Cards

Three years ago banks rushed to be first to offer mobile text-message alerts notifying customers of suspicious credit and debit card transactions. Now Visa Inc. is trying to up the stakes by emphasizing the superior speed of its mobile transaction-notification service compared with other such services.

The Gujarat Urban Cooperative Banks Federation plans to link the state’s 300 urban and 18 district cooperative banks with the ATM network of private and nationalized banks, a state official tells PaymentsSource.

PNC Financial Services and federal law-enforcement officials are investigating a debit card breach involving an undisclosed number of National City Bank customers in the Cincinnati area, says Fred Solomon, a PNC spokesperson.

ATM independent sales organization Cardtronics Inc. March 22 announced plans to sell 6 million shares of common stock with a 900,000-share overallotment reserved for underwriters. As of Feb. 26, Houston-based Cardtronics had 41.6 million shares outstanding, according to the company’s 10-K annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

When The Fortunate Cup Coffee Cafe Inc. began accepting a new form of mobile payments last week, it also began to brew up more business for the bank that made it possible.

The bill to overhaul the nation’s health care system the House of Representatives approved on March 21 is unlikely to derail growth of tax-deferred health savings accounts and associated debit cards, at least not immediately, experts say.

Both novice and seasoned sales agents for independent sales organizations can have difficulty understanding exactly where they earn their revenue because not every ISO defines and pays residuals in the same way, note observers.

Gift and loyalty services company SparkBase says its deal announced this week with Apriva will expand the potential number of merchants that can accept SparkBase products.

The weak economy, decreased transaction volumes and margin compression in the payments industry are increasing the importance of up-front revenue streams for independent sales organizations and their sales agents instead of revenue purely from residuals, industry insiders say.

The mobile banking technology provider ClairMail Inc. announced a platform that it says makes it easier to adapt mobile banking systems as a bank's business and technology needs change.

To better educate consumers about debit card holds for fuel purchases, Chevron Corp. is placing decals at its gas pumps nationwide explaining the retailer’s role in the process.

EBay Inc.'s PayPal Inc. says it has partnered with China UnionPay Co., China's biggest card issuer, enabling Chinese consumers to shop online with international retailers using their China UnionPay bank cards.

Ingenico SA, a France-based point-of-sale terminal maker, foresees a return to growth this year after posting declining revenue and profit results for 2009 compared with 2008.

Thieves stole an undisclosed number of PIN pads from Hancock Fabrics Inc. stores, replacing them with counterfeit terminals that illegally captured customer card data. Store officials disclosed the thefts from an undisclosed number of its 264 stores in 37 states earlier this month. Executives believe the thefts occurred in August and September last year.

Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC later this year will roll out an advanced payment-data encryption technology platform for its merchant clients developed in conjunction with Voltage Security Inc., the processor said on Thursday.

Verifi Inc., a provider of risk-management services for card-not-present merchants, this week announced a partnership with ThreatMetrix Inc. designed to help block online fraud.

NCR Corp. today named Robert Fishman chief financial officer, ending his stint as interim CFO, a position he has held at the world’s largest ATM manufacturer since October.

Co-op Financial Services this week announced a partnership with the Louisiana Credit Union League intended to help expand Co-op’s surcharge-free ATM network throughout Louisiana.

Indian consumers in January initiated 20.3 million credit card transactions, down 6.9% from 21.8 million during the same month the previous year, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India. Credit card sales volume, however, increased by 5%, to 54.3 billion rupees (US$1.2 billion or 869.3 million euros) from 51.7 billion rupees.

Citigroup Inc. is learning many consumers today do not share its enthusiasm for mobile payments.