Cards

In an analysis of email-based fraud released in late June, network giant Cisco quantified what newspaper headlines over the past year have made clear: cyberfraud has shifted from mass, generalized attacks to very specific spearphishing hits that harness stolen user information to dupe unwitting consumers (such as bank customers and credit and debit cardholders) into divulging account information.

In an eerie parallel with U.S. policies, a consortium of top French banks have agreed to cut debit card interchange rates inside the nation’s borders by as much as 36% in response to a price-fixing investigation by a government agency.

The Durbin amendment has sent another debit rewards program to the graveyard as USAA Federal Savings Bank will officially axe its offering on Sept. 1.

After months of fretting, ISOs, agents and processors are viewing the upcoming cap on debit card interchange fees as a golden opportunity to increase margins, boost revenue and gain market share.

Bank of Ireland is rolling out what it claims is the first contactless Visa debit card from an Irish bank.

EBay Inc. is building on the mobile payments strategy of its PayPal unit with its $240 million deal to buy Zong Inc., a company that lets consumers charge purchases of digital goods to their wireless phone bills.

Visa Inc. says some of its contracts with bank card issuers must be “redone” to comply with new debit card regulations that take effect this year, but most already meet the requirements.

Many prepaid card companies will be forced to strip away features — or even change bank partners — if they want to qualify for exemptions from the new caps on debit interchange fees.

Anyone who owns a smart phone knows new apps and program updates are posted every day and even the handsets themselves evolve every year or so.

In an unintended consequence of the newly revised federal rules on cybersecurity, banks are likely to fare much worse in lawsuits over fraud losses.

In a move aimed at significantly expanding its card-brands’ acceptance in Europe, Discover Financial Services has forged a processing and merchant-acquiring agreement with First Data Corp. for international operations, a Discover executive tells PaymentsSource.

Retailers such as 7-Eleven Inc. pulled out the stops to get consumer support during the merchants’ lobbying campaign to win lower debit interchange fees.

As a growing number of United Kingdom-based merchants adopt contactless payment technology as part of a broad regional effort leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games, specific retailers are seeing the technology’s benefits.

In an effort to reduce cash-handling and streamline commuter transactions, Mumbai-based State Bank of India Ltd on July 6 introduced a contactless dual-function smart card developed in association with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.

The total value of mobile payments for digital and physical goods as well as for money transfers and Near Field Communication-enabled transactions will grow to $670 billion by 2015, up from $240 billion in 2011, according to a new Juniper Research study.

The emerging U.S. mobile-payments market could face some resistance from consumers who are worried about fraud, new research suggests.

Wikileaks and Iceland-based data-hosting service DataCell ehf. say they will file a complaint on July 7 with the European Commission against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide if the payment companies continue to block their payment-processing.

Western Union Co. has struck a deal that will make it a competitor, but also a potential partner, for banks trying to capture a bigger chunk of the business payments market.

Key credit union industry leaders this month are scheduling meetings with members of Congress to make sure credit unions will be appropriately protected in the Federal Reserve Board’s final debit-interchange rules that go into effect Oct. 1.

Fresh off moving its Citi Ventures unit to the Bay Area to get close to the latest payments tech buzz, Citi’s investing in mobile payments firm Billing Revolution.