Cards

At a time when every prepaid card seems to have a celebrity's face attached to it, GiftCards.com is looking to add a personality to its own lineup — and it's looking at a finance star, not a pop star.

For mobile payments and analytics provider Bango.net Ltd., a recent shot in the arm from investors represents a chance to expand into emerging markets and help offset the company's costs for preparing for the next generation of BlackBerry phones.

Core-banking tech provider Jack Henry is expanding the services it offers banks and credit unions by offering support for prepaid cards, with assistance from TransCard.

Diebold leaders conveyed a message of contrition to investors during the ATM manufacturer’s fourth quarter 2012 earnings call, acknowledging that change is needed and promising further organizational changes and structural cost reductions to improve performance.

MONETT, Mo. – Jack Henry & Associates announced this morning it is partnering with TransCard to offer credit unions and banks prepaid cards.

American Express Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth I. Chenault netted $15.4 million before taxes from the exercise of stock options and the sale of restricted shares.

The prepaid card provider BillMyParents has hired Kim Petry to be its new chief financial officer, replacing Jonathan Shultz, in an appointment that’s scheduled to take effect in mid-to-late February.

American Express says it is working with Twitter to expand its cardholders' ability to shop over the social networking site.

A MasterCard Inc. "mobile preparedness" study in 2012 indicated that Singapore, Canada and the U.S. were the countries most prepared to offer payments technology and innovation to serve willing consumers. But the study also showed the U.S. ranking 10th when it came to "consumer readiness" for adopting mobile payments.

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

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.

From the start, mPowa CEO Dan Wagner has talked about partnerships being the key to getting his company’s chip-and-PIN mobile card reader into the hands of merchants – and eventually becoming a formidable foe to the likes of Square Inc. in the U.S.

After a frustrating year of knocking on doors, Sandra Young still couldn't persuade merchants to sign up for transaction services. She then decided to dedicate herself to a chore not many independent sales organizations or sales agent relish – convincing gas station owners and managers to accept card payments at the pump.

Despite some glitches that are hampering vigorous adoption, the companies targeting mobile payments are finding success in forging brand connections. The problem is their connections are with narrow constituencies, and are often based on competencies beyond mobile payments.

ShopKeep, which provides an iPad point of sale system, began supporting payments from SCVNGR's LevelUp loyalty and mobile payment system this week. One early adopter is already reporting success with the combined system.

Merchants shouldn't have their heads in the clouds when it comes to data security — especially when they rely on cloud computing to handle payment card data.

Visa's V.me digital wallet is picking up momentum and the initiative is "right on the point of the spear" of the card network's product development strategy, Visa says.

Eager to ply consumer data analytics as a carrot for issuers, MasterCard Advisors on Thursday announced a development partnership with data analytics company Mu Sigma, in which MasterCard purchased an equity stake.

This week's big bust of a credit card theft ring emphasizes the difficulty issuers face in locating fraudsters and the limitations of technology that can go only so far in mitigating the threat.