Cards

RewardsNow Inc. has launched an online retail-shopping platform to enable consumers to earn extra rewards and financial institutions to increase revenue through greater card use, the loyalty-marketing services provider announced late last month.

Petroleum retailers in New Zealand reportedly are considering a proposal to accept contactless credit cards for the fuel payment.

NetSpend Holdings Inc. at the end of the third quarter nearly matched Green Dot cards’ gross dollar value on active prepaid reloadable debit cards, despite having 1.2 million fewer cards in the market, PaymentsSource data show.

Transactis Inc. recently secured $7 million in financing from New York-based venture capital firm StarVest Partners that will enable it to focus on growing its electronic billing and loyalty programs, the electronic-billing technology company announced Nov. 30.

PKO Bank Polski S.A., Poland’s largest bank, has selected Gemalto NV as its partner in converting its entire consumer debit card portfolio from magnetic-stripe to contactless chip-and-PIN technology, the two companies announced Dec. 1.

The Dutch Central Bank has granted international payments provider GlobalCollect a Payment Services Directive license, making the company a certified payment institute, Amsterdam-based GlobalCollect reported on Nov. 29.

For SmartyPig LLC, it's the 10% solution.

Weeks after its debut, the Kardashian Kard has been pulled from the market following criticism of the prepaid product's fees.

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – A member of 1st MidAmerica CU is suing the one-time Olin Community CU saying administrative fees the credit union charged on a Visa gift card she bought for her father-in-law for Christmas have wiped out virtually all of the $50 value of the card.

Serverside Group Ltd. on Nov. 30 announced a settlement in a patent-infringement lawsuit Quark Images LLC brought earlier this year against the maker of payment card-customization systems and several of its financial-services customers.

Transaction processor First Data Corp. and online-payment service PayPal Inc. are reporting double-digit increases in consumer Black Friday spending this year compared with the same day in 2009, with First Data saying same-store sales returned to prerecession levels.

Roam Data is making available a Roampay Swipe card reader that plugs into the audio jack of BlackBerry smartphones, the Boston-based firm announced Nov. 30.

Mark Sumby has joined i2c Inc. as vice president of business development, effective immediately, the Redwood City, Calif.-based prepaid processor announced Nov. 30.

Weeks after its debut, the Kardashian Kard has been pulled from the market following criticism of the prepaid product's fees.

Corporations may gain more control over their working capital and speed the migration of business-to-business payments from checks to electronic payment channels through the use of two separate commercial card services Citigroup Inc. and American Express Co. recently launched, observers say.

Taiyuan Xinbao Parking Meter System Co. Ltd. plans to extend the deployment of contactless smart card technology from Legic Identsystems Ltd. to its parking-meter operations in China, the Germany-based technology provider announced earlier this month.

While most bank mobile apps are focused initially on iPhones, then move to Blackberry and Android in subsequent rollouts, it would appear that Android and iPhone are the way to go as BlackBerry falls behind its two rivals in sales.

In a sign Canadian consumers continue to prefer to use debit cards to pay for small-ticket purchases, restaurant chain Tim Hortons Inc. is expanding acceptance of Interac debit cards to some 3,000 locations.

HSBC Bank Egypt has launched a Visa-branded debit card for its Platinum and Advance savings-account customers in Egypt, the issuer announced Nov. 21.

WASHINGTON — Despite ardent opposition from community banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. followed through Wednesday on a new set of guidelines aimed at curbing abuse of automated overdraft programs.