Bank technology

Observers say that Visa is trying to make its brand more relevant to a new generation of shoppers groomed on one-click online services — an audience that does not want to type a 16-digit number every time it decides to buy something.

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Having long eschewed the revenue-generating strategies of many of its rivals, the San Francisco provider of personal financial management technology is now winding down its operations.

Intuit Inc. has agreed to offer personal loans facilitated through Lending Club Corp. as an option to users of its Mint.com personal finance section who are looking for ways to consolidate their debt.

Bling Nation Ltd. has struck a partnership with PayPal Inc. that could help the mobile payments network operator expand beyond its hyperlocal business model.

Even the largest banks with significant international payments presence need to make sure they are not vulnerable to being leapfrogged by other banks that invest in newer, more extensible payment platforms with better pricing through greater efficiency.

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Visa Inc. said it is planning to help merchants that fail to meet two July 1 payment security deadlines.

iPad breach goes from "So what?" to "Hmm, wait a minute ..."; FTC cracks down on bogus firms created to make fraudulent card charges; high- and low-tech ATM scams.

Fraudsters are also taking advantage of a lack of coordination in data protection, a lack of global standards and the failure on the part of regulators and law enforcement agencies to create dedicated task forces.

The Federal Reserve banks will start offering same-day settlement for some automated clearing house transactions in August, but it's unclear whether banks see a need for it.

In a ruling likely to displease many in the financial industry, the viability of business process patents was upheld in Monday's long-awaited United States Supreme Court ruling in the Bilski v. Kappos case.

The court's ruling in the closely watched case rejected arguments by two inventors who were seeking to patent a method for hedging weather-based risk in commodities trading.

The Redwood City, Calif., company is expected today to introduce a mobile payments system in Senegal, the latest in a string of marketing strategies the company has used — some more successful than others — to deliver its money-transfer technology.

Issuers appear to have lost the battle with retailers over debit card interchange fees, but that does not mean they can't compensate, at least in part, for declines in revenue.

North American Bancard LLC took a big step into the government and utility payments markets with its purchase last week of Point and Pay, a Haines City, Fla., recurring-billing company.

PayPal Inc. has agreed to provide mobile payments services to Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority.

Online Resources Corp. has hired Joseph L. Cowan as its president and chief executive.

Despite 30 years spent automating financial transactions, financial institutions offer consumers no more financial insight than when people used passbooks and accordion files. The first institution to buck this trend will redefine the industry. And there is no guarantee that it will be a bank … or credit card company.

Sanasa Development Bank in Sri Lanka has begun using core processing software from Fiserv Inc.