Cards

Latham, N.Y.-based Sunmark Federal Credit Union has introduced a mobile banking application that will allow members to conduct financial transactions and to voice opinions about the credit union’s products and services.

Pending debit interchange rate rule-changes have thrown many card issuers into a quandary about strategies for existing debit card rewards programs, panelists said at SourceMedia’s ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in Phoenix, Ariz.

Participants in a cross-industry forum to help develop U.S. mobile payments technology are nearing completion of a white paper that aims to identify the significant obstacles and opportunities facing the industry, Richard R. Oliver, executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, told attendees Oct. 5 at SourceMedia’s ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in Phoenix, Ariz.

Bling Nation Ltd.’s deal with Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC could give them the entree they need to promote the company’s postage-stamp-sized contactless payment sticker across the country.

Westpac Banking Corp. is deploying 15,000 Hypercom Corp. Optimum-branded point-of-sale terminals as part of a $50 million deal the two companies announced last year (see story), Hypercom announced Oct. 5.

Hong Leong Bank Sdn. Bhd. has launched a debit card designed for young adults and teens, the Kuala Lumpur announced late last month.

Improved economic conditions in India have boosted the overall payment card usage in India, with debit cards growing significantly faster than credit cards, data from India’s central bank revealed.

Students and staff at The London School of Economics and Political Science may use a single contactless card to access school facilities and make purchases on campus using technology developed by United Kingdom-based electronic funds provider sQuid. The school is issuing the cards to new students, and it will enable existing students and staff to upgrade their older cards by yearend.

ItzCash Card Pvt. Ltd. has become India's first multiservice prepaid company to receive a license from the country’s central bank to operate a mobile wallet, a spokesperson for the Mumbai-based company tells PaymentsSource.

A settlement involving the top two payments networks over their merchant acceptance policies gives retailers more clout to promote the use of cheaper cards, but an analyst doubts many businesses will change their practices.

Citigroup Inc. wants to grow its payments revenue by helping other businesses grow theirs.

Looking to boost resources to meet an expected spike in demand for mobile financial services, ClairMail announced a $13.9 million infusion from VCs including Investor Growth Capital (IGC), a Stockholm firm that specializes in growth-stage tech firms.

MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. announced Oct. 4 that they have settled an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against both companies regarding payment network rules that prohibit so-called merchant steering, in which merchants steer consumers towards using less-expensive card products for payment.

Point-of-sale transactions will likely become less costly, faster and more secure as result of pending debit interchange rate regulation, and future credit card interchange regulation is almost a certainty, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s vice president of finance told attendees today at SourceMedia’s ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum.

First Data Corp. says its TransArmor data-security services will be made available to more than 350,000 merchants that process with Bank of America Merchant Services, a joint venture between the Atlanta-based payment processor and Bank of America Corp.

Akamai Technologies Inc. says its new Edge Tokenization service pushes sensitive transaction data away from vulnerable online merchants payment networks.

The National Bank of Rwanda has set guidelines for mobile-phone payment systems in that country, according to a notice on the institution’s website.

MasterCard Inc. settled a lawsuit Monday, the same day it was filed by the Department of Justice, regarding payment network rules that prohibit so-called merchant steering.

Datacard Group has announced the purchase of the instant-issuance software provider Dynamic Card Solutions LLC.

VeriFone Systems Inc. says today it has bought a majority stake in All Business Solutions, an Italy-based payment integrator and software developer, from the company’s founders and ACI Informatica, which will keep a minority ownership.