Fintech

Helped by improving economic trends, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Card Services unit on April 13 reported a healthy increase in credit card sales volume for the first quarter ended March 31.

Credit scores nationwide fell two points to 665 in the first quarter ended March 31, according to CreditKarma.com, which released its U.S. Credit Score Climate Report on Wednesday.

Most consumers hold at least one rewards-based credit card and would consider paying an annual fee if it meant they would receive and earn more rewards, new research suggests.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Durbin, author of the controversial rule to set caps on debit fees, yesterday denounced assertions by banks and credit unions that having card giants MasterCard and Visa set prices for debit is preferable to having the Federal Reserve set price limits on the increasingly popular form of payment.

Visa Inc. has adapted the fraud scoring tool that it uses to vet card-not-present transactions to aid government agencies and private businesses with corporate card accounts.

Wells Fargo & Co. is planning to issue 15,000 EMV cards to U.S. residents in a test this year, making it by far the largest bank to offer the smart cards to domestic customers.

Driven by lower provision for credit losses, partially offset by lower net revenue, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Card Services unit generated net income of $1.34 billion for the first quarter ended March 30; it reported a $303 million loss during the same period last year, the New York-based issuer reported April 13.

he breach last month at Epsilon, the email marketing arm of Alliance Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas, was probably four months in the making, according to an April 9 story in CNet, and it could have started with a phishing attack against an email services partner that Epsilon used, called Return Path Inc., of New York.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has added former executives from ING Direct and Hypercom Corp. to its management team.

A consortium of technology companies with banking-industry connections is urging lawmakers to delay implementation of the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit-interchange rules, warning they could heighten risk by forcing banks to reduce their investments in security and fraud-protection services.