Technology

Zong Inc. said March 17 that its mobile carrier billing service is now available for video game consoles, interactive television services, mobile websites and other channels.

Responding to growing concerns about cardholder data being exposed when merchants process payments over the telephone, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council on March 18 announced guidelines for handling and storing card data within audio recordings at call centers.

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger's office announced an agreement Thursday that shuts down Eugene, Ore.-based law firm McGavic & Finney PC, which was the subject of dozens of complaints about its collection practices. In addition to closing down the firm, the settlement requires founding partner Derrick E. McGavic to pay $70,000 and surrender his license to practice law.

A number of Olympic and Paralympic fans who tried to purchase event tickets March 16 to next year’s London games were unable to complete orders March 16 if their Visa-branded payment card expired before a certain date.

Littlewoods Europe’s addition of Optimal Payments PLC’s Neteller’s e-wallet as an accepted payment method will help protect customers against card-not-present fraud because they will not have to enter their financial or personal information when making an online purchase, according to the United Kingdom-based online retailer, which announced the service March 15.

Bengaluru Metro Rail Corp. on March 16 launched a prototype of the contactless smart card the subway network for the Indian city of Bengaluru will use starting Apr 4, a spokesperson for the agency tells PaymentsSource.

Consumers doubt they will benefit from lower debit fees, according to a recent survey, even as the Federal Reserve is poised to direct lower interchange charged merchants by credit unions and banks.

The National Payments Corp. of India has informed banks that it will charge remitting institutions 0.1 rupees (0.002 U.S. cents or 0.0015 euros) for every mobile transaction that flows through the interbank funds-transfer service it launched last year, the company announced March 14.

India Post, the country’s state-owned postal service, has begun enabling customers to conduct and pay for postal services online, a spokesperson for the agency tells PaymentsSource.

Many small businesses that do not use mobile bill-payment services are unlikely to use them in the near future, new survey data suggest.