Technology

U.S. Bankcard Services Inc., an Industry, Calif.-based independent sales organization, has added China UnionPay card acceptance to its list of merchant services.

The prepaid card market has come a long way over the past two decades, and T. Jack Williams has been there since virtually the beginning. As director of membership services at Blockbuster Entertainment, Williams played a key role in creating the world’s first merchant gift card program in the spring of 1994. He later went on to help launch the Kmart Cash Card in 1997 while at Stored Value Systems, at the time a division of National City Bank (see bio). This was the first merchant gift card that also included AT&T long-distance minutes.

Merchants do not need to retain a full 16-digit card number to resolve a transaction dispute, despite demands from some acquirers and processors, according to Visa Inc.

Businesses of all sizes are increasing their use electronic forms of payment to help improve their cash flow, the results of a recent Aberdeen Group study show.

Fremont, Calif.-based Patelco Credit Union has become the first financial institution in the U.S. to launch Mobile Popmoney, which will enable Patelco's members to send an electronic payment directly to another person via an e-mail or text message from their mobile phone.

Monitise PLC, a United Kingdom-based provider of mobile banking and payments services, on July 13 announced plans to raise £32.4 million (US$48.6 million or 38.7 million euros) through the sale of company shares and a subscription by Visa Inc. that will raise the card brand’s shareholding interest in the company to 14.4% from 12.6%.

Merchants may pay recurring bills using a portion of their payment card settlement funds through PayFast, a service Integrity Payment Systems LLC launched earlier this month.

A Federal Trade Commission report concludes that the system for resolving consumer collection disputes is broken, and recommends litigation and arbitration reforms to improve efficiency and fairness to consumers.

Independent sales organizations looking to compete against free-terminal programs and to boost their profit margins may turn to Asia-made point-of-sale terminals.

Consumers remained cautious in June, using their payments cards to spend just 6.8% more than they did during the same month last year. The growth in their spending activity also was down from the 9.2% rise in May compared with the same month in 2009, according to First Data’s SpendTrend report.