Merchant

Gift and loyalty services company SparkBase LLC is using $3 million in new funding to hasten the development and deployment of its technology platform and mobile services, which includes a smartphone application that enables consumers to quickly enroll in merchant-loyalty programs.

U.S. Bancorp plans to begin issuing EMV chip credit cards that also include a tap-and-go payment function to its customers this month.

Mirroring the growing chatter about the possibility of U.S. card issuers one day adopting EMV chip-and-PIN technology, panel discussions related to the topic were well attended during the Smart Card Alliance’s annual conference in May.

NEW ORLEANS–For all talk about how mobile technology can rapidly bring financial services to emerging markets, it has really only worked in a few countries so far, most notably Kenya and the Philippines. Much of mobile money’s success in Kenya can be attributed to the work of Michael Joseph, a strategic advisor to Safaricom, who discussed here on June 7 his experiences building a new financial infrastructure in that country.

Visa Inc.’s acquisition of Fundamo will help it use mobile payments to serve more underbanked consumers abroad, according to the card network, which on June 9 announced a deal in which is will pay about $110 million for the Cape Town, South Africa-based mobile payments company.

The chances that Citigroup Inc.’s credit cardholders will experience card fraud stemming from a recent online data breach are low, but those customers are likely to be the target of phishing scams.

U.S. consumers average credit scores dropped three points to 667 since May 2010, while credit card debt plunged by 15% to $6,740 in the same period, according to data Credit Karma released Thursday.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc.’s shares rose as much as 9% in early trading June 9 after an analyst upgraded the payment processor’s stock on the expectation that it will benefit from the pending caps on debit interchange.

WASHINGTON — Although banks failed in their attempt to convince Congress to delay an interchange fee cap for debit cards, the financial services industry is not giving up, just changing venues.

A United Kingdom consumer-advocacy group is commending Monarch Airlines for dropping what it deems was an unfair debit card fee associated with ticket purchases. But whether Monarch’s move prompts other airlines to drop their similar fees remains to be seen.