Kate Fitzgerald

American Express Co. this week signaled its plans to tap into new mobile and prepaid payment technologies that will include "debit-like" products, but it may have far to go before it catches up with its competitors in mobile payments.

Citing growth from new clients and improving chargeoff trends, Alliance Data Systems Corp. announced dramatic increases in third-quarter revenue and profitability for its private-label credit card unit.

The Merchants Payments Coalition is crying foul about Bank of America Corp.’s announcement this week that it took a $10.4 billion third-quarter goodwill charge to counter impending reductions in debit-interchange income.

First National Bank of Omaha will be the first major financial institution to extend Cardlytics Inc.'s online merchant-funded rewards system to credit card customers.

Banks may benefit from Federal Trade Commission rules on debt-relief firms scheduled to take effect this month, but small companies may have trouble adapting.

Crooks are devising simpler, less expensive — and less obvious — methods of stealing card data from merchants.

TCF Financial Corp. may not be alone in its legal fight against prospective restrictions on debit interchange rates.

Pending debit interchange rate rule changes are causing uncertainty about strategies for debit card rewards programs.

Point-of-sale transactions will likely become less costly for merchants, faster and more secure as a result of the pending debit interchange regulation, and future credit card interchange regulation is almost a certainty, according to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

MasterCard expects to rely heavily on technology to seek an edge in the expanding global commercial payments market, it signaled with a pair of recent announcements.

The pending overhaul of debit interchange rates is spurring interest in alternative payment systems, according to executives.

MasterCard Worldwide will lean heavily on technology to seek an edge in the expanding global commercial payments market, the company signaled with a pair of announcements this week, including naming a payments-technology guru as the new head of its global card operations.

Small-business owners' confidence in the economy rose slightly this month as their cash flow improved, according to Discover Financial Services.

Moneta Corp. is changing its name to Rialto Commerce and refocusing its strategy. Instead of working directly with banks, it plans to work with service providers that can persuade their bank clients to adopt its online-payment service.

The ongoing difficulties Canadian merchants have encountered in their conversion to the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications has prompted a new, six-month extension from the card brands.

Amex's launch of a social media application for Apple's iPhone that lets users share information about their purchases is a bold move.

MasterCard Inc. may be set to expand its market share in Canada with some help from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to Mercator Advisory Group.

More than three-fourths of bank customers did not pay any debit card overdraft fees during the 12 months through mid-August, according to a report from the American Bankers Association.

On Tuesday MasterCard announced a memorandum with China UnionPay, the country's sole payments network, to develop a business plan that "aims to forge a platform for potential cooperation including online and other payment areas."

Card issuers within the past two years dramatically reduced consumers' borrowing capacity to cut the risk of losses during the recession, but new data suggests the bulk of the credit line decreases came from closing inactive card accounts, not slashing active borrowers' credit lines.