC released Nov. 15.

Rampant data breaches have taught consumers that it is not always wise to store payment data with a third party, but soon such behavior may become the safer way to transact.

Some credit card issuers may be tempted to loosen underwriting standards this holiday season as credit card loss rates hover at record low levels. But such policy shifts could have more far-reaching implications on issuers’ bottom lines than just a few years ago, one analyst warns.

Some credit card issuers may be tempted to loosen underwriting standards this holiday season as credit card loss rates hover at record low levels. But such policy shifts could have more far-reaching implications on issuers’ bottom lines than just a few years ago, one analyst warns.

The U.S. is increasingly moving toward the EMV chip card standard as a panacea for credit card fraud, but it actually may be a Pandora's box.

Valve Corp., the company that provides the popular PC game platform Steam, disclosed Nov. 9 that it suffered a data breach this month.

In 2009 through last year, credit cards had been first on consumers’ list when deciding which bills to pay first, over mortgage and other debts. This year, however, their priority has shifted to paying mortgages and utilities first, new study data show.

The average consumer credit card charge-off rate among the top U.S. card issuers is nearing a historic low but should begin creeping upward next year, new data Fitch Ratings Inc. released Nov. 9 suggest.

Near the end of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s one-day payments symposium Sept. 26, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Jamie Henry posed a question that had yet to be answered during the previous eight hours.

The Internal Revenue Service has not collected delinquent taxes for nearly half the past-due tax cases left behind from its shuttered private debt collection program, according to a new government report.

Total consumer credit card borrowing dipped slightly in September while lenders’ credit card underwriting criteria remained in a holding pattern, according to new data the Federal Reserve Board released Nov. 7.

Consumer debt rebounded at an annual rate of 3.6% in September after a surprising 4.7% drop in August, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 9% from 9.1% - the first time it has dropped since July. The U.S. economy also added 80,000 jobs in October, the government said.

One month ago today the new debit interchange fees under the Durbin amendment became a reality for banks. This hotly debated and highly controversial new regulation slashed fees banks could charge on debit transactions nearly in half (the current cap is 24 cents, down from an average of 44 cents).