Cards

Integrating new card products into underserved, but financially viable, cultural groups takes more than just marketing campaigns translated into different languages or a flashy ad campaign using consumers from those communities. It takes trust, financial experts say.

Target Corp.’s credit card profits nearly quadrupled in the fiscal fourth quarter as the retailer wrote off fewer loans and socked away less to cover for future losses.

According to a Dow Jones report, top executives at Citi, the third-largest bank in the U.S. by assets, have long felt it was too technocratic, with a focus on products rather than service and selling. Manuel Medina-Mora, consumer chief for the Americas, pledged change, and in September hired Cecilia Stewart as head of retail and Jud Linville as head of cards to help design and implement a new strategy.

Authorities discovered nine card-skimming devices attached to local ATMs last week that caused thousands of dollars of fraud losses to area institutions, including $5,538 in fraudulent cash withdrawals from members’ accounts at Hughes Federal Credit Union.

The anticipated Federal Reserve Board cap on debit card interchange may send some payments startups, which pitched their services as low-cost alternatives, back to the drawing board.

Axis Bank Ltd. has launched a Visa-branded prepaid card in India designed for foreign tourists visiting the country, the issuer announced Feb. 21.

Turkish consumers using Visa-branded debit cards equipped with EMV chips will have the ability later this year to get cash back at the point of sale at retailers that offer the service, Visa Europe announced Feb. 23.

States already using prepaid debit cards to disburse unemployment benefits likely saw economic and practical reasons to make the switch from distributing checks. Connecticut is the latest state to have similar aspirations.

The Electronic Transactions Association’s payments professional certification program will debut by the end of the year, the trade group announced Feb. 22.

Though perhaps there is no greater rivalry than Thin Mints versus Samoas, two Girl Scout groups are taking sides in a different debate: which mobile card reader is best for cookie sales.

Square Inc.’s Feb. 22 announcement that it had dropped the 15-cent transaction fee for card-present transactions represents a return to a rate scheme the merchant-services company had last spring.

Banks are looking beyond consumers to Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. to share the pain of lower interchange fees.

The Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit-interchange rates are unlikely to go into effect this summer without some significant changes, the co-chief of a large independent service organization speculates.

Security Card Services LLC’s decision to renew its processing contract with National Processing Co. stems partially from a degree of comfort the companies have amassed in their 14-year history of working together, according to John Lewis, the independent sales organization’s president.

Telefonica O2 Ireland is teaming with 3V Transaction Services Ltd. to launch 02 Money, a Visa-branded prepaid chip-and-PIN card, the Ireland-based mobile operator announced last week.

WASHINGTON — A year after the credit card reform law was enacted, Elizabeth Warren, the administration's official in charge with setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the industry has improved its practices and warned against over regulation of the card market.

Cardtronics Inc.’s Allpoint surcharge-free ATM network has added more than 1,000 machines to its network as part of a long-term agreement with Aptus Financial Inc., the companies announced Feb. 22

Independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers using Panoptic Security Inc.’s payment-security service now have another tool to view their merchants’ security-compliance efforts–MyPCIDashboard, a service Panoptic announced Feb. 22.

Independent sales organization Paperless Transaction Corp. has added remote deposit capture-services to its product offerings, Financial Transmission Network Inc., the company providing the service, announced Feb. 21.

The Federal Reserve Board and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are asking a federal judge to dismiss TCF Financial Corp.'s lawsuit, which seeks to block implementation of the Durbin amendment.