Cards

No one knew exactly how much revenue banks stood to lose from the new overdraft regulations. But nearly everyone assumed it was a big number.

Obopay Inc. is trying to simplify its payments system with text messages.

Suppose your bank's retail customer wants to use a mobile phone to accept credit cards at a garage sale she's planning. MasterCard Inc. has an app for that.

Despite the uncertainties surrounding debit card programs caused by the pending overhaul next year of debit card interchange rates, certain alternative payment-network operators say they are seeing an uptick of interest from card issuers and merchants.

Moneta Corp. is changing its name to Rialto Commerce and plans to refocus its strategy. Instead of working directly with banks, the company plans to work with service providers to persuade their client banks to adopt its online-payment service, PaymentsSource has learned.

Small-business owners’ confidence rose slightly in September, halting a three-month decline as more business owners’ cash flow improved, according to new survey data Discover Financial Services released Sept. 27.

U.S. law-enforcement officials are investigating a security breach involving “a limited number” of PIN-debit terminals deployed at Aldi grocery stores, a spokesperson for the Batavia, Ill.-based company tells PaymentsSource. Aldi stores accept only PIN-debit transactions and cash for payment at the point of sale.

Pivotal Payments’ plan to buy 33,000 Hypercom Corp. point-of-sale terminals for distribution to Canadian merchants is the independent sales organization’s largest terminal purchase to date, Frank LoSchiavo, Pivotal senior vice president of sales, tells PaymentsSource.

West Lafayette, Ind.-based Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union introduced a new way for Harrison High School and Jefferson High School students, parents and fans to show their school spirit: offering them student-designed debit card designs.

More consumers are using mobile phones to pay bills, but specifically how they are doing so requires more study, according Fiserv Inc., which identified the gap in information earlier this year when it polled 2,000 households as part of the technology company’s 2010 Billing Household online survey (see story).

Think Finance, a provider of financial products to the underbanked, said Thursday that it has received a $90 million credit facility from Victory Park Capital Advisors of Chicago to help it expand its offerings.

Regulatory reforms may help MasterCard Inc. steal debit card market share from Visa Inc., but it's not clear whether that would do much for its bottom line.

The six-month deadline extension for Canada’s merchants to convert to EMV chip-and-PIN technology points to certain technical difficulties some have encountered during the lengthy process, observers say.

CardinalCommerce Corp. says it has developed technology to enable online merchants to offer consumers a PIN-debit payment option at the checkout screen or through a mobile phone, while Acculynk Inc. separately is building its Web-based PIN-debit payment service.

The PCI Security Standards Council this fall plans to launch a website dedicated to small merchants, which have asked the council for help in understanding how data-security measures affect them.

Qatar National Bank Ltd. has launched the first mobile-to-mobile funds-transfer service in Qatar, the Doha-based bank announced Sept. 22.

Guatemalan restaurant chain Taco Inn has joined RegaloCard LLC’s mobile funds-transfer network, the mobile-payments firm announced Sept. 23.

Alexandria, Va.-based CommonWealth One FCU is paying members up to $1.50 per bill to teach them how to enroll in its online bill payment service.

Pivotal Payments, a merchant acquirer in Melville, N.Y., has agreed to purchase up to 33,000 payment terminals from Hypercom Corp.

The Federal Reserve Board or the planned Consumer Financial Protection Bureau likely will have considerable input into any future regulation regarding network-branded reloadable prepaid debit cards, two industry observers suggest.