Cards

Affiliated Computer Services Inc. this week announced it has won a bid to continue processing child-supports payments for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The potential nine-year agreement consists of a one-year base and four two-year options.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation’s third-largest debit card issuer, is mailing letters to its debit cardholders urging them to sign up for the bank’s overdraft protection or overdraft coverage with a stern warning about financial penalties if they do not.

Visa Europe and France-based payment-services provider SAS Carte Bleue today announced the completion of a merger involving the companies’ French operations and the creation of Visa France.

MasterCard Worldwide’s credit card transactions are not being cannibalized by the growth in consumer debit card use, Chris McWilton, MasterCard president of U.S. markets, today told analysts at the Credit Suisse Financial Services Forum in Miami.

A majority of UK consumers hold retailers primarily responsible for making online transactions safer, and fraud risk remains a top concern for many UK shoppers when making online purchases, according to data released today from CyberSource Ltd., a UK-based subsidiary of CyberSource Corp.

First Data Corp. signed a three-year contract with an Egyptian ministry to manage a prepaid benefits smart card. The program initially will target monthly grocery purchases for 4.5 million families but eventually will expand to support other government benefits.

As the head of one of the nation's largest microlenders, Gina Harman is leading the charge to expand the availability of credit to underserved communities in this country.

DES MOINES, Iowa – With the pace of credit union mergers predicted to continue in 2010, TMG (The Members Group) has issued a white paper on card services management during a merger.

WASHINGTON – A recent survey commissioned by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and CUNA revealed that, while most consumers (61%) are aware there are new credit card protections, most (65%) don’t know they take effect later this month and don’t understand the specific protections Congress approved last year.

Visa Inc.’s announcement Monday that this summer it will expand its “No Signature Required” program for magnetic stripe card transactions less than $25 to the majority of merchants could create yet another setback for contactless-payment growth in the United States, some observers say.

Target Corp. customers now may store gift card data electronically and make payments at the point of sale using their mobile phones.

The Secure POS Vendor Alliance, an Atlanta-based trade organization representing point-of-sale terminal makers, says it is forming the Lab Network, a collection of research labs that would work on shared security matters.

Point-of-sale terminal maker XAC Automation Corp. will use advanced payment-data encryption technology from Voltage Security Inc. in its new devices, Voltage announced this week.

Big banks are starting to open the tech-spending spigot, but times are tight for their smaller peers.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., known as ANZ, is expanding its collaboration with Visa Inc. to offer Visa-branded debit cards to its customers in additional countries in the Asia/Pacific region starting this year, the card company announced in a recent statement. Visa and ANZ first begin working together to offer cards in Australia and New Zealand in 2005.

Financial companies, discovering that people who bank by phone don't always bank online, are changing how they look at mobile services.

Xerox Corp. said Monday it has completed its roughly $6.4 billion acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services Inc., an outsourcer that, among other things, processes credit card applications for issuers.

Seeking to become independent from established United Kingdom banks, Ghana International Bank last week announced the availability of a MasterCard-branded debit card in the UK.

Processors, not independent sales organizations, likely will bear the brunt of a law that takes effect next January requiring acquirers to report merchant credit and debit card transactions to the Internal Revenue Service, says Henry Helgeson, co-CEO of Merchant Warehouse Inc., a Boston-based ISO.

Dozens of credit unions are walking away from the $60 million payment Visa issuers will get for the costs they incurred for the massive credit card breach at Heartland Payments System.