Kate Fitzgerald

The emergence of several new prepaid debit card programs and growing national distribution of major prepaid card brands is helping to generate marketplace interest in buying and selling prepaid card portfolios.

By 2016, Javelin expects the total number of U.S. tablet owners to reach 87 million, or 40% of consumers.

The recession left its mark on many industries, but if it had a silver lining for 7-Eleven, it may have been the opening it created to get into a more-profitable array of financial-services products in response to shifting consumer demand.

Citigroup announced an upgrade to its online banking application for Apple's iPad that includes what Citi says is the first such robust iPad credit card account-analysis application.

The Zappos data breach, wherein thieves stole partial credit-card numbers from the shoe-marketing giant, may demonstrate that merchants have taken key steps to prevent the theft of full account numbers.

"Wallet" doesn't actually provide mobile payments, but collects rewards points for other mobile wallet programs.

The number of companies caught in data breaches exposing consumers' credit, debit and bank account numbers is growing, but the best way to make amends to customers is not yet clear.

Many companies still cling to time-sapping policies of checking transactions manually for mistakes and abuse. That is changing as more commercial-card issuers offer card-auditing programs designed to catch errors and variations from corporate spending policies automatically.

The credit card industry's total revenue fell to $154.9 billion in 2011, as borrowing grew sluggishly and issuers struggled to overcome regulatory restrictions, according to advisory firm R.K. Hammer.

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

When online shoppers are looking for alternatives to credit and debit cards, Mopay hopes they will consider adding charges to their Internet service provider's bill.

How wide should credit card lenders open the gates to borrowers after slamming them shut during the recession when losses soared? It depends on their analytics.

First National Bank of Omaha next year will launch three cobranded credit card programs, Steve Eulie, the president of First National's First BankCard credit card division, said.

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.

About 80 million mobile phones are expected to ship with built-in near-field communication technology that can be used to transmit payment information between devices.

Visa may be preparing to debut its ties to Google's mobile wallet in London at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, sources say.

Litigation fears may impede industry support for shorter credit card term agreements, even though most issuers agree reducing the amount of text is a nice idea.

Rumors are that Google will launch its Google Wallet app in London this summer.

Young, tech-savvy adults may be the quickest to embrace new technology, but don't bet on them trusting social media sites or funky startups with their cash. Banks win out easily, at least for now.

U.S. credit card delinquency rates, riding at their lowest levels in 17 years, likely will decline further next year as consumers continue to make on-time payments and maintain relatively low account balances, according to a new forecast.