Cards

CLEVELAND – Credit unions and banks are once again struggling to plug a data breach that is siphoning tens of thousands of dollars from debit cards through purchases at local retailers.

The Department of Justice filed papers yesterday to implement the settlement of its antitrust suit against Visa and MasterCard, which will prevent the two card networks from barring merchants from steering transactions to lower-cost cards.

When Congress threatened to cap the interchange fees that banks collect on debit card transactions, the industry argued that such a move would force it to kill off its own debit rewards programs. As it turns out, the demise of those programs might inconvenience consumers but it is unlikely to deal banks much of a financial blow.

Starbucks Corp. finally has an official mobile payment offering for Android smartphones.

U.S. Senators. Charles Schumer , D-N.Y., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., are urging the U.S. Department of Justice Department to shut down an underground online drug-trade site called Silk Road, but in a June 6 open letter to the department the senators barely touched on the digital currency–Bitcoins–that fuels the site’s commerce.

Verizon Wireless has brick-and-mortar mobile payments covered thanks to its participation in the Isis joint venture. But the company soon will give its wireless customers the option to charge online purchases directly to their mobile-phone bill.

The plethora of new mobile payment initiatives – the most recent being the mobile wallet project announced by Google, Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint – can be confusing for banks. What mobile payment technologies make the most sense for a financial institution to offer? In a recent interview with Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, he handicapped the three versions of near-field communication mobile payment technology that standards bodies have approved. [Near-field communication is a short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables short-range communication between electronic devices, and it’s the mechanism most companies are choosing to pursue mobile payments.] The differences between the three versions hinge on who controls the security of the mobile payments by controlling the “secure element” that stores cardholder credentials and account data and communicates with the apps.

The Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes has appointed Antonio Galiano as vice chairman of its board of directors.

Speedy communication to breach victims is vital in preventing fraud, according to lawmakers and regulators who are pushing for faster consumer notifications after last week's disclosure of an incident at Citigroup Inc.

American Express Co. is making its boldest move yet in the prepaid market by introducing a reloadable card that carries almost no fees.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nonbank that banks love to hate — and fear — is at it again.

U.S. prosecutors have indicted four men allegedly tied to a $1.5 million ATM-skimming scheme involving Citibank NA and JPMorgan Chase & Co. branch locations in Chicago, Miami and New York.

The buzz around person-to-person payments has long been claimed by rival upstarts such as PayPal Inc., but banks are striking back, as evidenced by the ClearXChange consortium.

Barclaycard has retooled a contactless-payments television advertisement to feature use of a mobile phone to make payments in a move that could help to raise awareness of the technology in the United Kingdom. The ad first appeared June 4 during the finale of the popular television show “Britain’s Got Talent.”

WASHINGTON — Bankers lost the Senate fight over interchange fees, but they are hoping the vote will help convince the Federal Reserve Board to raise its proposed 12-cent cap.

American Express Co. is trying to expand the number of users for Serve, its new digital wallet service, through a marketing partnership with AOL Inc.’s Patch news network.

Law enforcement agents believe hundreds of thousands of dollars being withdrawn from ATMs in California are related to the data breach announced recently by Michaels Stores.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve is expected to vote a final rule on debit fees a week from today, now that a credit union-backed proposal to delay the rules has been shot down in Congress.

BillShrink Inc., the discount-hunting service, has come up with a new spin on the Billy Mays-style hard sell in which consumers are cautioned to spend now or forever miss out on a host of extra goodies.

Charles Schwab Corp. customers with Android smartphones can now deposit checks into their bank and brokerage accounts.