Technology

PARIS–Mobile payments are set to expand dramatically within the next two years, payments industry executives concurred during a roundtable discussion here Dec. 7 at the Cartes & IDentification conference. Although various obstacles to widespread deployment remain, the panelists agreed the industry has achieved significant progress within the past 12 months.

PARIS–Visa Inc. is making mobile payments a standard feature offering for its partner banks by moving into commercialization with a system it has been testing with four of the largest U.S. issuers.

FICO's quarterly survey of bank risk professionals indicate a credit gap that has hindered U.S. consumer spending is likely to continue well into 2011. Also, lenders are unlikely to meet the credit demands of small businesses in the near term.

Financial institutions looking to make up for revenue lost should debit card interchange rates dramatically drop next year could target what increasingly has become a thorn in their side: third party automated clearinghouse debits from their customers’ checking accounts, new research suggests.

(This article contains some corrected information.)

Motorists in Dubai reportedly are upset about the new mParking service launched by the Road Transport Authority of Dubai because of its limited functionality. The service enables motorists to pay for their parking lot tickets by sending a text message from their mobile phones.

As the effects of recent financial legislation may cause some card issuers to scale back on the rewards and loyalty programs they offer to encourage card use and, inherently, shopping, the doors may be opening for third-party loyalty-program providers to align with merchants.

More than 450 C&A Mode KG fashion-retail stores in Germany plan to deploy 2,700 Hypercom Corp. Artema Hybrid point-of-sale terminals, Hypercom announced Dec. 6.

The majority of companies are using outdated methods to reach customers and fail to take individual preferences into account, according to a survey of retail banking industry and customer communication trends.

Citgo Petroleum Corp. has agreed to make Heartland Payment Systems Inc.’s SmartLink payment system available to its 6,500 Citgo retailers, payment processor Heartland announced Dec. 2.