Cards

The first considerable change for the Bitcoin market nears — the date when rewards for 'mining' the digital currency drop from 50 to 25 bitcoins per block generated.

For CreditCall, the slow pace of the U.S. shift to the EMV standard is fast becoming an opportunity.

OMAHA, Neb. – Four Points FCU has contracted with Primax to implement and provide support services for the credit union's credit card issuing program.

RIVERDALE, Utah --America First CU has rolled out the ABC Deals cash-back program that offers members cash back on as much as 15% of Visa credit or debit purchases.

Facebook's latest update to its mobile app is meant to allow the social network's users to purchase physical goods as gifts from within the app.

With a community-based state charter, Veridian Credit Union isn’t supposed to have members outside its market in Iowa. And yet the credit union has been handling funds nationwide for the alternative payment company Dwolla since 2009.

Lemon is working with BillGuard, which provides a transaction monitoring service, to boost its mobile wallet's security and perhaps also boost the wallet's appeal among consumers.

Brian Thompson, senior vice president at the finance consultant Equity Dynamics Inc., is joining the board of prepaid card provider BillMyParents.

The popular mobile-phone game Angry Birds is once again helping a new payments product take flight, with the introduction of a prepaid card with designs based on the game's theme.

Issuers and merchants have heard the card brands’ pitch that without EMV smart card adoption in the U.S., fraudsters will flock to this country because it will become a weak link in the data security chain.

Debt buyer Encore Capital Group, based in San Diego, reported strong financial gains for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, including record earnings, collections and operating cash flow.

The storm left many without electricity, phones and use of the roads. But in many of the affected areas, consumers and merchants continued to conduct business and found a way to handle payments.

The dominant prepaid card marketers, Green Dot and NetSpend, faced a new and significant rival with the launch two weeks ago of the Bluebird card by American Express and Wal-Mart. Both prepaid companies are expressing early optimism — but long-term uncertainty looms.

NXP Semiconductors has developed a touch sensor that could combat thieves using a mobile scanner to attempt to steal account details from contactless payment cards.

Green Dot announced Thursday that its quarterly earnings fell 20% from a year ago as competition intensified in the prepaid card market.

Visa seems to have weathered the most severe effects of new rules that shook its hold on the U.S. debit card market, though the company still faces a government investigation into the methods it is using to recoup lost revenue.

NEW YORK -- The National Retail Federation and more than a dozen of the nation’s most prominent retailers today asked a judge to reject the proposed Visa/MasterCard antitrust settlement, saying it would not bring credit card swipe fees charged by Visa and MasterCard under control and does not give retailers who oppose it an adequate mechanism to opt out.

Google added a mobile commerce payment option to Google Wallet, which already supports online and point of sale purchases.

Though Heartland Payment Systems claims its “Durbin Dollars” debit-pricing campaign contributed to its most profitable quarter ever, the processor is also encountering the limitations of that model at a time when many new technologies threaten to disrupt the way the payments industry does business.

Just as it has done in the past for other charities, Wells Fargo (WFC) is allowing its automated teller machine customers to donate to the American Red Cross in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.