Andrea McKenna Brankin

American Express Co. is awaiting a patent for its Diverse Marketplace Intelligence analytical system, which it designed to identify and target cultural groups for marketing opportunities.

MasterCard Inc. has signed a six-year sponsorship deal with Walt Disney Co. and Euro Disney Associates S.C.A. to create marketing opportunities and do card-related promotions in Europe.

The Mexican soccer team Club America and Denarii Systems LLC, a Miami payment program provider that caters to unbanked consumers, have introduced a prepaid MasterCard designed for Hispanics in the United States.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. provided $10 billion in credit to small businesses in 2010, and its Ink small-business credit cards played a "significant" role.

Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express say sports sponsorships are less about attracting new customers than about nurturing their relationships with the ones they have.

American Express Co. has agreed to acquire Loyalty Partner, a leading European marketing services company.

Teens may be interested in getting reloadable gift cards as holiday gifts, but parents have not been on board with the trend, a recent survey by Socialwise Inc.'s BillMyParents suggests.

American Express Co. cardholders can now redeem their Membership Rewards points to buy virtual goods under an agreement the New York card company announced this week with social-game developer Zynga Inc.

American Express Co.'s latest effort to let cardholders tailor their young-adult-themed Zync card benefits is compatible with a general trend toward customization to build loyalty.

Holiday shoppers are turning away from using credit cards as their main payment option this season, according to an online survey Harris Interactive did for the prepaid card provider Green Dot Corp.

The spawning of a "mobile money" market in Haiti illustrates how mobile funds-transfer applications could develop elsewhere.

Discover Financial Services is offering extra cardholder benefits for the holiday season in an attempt to win a bigger share of holiday spending.

Discover Financial Services is taking competition to heart with two major sports-sponsorship deals, signaling a major change in its allocation of marketing dollars.

As if the payments industry has not faced enough difficulty with new regulations and the fallout from a poor economy, a new study now links card use to obesity.

Financial institutions should focus on marketing to individuals between the ages of 18 and 34 to grow their emerging consumer-payments businesses.

More consumers are using mobile phones to pay bills, but specifically how they are doing so requires more study, according Fiserv Inc., which identified the gap in information earlier this year when it polled 2,000 households as part of the technology company’s 2010 Billing Household online survey.

More consumers are turning to banks' online bill-payment services to better control their finances in the rough economy, according to Fiserv Inc.

American Express Co. cardholders can now use their Membership Rewards points to pay for all or part of their purchases on Amazon.com Inc.

First Data Corp. expects to sign up more than 100,000 merchants by yearend to use its TransArmor payment card security system.

Tyfone Inc. has received $5 million in financing from HDFC Holdings Ltd., Polaris Software Labe and Ojas Venture Partners, the provider of mobile-banking and mobile contactless-payment technology announced Sept. 7.