Will Wade

Warning that the weak U.S. economy will continue to drag down consumer spending this year, Wells Fargo & Co. issued a blanket downgrade of the transaction processing segment.

Wells Fargo & Co. senior analyst Timothy Willi reduced his rating on the Purchase, N.Y., payments company to "market perform," from "outperform," largely on valuation concerns.

An expected surge in demand for core banking products and a recent acquisition prompted Citigroup Global Markets to upgrade Temenos Group AG this week.

At least four mobile transfer systems are set to go live in the next few months, enabling people to send one another cash with their phones.

American Express Co. has introduced an online invoicing and payment service aimed at small businesses. The company's AcceptPay, announced Monday, enables businesses to produce, send and track invoices electronically.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has agreed to pay American Express Co. a settlement of $3.6 million related to a data breach the processor disclosed in January.

A new generation of person-to-person money transfer services is quickly gaining traction with banks, offering a way to regain a share of the electronic payments that was ceded long ago to nonbank rivals.

Infosys Technologies Ltd. has rolled out an online banking system that lets banks provide self-serve financial functions with remote support from service representatives.

Consumers are making more online purchases during the holiday season this year, but are spending less than last year, according to Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC.

BC Card, South Korea's largest credit card issuer, is planning to use servers from International Business Machines Corp. to handle its payment systems.

Coinstar Inc. has expanded its money transfer services into Poland through a deal with Pocztowy Bank.

Cybercrime is becoming more dangerous; Exposed printed data account for increase in data breaches; and more.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. has agreed to provide data to American Express Co. corporate customers about cardholders' purchases at its hotels.

Discover Finds Consumers Wary

NCR Corp.'s kiosk operation has notched two deployment victories this week.

Consumer confidence in the economy fell in November, according to Discover Financial Services.

The mobile banking technology vendor ClairMail is planning to offer a remote capture service that its bank clients can offer to customers, using software from Mitek Systems Inc.

The Dutch smart card maker Gemalto NV is negotiating to buy the banking operations of Xiring, a French security technology vendor.

First National Bank of Florida in Milton has agreed to use core banking technology from Jack Henry & Associates, again.

Tesco, the U.K.'s largest retailer, has agreed to use a core banking application from Fiserv Inc. in its retail banking unit.