Analytics

The outcome of Tuesday’s Election Day results could have meaningful implications for the card industry, including affecting the odds of credit card interchange legislation emerging next year, analysts at New York-based equity firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a report released Monday.

iQor Holdings Inc., a New York-based global business process outsourcing (BPO) company, has acquired RMS, an accounts receivable outsourcing services firm.

Encore Capital Group Inc., a San Diego-based collection agency and debt buyer, this week reported third quarter net income of $12.3 million, compared to $9 million in the year-ago quarter. The company's revenue grew 22% from the prior year’s third quarter to $98 million.

Credit bureau Equifax on Wednesday said an 11% rise in third quarter revenues helped fuel a 28% rise in earnings for the period.

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) lawsuits rose slightly to 455 in the Oct. 1-15 period compared to 441 in the last half of September, according to data from U.S. District Courts.

Effective Jan. 1, merchants and payments companies must ensure their systems comply with versions 2.0 of the Payment Card Industry and Payment Application data-security standards the PCI Security Standards Council released Oct. 28.

The cyclical recovery in credit card loan performance appears to have punched through seasonal patterns in recent months.

The cyclical recovery in credit card loan performance appears to have punched through seasonal patterns in recent months.

Small businesses are showing more confidence in the economy, according to new survey data Discover Financial Services released Monday.

Small businesses are showing more confidence in the economy, according to new survey data Discover Financial Services released Oct. 25

Charge-off rates on outstanding receivables for the six largest credit card issuers in the United States declined during the third quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with the same period last year, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Driven lower by heavy charge-offs and increased frugality among consumers, inflation-adjusted household debt, including borrowing on credit cards, has fallen about 5.6% from a peak in the fourth quarter of 2008, to a nominal $13.4 trillion in the second quarter this year.

Financial institutions should focus on marketing to individuals between the ages of 18 and 34 to grow their emerging consumer-payments businesses. But the so-called Millennial Generation surprisingly is nonplussed by mobile payments, despite its growing exposure in the market, suggest the results of a recent study.

Allied Interstate Inc., a large collection agency based in St. Louis Park, Minn., will pay $1.75 million to settle federal allegations that employees repeatedly tried to collect debts from the wrong person, the Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday.

NetSpend Holdings Inc.’s initial day as a public company fared well, but it might have done better had it debuted on the market a week earlier, according to one analyst.

NetSpend Holdings Inc.’s initial day as a public company fared well, but it might have done better had it debuted on the market a week earlier, according to one analyst.

The housing crisis may now get as personal for bank executives as it has for individual homeowners.

Driven lower by heavy charge-offs and increased frugality among consumers, inflation-adjusted household debt, including borrowing on credit cards, has fallen about 5.6% from a peak in the fourth quarter of 2008, to a nominal $13.4 trillion in the second quarter this year.

Five of the nation’s largest credit card issuers reported improvements in September charge-off rates on outstanding receivables, prompting Moody’s Investors Service to suggest in an Oct. 18 report that August’s uptick in charge-off rates was a blip, not the reversal of an overall trend of improving charge-off rates.

Despite an increase in spending on Visa Inc. cards in both July and September (August saw a decline), card-spending growth dropped during the third quarter as consumers remained cautious about their finances, according to Visa Europe’s UK Expenditure Index released on Oct. 7.