Cards

Mitek Systems Inc. is debuting a mobile application that enables consumers to pay their bills using images of the bills captured with their smartphones.

Citigroup Inc. is reporting total revenues from Citi-branded cards of $4.16 billion for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up 76.3% from $2.36 billion during the same three months last year. Citi card income from continuing operations totaled $454 million, up considerably from $6 million a year earlier.

The Paysafecard Group has brought its prepaid voucher product to the United States as it tries to capture a piece of the online gaming market.

Staples Inc. earlier this month began offering its customers the option to deposit certain store rebates into their PayPal accounts, a spokesperson for the Framingham, Mass.-based retailers confirms to PaymentsSource.

Visa Inc. is hoping to harness the power of the 180 million-plus National Football League fans with the latest phase of the card brand’s “Go Fans” marketing campaign.

Companies continue to release mobile point-of-sale acceptance services amid few, if any, signs of the trend abating.

Despite an increase in spending on Visa Inc. cards in both July and September (August saw a decline), card-spending growth dropped during the third quarter as consumers remained cautious about their finances, according to Visa Europe’s UK Expenditure Index released on Oct. 7.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will be the first financial institution in Canada to issue Visa-branded debit cards, Visa Inc. announced Oct. 18.

Twelve credit unions joined Credit Union 24 during third quarter ended Sept. 30 and 25 others renewed long-term agreements, the nation’s largest credit union-owned ATM and point-of-sale debit network announced Oct. 14.

Commerce Bank will be the first to sign on with the Syncada open supply chain processing network owned by Visa Inc. and U.S. Bancorp.

Independent sales organizations and acquirers will have work to do because of the Federal Reserve Board’s impending regulations that will set policy for establishing “reasonable and proportional” debit card interchange rates, panelists at the Western States Acquirers Association conference in San Diego told attendees this week.

Mobile payments settled over the automated clearinghouse system officially have entered the mobile-payments space, but not without sparking debate.

Rochester, N.Y.-based ESL FCU has blocked almost 4,000 credit/debit card accounts after regional grocery store chain ALDI reported a security breach and the theft of card account information.

A fresh take on the interactive payment card may be the farthest the technology has come in the United States, but the cards' cost may prevent them from reaching beyond niche customer segments.

Competing prepaid card issuers may find an opportunity in the restrictions placed on Meta Financial Group Inc. by its regulator, observers say.

Credit card issuers, bruised over the past two years by significant economic setbacks and regulatory changes, face the possibility of yet another shock, one analyst contends: a large, branch-based issuer potentially taking over another issuer or a major card network.

Continuing efforts to diversify its gift card base, American Express Co. is marketing a gift card in the United States to celebrate Diwali, an India holiday that means “row of lights.”

First National Bank of Omaha will be the first major financial institution to extend Cardlytics Inc.’s merchant-funded bankcard rewards to credit cardholders, adding it to the company’s rewards service the issuer already plans to offer to its prepaid and debit cardholders, Cardlytics announced this week.

Mobile-payments company mPayy Inc. has added reloadable prepaid debit and payroll cards as an option to fund its accounts, the company announced Oct. 12.

Russian banks have issued 70 million Visa credit and debit cards over the past decade, the card company reported this week as it celebrated its 10th anniversary in Russia.