Cards

Customers of Singapore Airlines Ltd. now may pay for their flights using their PayPal Inc. accounts, according to the Singapore-based airline.

Some 92 incidents of crooks cloning debit and credit cards issued by Citibank Pvt. Ltd. occurred between January 2008 to December 2010, tops among India’s card issuers, the country’s finance minister told the country’s Parliament on Mar. 4.

Citizens in the Indian state of Punjab may pay their electricity bills online using bankcards under a new service the Punjab State Power Corp. launched on March 1.

WASHINGTON — Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh warned Tuesday that a Federal Reserve Board proposal to limit debit interchange fees could hurt banks of all sizes.

MasterCard Inc. on March 8 announced new fraud-fighting technology that could alleviate the headaches issuing banks face when card accounts have been compromised.

Cardtronics Inc. announced Monday an agreement to provide Intuit Inc.'s Pay Card and Refund Card customers surcharge-free access to its fleet of ATMs.

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of neighborhood business are calling on the Federal Reserve to proceed with the debit interchange provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act in hopes of passing on the savings back to their communities.

CashEdge Inc. has landed Huntington National Bank as a customer for its person-to-person payments software, the New York-based vendor announced March 7.

Iberiabank Corp. is consolidating various outsourced debit card processing functions with services from Fiserv Inc., the Brookfield, Wis.-based vendor announced March 7.

ORLANDO, FLA.–Companies increasingly are using prepaid debit cards as an incentive to drive customer loyalty and to reward employees, and merchants are benefiting because consumers generally are spending more than the value loaded into their card accounts, according to new research commissioned by Total System Services Inc., or TSYS.

American Express Co. cardholders that attend the South by Southwest Interactive music festival in Austin, Texas, later this week will be able to secure merchant discounts with their cards through Foursquare Labs Inc., the location-based mobile system that rewards consumers for using its service. Media reports say the two companies are piloting the system with 60 merchants at the festival and are offering a “spend $5, save $5” promotion.

PHOENIX–Credit and debit card fraud leads all other types of fraud at most U.S. banks and credit unions, but most institutions are fighting illegal account access with constrained budgets and relatively small teams averaging one to five workers, regardless of institution size, new survey data from ISMG Corp.’s BankInfoSecurity.com suggest.

Many consumers still are not familiar with the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act and believe it has not had any effect on them, new research suggests.

“No dogs, no bare feet … no community bank debit cards”?

Aptys Solutions has enhanced the automated clearinghouse functionality of its PayLogics processing platform by adding its Active Archive service, the company reported March 7.

Merchants whose customers buy multiple prepaid cards contained within one pack would be able to save time by activating the cards all at once, and not individually, under a patent the U.S Patent and Trademark Office recently issued to First Data Corp., the Atlanta-based payment processor announced March 7.

Credit-union and bank groups plan to file a brief as early as March 7 asking a federal court to block implementation of the debit-interchange fee provisions of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act.

WASHINGTON – Credit unions and banks are urging the Federal Reserve to exclude ATMs transactions from the new rules setting price caps on debit fees.

PIERRE, S.D. – Credit union and bank groups will file a brief as early as today asking a federal court to block implementation of the debit interchange fee provisions of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act. The so-called friend of the court brief by CUNA, NAFCU the American Bankers Association, and the Independent Community Bankers of America, will be filed as part of a suit by TCF Bank challenging provisions of the Durbin amendment that will set caps on interchange fees collected by financial institutions. The amicus brief cites problems with the Durbin amendment, including the directive that the Federal Reserve set “reasonable and proportional rates” on interchange, that the language does not allow for all reasonable costs incurred in setting the allowable fees and that the requirements on routing and exclusivity are problematic, according to Mary Dunn, senior regulatory lobbyist for CUNA. TCF, in a suit filed last October, claims the Durbin amendment illegally interferes with the $18 billion bank’s activities in a market that has been competitive and open by imposing unconstitutional limitations on the ability of TCF and other financial institutions to recover their costs for providing a service crucial to bank depository customers today. TCF is Minnesota’s second largest bank holding company but filed the suit in South Dakota where it is incorporated.PIERRE, S.D. – Credit union and bank groups will file a brief as early as today asking a federal court to block implementation of the debit interchange fee provisions of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act.

Secure Vault Payments, NACHA’s alternative payment system that enables consumers to make online purchases directly from their bank accounts, may gain new prominence from a test it is running with a sizeable client.