Cards

WASHINGTON — One day after introduction of a bipartisan bill to repeal the new debit interchange cap, supporters of that cap struck back Oct. 13 by calling for an antitrust investigation into whether banks and trade groups are colluding on prices.

Prepaid marketer NetSpend Holdings Inc., which recently lost some crucial distribution partners, has rebounded with a new deal inked with 7-Eleven Inc.

Two Shanghai city business-development organizations are attempting to further push online shopping during the Chinese festival season in collaboration with third party online payment provider International Payments Solutions (Shanghai) Ltd.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s consumer credit card unit reported net income of $849 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down 8.3% from $926 million a year earlier, as fewer consumers opened new accounts and the percentage of consumers revolving a balance declined. The unit results, for the first time, included auto and student lending, the company said.

Independent ATM operators and a trade association have filed a new suit charging that Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide network rules unlawfully prohibit ATM operators from offering lower prices for transactions over PIN-debit networks that are not affiliated with the two companies.

CHICAGO—Consumers will decide which mobile wallets they want to use and that is why financial institutions should participate in as many as possible, a Citigroup Inc. executive on Oct. 12 told attendees here at the BAI Retail Delivery conference.

With e-commerce becoming a bigger target for payment data theft, Global Payments Inc. intends to provide its online merchants with another set of fraud-detection tools.

Wells Fargo & Co. is expanding its remittance network by adding access points in Latin America and Asia, in an attempt to gain more money-transfer business from former Wachovia Corp. customers.

PayPal Inc. is putting itself at nearly every possible point of a consumer's banking relationship – from account-opening to payments and even reward-redemption – through a series of new partnerships.

U.S. Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Congressman Bill Owens (D-New York) today plan to introduce legislation aimed at repealing the debit card interchange rate-control provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the lawmakers announced.

Staking out its place in what may become a new competitive front in the ATM industry, NCR Corp. has inked a partnership with PayPal Inc. enabling person-to-person payments through ATMs, the company announced Oct. 12.

Seeking to become a dominant player in the growing school-meals payments arena, a Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. unit has announced the purchase of School-Link Technologies Inc., its fourth such acquisition in the last 10 months.

Indian credit cardholders in August spent 80.8 billion rupees (US$1.6 billion or 1.2 billion euros), up 29% from 62.6 billion rupees during the same month last year, according to new data from the Reserve Bank of India.

In a move that could speed up investors’ market moves, Airtel Ghana Ltd. has announced it is offering a new mobile funds-transfer service in collaboration with Databank Financial Services Ltd., a local stock-trading portal.

Despite sluggish economic growth and worrisome unemployment rates, certain indicators on the eve of payment card issuers releasing third-quarter results suggest credit and debit card purchase volumes remained relatively healthy through September, according to two new reports from New York-based equity firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is close to awarding a contract for its open-loop contactless fare collection system.

As competition intensifies in the fast-growing prepaid market, Green Dot Corp.’s new partnership with the Blackhawk Network will land the card provider’s products in some 10,000 additional retailers within the next 24 months.

Seeking to drive company growth with vendors and ISOs equipped with common sales tools and certifications, NCR Corp. has created a new global partner program, a company executive says.

No matter how rewarding a credit card is, redeeming points can often be a hassle involving complex math and mailed vouchers – except at Amazon.com, where a growing number of issuers let users spend rewards points as easily as cash.

Participants in a large international credit card-skimming ring allegedly stole credit card data from thousands of U.S. and European consumers over a 16-month period, resulting in at least $13 million in losses, the Queens, N.Y. district attorney’s office announced Oct. 7.