Cards

Nxgen International is opening operations in the United Kingdom and Italy as part of a European expansion strategy the Whitefish, Mont.-based merchant-service provider announced this week. Diversifying geographically can help Nxgen grow and differentiate itself further, says Giuseppe Caltabiano, Nxgen president.

A recent disclosure Citigroup Inc. sent to many checking account customers looks like a model of the form: prominent and succinct. But it may have been a bit too succinct.

Merchants appear to like VeriFone Holdings Inc.’s PayWare mobile-phone payment service on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and their customers are completing big-ticket purchases using the devices.

As the economic crisis lingers, many credit cardholders continue to watch their spending habits and personal finances, although some are showing greater optimism, New York-based management consulting firm Auriemma Consulting Group states in its most recent Cardbeat market research report.

Visa Inc. says U.S. consumers drove $61.1 million in Visa cardholder spending in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, more than half of the total $115.3 million attendees spent locally on Visa cards during the event.

Banks and credit unions participating in the Select-A-Branch ATM network can prospect for new customers using ATM-dispensed receipt coupons printed with offers to pique interest in the financial institutions. But a spokesperson for Philadelphia Federal Credit Union, the marketing service’s first adopter, says the response rate during a recent trial was not good, and the credit union and Select-A-Branch are discussing making undisclosed adjustments.

A Gibraltar-based company Wednesday announced it is issuing a MasterCard Worldwide-branded reloadable prepaid card denominated in South African’s rand currency in time for this summer’s World Cup soccer tournament.

Ritz Interactive Inc., a network of electronic-commerce Web sites, today announced that Acculynk Inc.’s PaySecure Internet-PIN debit product is available as a payment option across 16 sites, including RitzCamera.com, WolfCamera.com and BoatersWorld.com.

Nokia Corp. plans to team up with Mumbai-based Yes Bank to plot Nokia Money, a mobile-commerce platform, in India, a Bangalore-based official at the Finnish Handset Maker tells PaymentsSource.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Pentagon FCU has introduced a new card with a low introductory interest rate of 7.49% good for 36 months.

Point-of-sale terminal maker Hypercom Corp. yesterday reported a $624,000 fourth quarter profit, marking the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company’s third consecutive profitable quarter. Hypercom reported a $74.8 million loss for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Barclays Group PLC is increasing the transaction-size limit for its consumer contactless payment cards to 15 pounds (US$22.50 or 16.60 euros), the company announced this week. The previous limit was 10 pounds.

Dynamic Card Solutions, a provider of instant card issuance and PIN selection solutions for credit unions, banks and retailers that issue magnetic stripe, EMV and contactless cards, last week said Team One Credit Union has implemented DCS' instant issue software and hardware.

EZCheck, a Houston-based check guarantee and payment services company, says last week it has launched smart phone access called EZVerify to its check verification service enabling mobile merchants to get a guarantee on a check. Check guarantee companies reimburse merchants for bad checks if the checks have been vetted against the guarantee company’s database.

Noor Islamic Bank plans launch the United Arab Emirates’ first mobile Internet-banking service in Arabic, the Dubai-based bank announced on March 1.

No official movement is afoot to switch to EMV in the U.S., which is becoming increasingly Balkanized as the only major global region not moving to the more-secure chip-and-PIN technology. But a Visa Inc. executive is among experts suggesting that, though issuers, acquirers and merchants may be resisting the shift for a variety of reasons, EMV technology itself is not the biggest obstacle preventing the U.S. from adopting the standard.

Members of Generation Y are more likely to have both debit cards and savings accounts than any other age group, according to a report released Monday by Fiserv Inc.

First National Bank of Omaha plans to relinquish controlling interest in its First National Merchant Solutions merchant-acquiring arm to Total System Services Inc. in a joint venture the companies announced today.

Mocapay Inc., a Denver-based mobile loyalty and gift card technology company, last week unveiled a platform enabling merchants to give customers a one-time authorization code to conduct point-of-sale payments from prepaid accounts using mobile handsets.

First Data Corp. hopes to raise the stakes among payment-terminal makers and processors vying to encrypt cardholder data with a new product it contends goes further than other market offerings.