Cards

NEW YORK – A federal judge this afternoon approved a settlement between the Justice Department and Visa and MasterCard that bars the two networks from enforcing anti-steering bylaws against merchants steering business to cheaper forms of payment.

The biggest trend in merchant acquiring this year is a concentration on developing and selling mobile card acceptance to micromerchants, a new report suggests.

Isis, the wireless carrier-led mobile-payments venture, just crossed off a relatively small but integral item on its to-do list in signing Visa Inc., American Express Co. and MasterCard Worldwide to its system.

Automatic Data Processing Inc., which does business as ADP, is providing multistate companies with a payroll system that complies with the electronic payroll regulations of all 50 states.

Fremont Bank customers in northern California are about to find out how much faster and safer their debit cards can be.

Boosted by a massive reduction in loan-loss reserves, Bank of America Corp.’s global cards unit produced second-quarter net income of $2 billion, up 142% from $826 million during the same period a year earlier, the company announced July 19.

Isis, the mobile carrier-led mobile payments venture that initially planned to compete against incumbent payment networks, now has formed relationships with them, it announced July 19.

American Express Co. wants to get closer to its legion of 2 million friends on Facebook.

Bank of Hawaii in Honolulu has agreed to pay $9 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in which it was accused of improperly charging overdraft fees on debit card transactions.

It's a bit like the Truman Show, if Truman were Australian and had an ATM in his house that broadcast his bank transactions.

Citigroup Inc. plans to issue chip-based credit cards that adhere to the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications later this year.

Union Bank of India Ltd. has signed an agreement with electronic payment services provider ElectraCard Services Pvt. Ltd. to set up an online payment gateway to help strengthen its presence in electronic payments.

U.S. Bancorp has increased its mobile-banking options for prepaid card customers.

Software vendor Aptys Solutions LLC has upgraded a program to make it easier for banks to use the Federal Reserve’s same-day settlement service for automated clearinghouse payments.

Continuing efforts to get its Serve digital wallet into consumers’ hands, American Express Co. has signed a deal with Sprint Nextel to put the payments application on the Sprint Zone website, where Sprint customers go to manage their mobile-phone accounts, Amex announced July 18.

Trying a new approach to prod consumer interest in contactless payment, U.S. Bancorp is testing a wrist gadget that combines tap-and-pay technology with an emergency medical notification device, the bank announced July 18.

Prepaid card issuer MetaBank will pay $4.8 million to customers under an order from regulators in the latest fallout from a discontinued high-interest, small-balance loan product.

The final parameters of an antitrust settlement submitted to a federal court in New York Friday by the Department of Justice promises to give merchants and cardholders more choices when paying for goods and services by preventing Visa and MasterCard from enforcing anti-steering bylaws.

Still on the fence about EMV? High uptake from an early adopter, the United Nations Federal Credit Union, is allowing it to expand the card's availability, and provides evidence U.S. cardholders really like to use chip and PIN cards when traveling overseas.

Mobile-based payment services could account for US$350 billion in payments and banking transactions in India by 2015, producing fee income that could exceed US$4.5 billion, a new report suggests.