Fintech

Bank of Ireland is rolling out what it claims is the first contactless Visa debit card from an Irish bank.

EBay Inc. is building on the mobile payments strategy of its PayPal unit with its $240 million deal to buy Zong Inc., a company that lets consumers charge purchases of digital goods to their wireless phone bills.

Visa Inc. says some of its contracts with bank card issuers must be “redone” to comply with new debit card regulations that take effect this year, but most already meet the requirements.

Many prepaid card companies will be forced to strip away features — or even change bank partners — if they want to qualify for exemptions from the new caps on debit interchange fees.

Anyone who owns a smart phone knows new apps and program updates are posted every day and even the handsets themselves evolve every year or so.

In an unintended consequence of the newly revised federal rules on cybersecurity, banks are likely to fare much worse in lawsuits over fraud losses.

In a move aimed at significantly expanding its card-brands’ acceptance in Europe, Discover Financial Services has forged a processing and merchant-acquiring agreement with First Data Corp. for international operations, a Discover executive tells PaymentsSource.

Retailers such as 7-Eleven Inc. pulled out the stops to get consumer support during the merchants’ lobbying campaign to win lower debit interchange fees.

As a growing number of United Kingdom-based merchants adopt contactless payment technology as part of a broad regional effort leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games, specific retailers are seeing the technology’s benefits.

In an effort to reduce cash-handling and streamline commuter transactions, Mumbai-based State Bank of India Ltd on July 6 introduced a contactless dual-function smart card developed in association with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.