Cards

More than half of U.S. consumers use at least two credit or debit cards each month for online purchases, and many are wary of the potential for fraud associated with online banking, a study security-software vendor AVG Technologies USA Inc. released Sept. 1 suggests.

Sovereign Bank is taking its credit card operations in house.

China's new multifunction contactless social security card will support yuan-denominated cash withdrawals, funds transfers and other consumer-oriented banking applications, government officials told reporters at a press conference Aug. 30.

As Visa Inc. has been ramping up its promotion of one-time-use card data for security, Discover Financial Services is winding down its support of a similar technology.

First Data Corp. will make two Trusteer services available for its clients to help protect Internet banking and to enhance compliance with new federal guidelines for online security, Trusteer announced Aug. 31.

Adaptive Payments is entering an already crowded mobile-payment acceptance market with a device that enables merchants to accept PIN-debit transactions on smartphones using a method similar to the company’s e-commerce operation.

Not to be outdone by rivals in a month that has seen what may be a record number of new and retooled credit card rewards program announcements, Bank of America Corp. on Aug. 31 rolled out noteworthy upgrades to a couple of its core cash-rewards cards.

Germany’s largest rail system soon will finish a three-year mobile-payments test at its stations and officially offer all passengers the ability to pay for tickets using mobile phones.

Mutual of Omaha Bank, on a growth streak since its 2007 launch, has signed a long-term merchant-services agreement with First Data Corp., the companies announced Aug. 30.

In a move exemplifying efforts to move more cash and check payments to credit and debit cards, a national social network of babysitters and parents called SitterPals.com has signed up to use Square Inc.’s service to accept credit card payments for their services, the company announced Aug. 31.

Fiserv has re-branded its Mobile Money and the BankAnywhere mobile-banking products it gained when it acquired Mobile Commerce Ltd. re-naming all the programs Mobiliti.

Bank technology vendor S1 Corp.’s board told shareholders not to accept ACI Worldwide Inc.’s exchange offer, at least not yet.

Diebold Inc. has found a way to decouple the brains of the ATM from the body.

Diebold Inc. has found a way to decouple the brains of the ATM from the body.

U.S. Bancorp, one of the first financial institutions to offer mobile fraud alerts to credit card customers three years ago, has expanded its alert program to ATM and debit card holders.

U.S. banks are beginning to ramp up their credit card offerings as part of broader strategies to offset declining debit card revenue resulting from new Federal Reserve debit-interchange rules going into effect Oct. 1, certain analysts suggest.

The wireless carriers involved in mobile-payments venture Isis reportedly plan to invest more than $100 million into the project.

Euronet Worldwide Inc.’s epay division has formed a partnership with social games developer Zynga Game Network Inc. to enable consumers to purchase Zynga Game Cards through epay’s cash-load network, the companies announced Aug. 30.

A few years ago, a consumer walking around in a hurricane in search of a working ATM would have relied on luck and word of mouth. That was before Twitter.

Free checking may be nearing extinction at large banks as they attempt to recoup lost debit interchange revenue, but at smaller institutions the product is not even an endangered species.