Banking

Legislation introduced in several states would ban surcharges on Visa and MasterCard credit card purchases, potentially undercutting a concession retailers won in a proposed legal settlement.

United Community Banks in Blairsville, Ga., has renewed its contract with Fiserv and added the fintech company's debit card services.

Apple is said to be developing a “smart” wristwatch that includes mobile payments functionality.

A cashless society is all well and good. But without the option of private, untraceable payments, life would become unbearable and institutions like marriage and religion could suffer.

WASHINGTON – NCUA told a congressional committee that a government-wide ban on contingency legal arrangements does not apply to suits it has brought against Wall Street banks over the failure of the corporate credit unions because as liquidating agents for the corporates it is not acting as a “government agency.”

The PCI Security Standards Council, the payment card security standards forum based in Wakefield, Mass., has published guidelines for protecting sensitive data in the cloud.

Prices for single-family homes climbed in almost 88 percent of U.S. cities in the fourth quarter as the housing recovery broadened.

Apple (AAPL) has been notoriously slow at venturing into mobile payments transactions. The latest iteration of its mobile operating system, iOS6, is a testament to the crawl.

Commerce Bancshares in Kansas City, Mo., has promoted John Kemper to president and chief operating officer. The $22.2 billion-asset company said Friday that Kemper succeeds his father, David, who remains its chairman and chief executive.

Flagstar Bancorp (FBC) has set aside $161 million to cover lawsuits over its mortgage-underwriting practices.

Fidelity National Information Services has launched a person-to-person payment product that the company hopes will promote greater adoption of P2P payments by nature of its speed and openness.

Last year's merger of Southeast Corporate FCU into Corporate One FCU, creating one of four major surviving national corporate credit unions, was accomplished with up to $15 million of financial assistance from NCUA to help make up for potential shortfalls due to troubled Southeast investments.

Catalyst Corporate FCU announced it will roll out an agent loan participation program in the next few weeks that will connect credit unions that want to sell loans with those that want to purchase an interest in a loan pool.

ERN is launching a product that attempts to meld issuer and retailer spending details to produce real-time offers at the point of sale. It faces plenty of competition in its efforts to bring granularity to marketing.

As card fraud progressively moves to e-commerce, more vendors offer merchants the tools to monitor their progress in thwarting cybercrooks — and the information collected in protecting their data also helps merchants promote sales.

Ally Financial, the second-largest remaining investment by the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, will repay the U.S. by 2014 on the strength of its auto-finance business, CEO Michael Carpenter said.

As the New York company books more loans, it is also relying less on mortgage-backed securities.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – SESLOC FCU has installed surcharge-free ATMs in Spencer’s Fresh Markets in Santa Maria and Morro Bay.

RENTON, Wash. – Alaska USA FCU has opened an in-store branch in the Safeway east Bremerton.

MUSKEGO, Wis. – Corporate Central CU has signed a correspondent services contract with Lending Tools, which will include the conversion of the corporate’s ACH system from to LT’s Private Correspondent Gateway.