Cards

Verizon Wireless customers soon will be able to charge purchases of digital goods, such a games, to their monthly phone bills, bypassing cards and other payment channels. Verizon had not previously sold its customers any products other than its own offerings, such as ringtones, a Verizon spokesperson says.

WorldNet TPS plans to use First Atlantic Commerce’s fraud-prevention services to further protect its online merchants from card-not-present fraud in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Europe, the companies announced this week. First Atlantic Commerce, a payment gateway and risk-management services provider, offers 3-D Secure and other customized consumer risk services in Europe and in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions.

EMN8 Inc., a San Diego-based manufacturer and deployer of payment kiosks for quick service restaurants, earlier this month raised $14.5 million from stock sales to unnamed investors, the company reports in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Visa Inc. will move to chip-and-PIN technology for all of its cards in New Zealand over the next four years, the card company announced March 24.

Ukash today announced Bolivia has become the 30th country in which it operates. The United Kingdom-based firm, which sells prepaid vouchers for online shopping, is partnering with Rocalix S.A., a payments-service provider that will distribute the vouchers to merchants that offer funds-transfer services.

Four of five randomly selected major banks reported increased ATM revenues and fees during last year’s fourth quarter compared with a year earlier because they raised surcharge fees, increased the size of their ATM networks, or they did both, PaymentsSource research data show.

As card issuers compete fiercely for the choicest customers, two divergent strategies have emerged.

Hancock Fabric Inc. has replaced every VeriFone Inc. 2000 PIN pad it deploys with new VeriFone MX850 terminals, according to Robert W. Driskell, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. The company made the move after thieves replaced some PIN pads with fakes one (see story).

WASHINGTON – Credit unions and banks are preparing for an unusual phenomenon – the middle of the month payday on Sunday, Aug. 15, when millions of consumers may learn the hard way they were supposed to have “opted-in” to overdraft protection on their debit card accounts.

ORLANDO, Fla. – More than 40 people were charged in an elaborate fraud and ID theft ring that drained as much as $250,000 from five area credit unions over the last three years, but investigators still are looking for the woman they believe is behind the operation.

An Internal Revenue Service initiative announced earlier this month could spur independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers to assess how they classify their staffs, Holli Hart Targan, president of the Electronic Transactions Association, noted at the Southeast Acquirers Association conference this week in Atlanta.

Several observers last year predicted credit-building features might be the next significant add-on for general-purpose reloadable prepaid cards. Last week, a Las Vegas-based technology company unveiled a credit-score feature that reports recurring monthly payments initiated with prepaid cards such as utility bills to the three major credit bureaus and that can affect a cardholder’s credit score.

Visa Inc. on March 24 announced a strategic alliance with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce designed to provide Hispanic-owned businesses with educational materials to help them manage cash flow and payments and to provide the “best available” interchange rates.

How important is innovation to the business of banking today? The government appears to believe that financial innovations are at least partly to blame for the recent economic crisis, and to some degree this is true. Were it not for powerful secondary markets and instruments like mortgage-backed securities and CDOs, we may well have avoided the real estate bubble in the first place, leaving nothing to burst.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Tech CU is providing its members with an enhanced list of methods to prevent being the victims of fraud through mobile banking.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A new law signed by Gov. Christine Gregoire Monday will lift some of the burdens on credit unions for reissuing credit cards in data breaches by making the offending parties liable.

The Federal Reserve Board March 23 announced final rules that limit the fees and expiration dates for certain prepaid products, primarily open and closed-loop gift cards. The final rules take effect Aug. 22.

China last year became the world’s second largest ATM market, passing Japan, according to Retail Banking Research, a London-based strategic marketing firm.

Fiserv Inc. Monday announced that SunTrust Banks Inc. will use its mobile-banking service that gives consumers more access to mobile-financial services.

Arkansans can now make payments to the state government over their mobile phones.