Analytics

After another year in which legislators and regulators rewrote the rules of the game in the payments industry, equity markets have rendered provisional judgments on which companies face the worst handicaps.

The past year saw debit card issuers introduce rewards programs to the marketplace and card networks extend their brands with direct-to-consumer offers such as MasterCard Marketplace and Visa Extras. But the debit-rewards landscape likely will change drastically under the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit card interchange rules, a new report suggests.

Consumer confidence surprisingly fell in December, hurt by rising fears about the jobs market, according to a report released in late December by a private industry group.

Bank of America Corp. will take a $3 billion fourth-quarter charge stemming from settlements with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae over poorly underwritten mortgages the bank sold to the government-sponsored enterprises.

Credit card account originations are on the rise again as account-delinquency rates continue to fall and consumers continue to show discipline in their borrowing, a new report Equifax Inc. released Dec. 29 suggests.

Discover Financial Services is going into the new year in a relatively stronger position than it was a year ago, helped by the improving economy and by recent key strategic moves it has made, a new report suggests.

Because such open-platform payment providers as Pay Pal Inc., IP Commerce Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Ixaris Systems Ltd. are moving into new markets such as mobile commerce to provide secure payment systems to merchants, they should carefully monitor their susceptibility to fraud risk and potential market changes, a new report suggests.

As credit card portfolio health continues to improve and consumer spending gradually picks up, card issuers are poised to see the first increase in overall credit card receivables next year, Moody’s Investors Service predicts in a Dec. 21 report.

Debt buyer Portfolio Recovery Associates' shares reached a 52-week high on Friday, with stock trading as high as $76.80. The stock previously had closed at $74.20. At mid-day on Monday, the stock was trading at $76.17.

The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday approved an interim rule amending Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA).

Only two of the 2,150 U.S. credit unions with credit card receivables of $1 million or more sold portfolios during the third quarter ended Sept. 30, as many buyers still remain wary about overall credit union health, according to AssetExchange, a Portland, Ore.-based credit union card broker.

Citibank reported Wednesday that its charge-off rate on credit cards fell to 9.4% of balances from 10.3% in October, the largest drop among the top six U.S. credit card issuers for November.



Asta Funding Inc., a publicly owned debt buyer, Tuesday reported net income of $3.1 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, compared to a net loss of $90.7 million during fiscal year 2009. 


Maxamum Inc., a company launched to help consumers with thin credit histories establish credit, plans to provide a new business model combining non-traditional bill reporting services with a points-driven rewards model.

U.S. consumers’ average credit card debt fell by 7.4% through the first 11 months of the year, while the average November credit score dropped a point from October’s score, according to new data Credit Karma released Dec. 15.

An estimated 428 different collection agencies and creditors were sued under consumer statutes between Nov. 16-30, a drop from 497 in the first half of the month, according to data from U.S. District Courts. The tally likely dropped in part because of the Thanksgiving holiday.



Consumer borrowing rose in October by the largest amount in more than two years, a jump led by a recently enacted law that makes the government the primary lender to students, the Federal Reserve reported earlier this month.

Until recently, much of the attention surrounding so-called "put-back risk" has focused on the legal aspect, notably whether judges will require lenders to repurchase loans they sold to securitizers.

FICO's quarterly survey of bank risk professionals indicate a credit gap that has hindered U.S. consumer spending is likely to continue well into 2011. Also, lenders are unlikely to meet the credit demands of small businesses in the near term.

Financial institutions looking to make up for revenue lost should debit card interchange rates dramatically drop next year could target what increasingly has become a thorn in their side: third party automated clearinghouse debits from their customers’ checking accounts, new research suggests.