Cards

Banks processing their own debit cards should modify their networks to accept new payment technologies, but it may be too soon to determine whether vendors pushing software to make that process easier will trigger a quick change, an industry analyst says.

Standard Chartered Bank India Pvt. Ltd. is adopting a more aggressive stancetoward the Indian credit card market thanks to positive changes in the market, a top bank official said on Sep. 19.

Woori Finance Holdings Co. Ltd. plans to spin off its credit card business into a new company to diversify and bolster its nonbanking services, the South Korea-based issuer announced Sept. 18.

Shell Federal Credit Union says it has signed a full-service, single-sourced comprehensive electronic-processing contract with Vantiv.

Payments processor and technology provider Jack Henry & Associates Inc. has expanded the processing relationship between its iPay Technologies division and MasterCard Worldwide’s RPPS electronic bill-payment network, the companies announced Sept. 20.

Fidelity National Information Services on Sept. 19 confirmed it was the cause of the Sept. 16 shutdown of payments and ATM access at Co-op Financial Services and numerous bank systems across the country (see story).

Spending with Visa-branded credit cards in China last year rose 23.7%, to US$4.7 billion from US$3.8 billion in 2009, thanks to a growing number of international travelers visiting the country, Visa Inc.’s China Tourism Outlook report said.

As more prepaid debit card marketers target the underbanked, it is important for those programs to provide a link to mobile phone services so customers can monitor their balances, among other services, Bart Narter, an analyst at Celent, tells PaymentsSource.

Google Inc. has reached agreements with Visa Inc., American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services with the goal of eventually enabling other financial institutions to add their Near Field Communication-enabled payment card products to Google Wallet, the company announced Sept. 19.

Dynamics Inc. has created a chip card that can re-write itself and hold two different accounts, the company announced Sept. 19.

Mocapay Inc. is testing a mobile loyalty and prepaid gift card platform that it intends to make widely available to small merchants in the first quarter of next year, the company’s president tells PaymentsSource.

A five-year terminal contract that will enable Avis Europe PLC Inc. to process and manage transactions from numerous European countries will help position French terminal maker Ingenico SA to corner the European car-rental market, company executives and an industry analyst say.

Members at BECU, formerly Boeing Employees Credit Union, and hundreds of credit unions had their cards rejected at Co-op Financial ATMs on Sept. 16 because of a disruption in the system at processor Fidelity National Information Systems.

With privacy concerns about its mobile phone location-based credit card fraud-detection technology in Europe resolved, ValidSoft Ltd. has set its sights on entering the U.S. market within the next few months, the company CEO says.

More than 3,000 merchants have signed up to use an alternative mobile phone-based loyalty scheme called Paycloud from SparkBase Inc. that may eventually include a mobile-payment element, the company says.

Citigroup Inc. is raising the fees it charges customers for its basic checking accounts and it will no longer give them rewards for using its debit cards, in the wake of new regulations capping debit interchange fees, the company announced Sept. 16.

PHILADELPHIA — In his first speech since taking over for Elizabeth Warren as the public face of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Raj Date warned that the agency will take a firm stance when it identifies practices that are harmful for consumers.

As cuts in debit card interchange and changes in credit card regulations have threatened to reduce issuer-provided card rewards, some merchants have responded by working with issuers to bolster their rewards programs. In doing so, those retailers receive a direct line to card-spending consumers and give financial institutions a way to cover their card-rewards costs.

Internet PIN-debit once was seen as a way for merchants to earn a cheaper interchange rate on card-not-present transactions conducted online. That benefit, however, disappeared when the Federal Reserve Board recently cut the fees banks can charge merchants who accept debit cards. The new fees go into effect Oct. 1.

United Kingdom-based Ryanair Ltd. is giving consumers the opportunity to avoid what have become controversial airline booking fees when tickets are purchased with plastic.