Cards

Citigroup Inc. is said to be switching its entire North American banking operations to a core processing application from Fidelity National Information Services Inc.

Heartland Payments Systems Inc. has developed a combined identification and prepaid debit card for students, faculty and staff at Hillsborough Community College, which has five campuses in the Tampa area.

Tri Tax of San Pedro, Calif., is offering a debit card for customers to receive tax refunds and paycheck deposits, which the tax-preparation franchisor called a draw for underbanked consumers.

From the January/February 2010 issue of ISO&Agent.

Bling Nation Ltd., which last year rolled out its first proprietary local debit card payment network (see story), this month plans to announce its third such network in partnership with a community bank in upstate New York.

Hypercom Corp. will provide more than 12,000 PIN pads with EMV contactless card readers to European retailer Carrefour, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based point-of-sale terminal maker announced Thursday.

The city of Jakarta soon plans to deploy a prepaid electronic-ticketing system called JakCard for its bus and train networks, an official from the Indonesian city’s transport authority tells PaymentsSource. The Jakarta Transportation Agency says it developed the contactless smart card system in collaboriation with Jakarta-based Bank DKI, bus operator BLU Transjakarta and PT KAI Commuter Jabodetabek.

Automated clearinghouse transaction processor ACH Federal LLC, is introducing a merchant-referral partner program for independent sales organizations in the hopes of expanding its client base, according to the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based company.

A growing number of financial companies are trying to foster creativity with in-house innovation labs.

MoneyGram International Inc. said earnings fell in the fourth quarter despite increased transfer volume in several crucial regions.

Citing the continued clamp down on consumer spending caused by the recession, MasterCard today reported healthier global purchase volume for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, while U.S. credit card volume fell.

Buoyed by improving economic trends around the world, Visa Inc. on Wednesday reported purchase-volume growth in all categories except U.S. credit for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Visa also for the first time reported its operational performance data and financial results simultaneously for the same quarter. It previously reported operational data a quarter later than its earnings.

NCR Corp. today reported a fourth quarter net loss on lower revenues as demand for ATMs slumped in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America.

North American Bancard’s decision to hire Deutsche Bank Securities is to “explore the opportunity to strategically align ourselves with financial partners to pursue any opportunities,” Marc Gardner, the independent sales organization’s president, tells PaymentsSource. North American Bancard earlier this week announced the Deutsche Bank hiring.

Six Pay S.A. plans to target merchant-processing opportunities in Eastern Europe as part of an effort to expand its operations, the Luxembourg-based payment-services company says.

Some bus passengers in the Vietnamese capital of Ho Chi Minh City soon will be able to pay their fares using a contactless smart card as part of test of the technology, an official from the city’s transport authority tells PaymentsSource.

Indian Overseas Bank has launched its first mobile ATM as part of its drive to expand access to the institution’s services, an official from the Chennai, India-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

Miami-Dade Transit has begun to offer consumers commemorative Super Bowl transit smart cards for the area’s transit system. Transit officials hope the initiative helps promote use of the agency’s smart card system, which launched last fall.

Citing rising interest from its clients, commuter benefits provider Accor Services USA has added a prepaid debit transit and parking card as part of its services.

Visa Inc.'s profits jumped by a third in its fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 31, and use of the company's debit and credit cards picked up in the U.S.