Cards

Closed-loop prepaid cards for digital content, government services and telecommunications helped grow the sector in 2009, to $205.4 billion in funds loaded into card accounts, up 7% from $191.8 billion the previous year, according to a report from the Mercator Advisory Group.

Cielo S.A., a Brazil-based merchant acquirer with approximately 1.2 million active merchant accounts, is buying 30,000 Optimum T4205 point-of-sale terminals from Hypercom Corp., the terminal maker announced Sept. 2.

Virtual gift card provider Giftango Corp. on Sept. 1 released a software-development kit that enables mobile-phone application companies to develop gift card products consumers may use at the point of sale or redeem online.

Inner Fence, which makes the Credit Card Terminal application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, on Sept. 1 announced it is shipping the Credit Card Reader, which attaches to an iPhone’s dock connector.

In its latest marketing promotion, MasterCard Worldwide is offering cardholders who live in or who visit New York City rich and “priceless” experiences, such as sporting, concert, shopping and culinary events. The card company’s goal is to demonstrate to cardholders the added value in using a MasterCard product for payment.

With several smart card-based transit projects developing around the globe, shipments of smart cards supporting transit applications will grow at an 11% compound annual rate through 2015, new research suggests.

Visa Inc. hopes to prove to banks that a contactless payment chip in a mobile phone is a much more compelling product to consumers than the same chip in a plastic card.

VeriFone Systems Inc. plans to use its acquisition of Way Systems Inc. to attract more merchant interest in its mobile-payment systems. But the deal also eliminates a competitor, analysts say.

POSBank has launched a payment card that incorporates both debit and credit card functions, according to the Singapore-based bank.

More than 70 vending locations operated by Washington Vending are using Apriva’s cashless-vending services in the Washington, D.C., area, Apriva says.

TransFirst, a Hauppauge, N.Y.-based independent sales organization, has expanded a referral agreement with New York Community Bancorp Inc. to include the bank’s recent acquisitions of Cleveland-based AmTrust Bank and Phoenix-based Desert Hills Bank, and to offer more services, TransFirst says.

To boost its mobile-payment strategy, VeriFone Systems Inc. announced Wednesday it has acquired the assets of Way Systems Inc., a point-of-sale terminal and gateway services provider for mobile merchants. The purchase price included a $6 million upfront payment and an earn-out payable in one year of up to an additional $3 million if certain performance targets are met.

Zions Bancorp. says the deal to sell its remote capture unit is a strategic move to leave an increasingly competitive business.

BankServ on Tuesday announced it has agreed to acquire NetDeposit, one of the leading providers of remote deposit capture services, from its owner, Zions Bancorp.

Bank customers are split nearly down the middle when it comes to opting in to debit card account overdraft protection in accordance with new federal rules, according to survey data the American Bankers Association released Aug. 31.

Cimbal Inc. is bypassing any future business models centered on Near Field Communication payments with a mobile-phone application that mimics NFC functionality but without the use of an embedded chip in the handset.

Consumer confidence improved slightly in August, reversing directions after declining in both June and July, The Conference Board Inc., a New York-based research organization, reported Aug. 31.

Hypercom Corp.’s announced change on Aug. 31 of its sales leadership overseeing multilane point-of-sale products and Latin America signifies the payment-terminal maker’s desire to increase market share and to develop new sales channels.

Providers of card not present (CNP) payments technology will soon have company as Transaction Network Services plots an expansion of its international CNP product into the U.S. market.

South Koreans’ credit card spending overseas reached a new high in this year’s second quarter, the Bank of Korea reports.