Fintech

With many of its legal questions and organizational issues addressed, the Merchant Customer Exchange has turned its focus to the technology that will drive its mobile commerce initiative.

The allure of the fast-growing U.S. market for prepaid debit cards is pitting niche players like pop star Justin Bieber against financial giants including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and American Express Co.

Consumer credit originated year-to-date through last September increased nearly 30 percent during the same timeframe in 2011, according to Equifax's latest National Consumer Credit Trends Report.

PayPal signed many new retail partnerships this year, while also building a digital wallet and a handful of plastic cards to complement its online payment system.

Contactless payments have not caught on in the UK because consumers don't think payments are safe without a PIN, says SmartDebit, a Surrey-based payments processor in the UK, in response to recent figures published by ICM Research.

2012 began with the abrupt departure of PayPal's president. Upon putting a new leader in place, the eBay unit made many key moves to adapt its operations and its product line to the fast-changing payments market.

As 2012 progressed, one thing became strikingly clear: the card networks do not want to be left behind as new digital payment methods threaten plastic.

It's nearly a full year since finance guru Suze Orman faced a backlash over her prepaid card fees and two years since the pricey Kardashian Kard went kaput — and yet the prepaid card market remains under fire for its pricing. Even so, prepaid cards are growing in popularity.

Small banks continue to pull in significant revenue from interchange fees on debit cards despite fears a new rule directed at larger institutions could have hurt them too, according to a report issued this week by the Federal Trade Commission.

The board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati has reelected Carl F. Wick, a former NCR executive, as its chairman.