Cards

Smart Communications Inc. has signed a mobile-payments deal with Central Negros Electric Cooperative Inc., the Philippines-based company announced on Jan. 31.

Visa Inc. is making a big Olympic advertising push at the Grand Central Terminal in New York. The company today announced the launch of a month-long campaign at the train station featuring three-dimensional video and static images in the station’s subway corridor using its “Go World” theme focusing on Olympic achievement.

Texas consumers wrote fewer checks for purchases in 2009 compared with the previous year, reaching instead for their debit or credit cards, according to survey results released by Swacha, a not-for-profit regional payments association.

VeriFone Holdings Inc.’s Payware Mobile payment software for Apple Inc.’s iPhone is now available from Apple’s iTunes store, the San Jose, Calif.-based terminal maker says.

State Bank of India plans to issue 3 million biometric cards this year as it works to comply with an Indian government mandate to bring financial services to more unbanked consumers, an official from the alternate channels department at the Mumbai-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

Merchants that sell needs-based products, such as food, building materials or vehicle-repair supplies, have experienced less decline in transaction volumes during the recession than have merchants that sell less-necessary goods, such as luxury or entertainment items, observers note.

Chip card maker Bartronics India Ltd. has won a contract to provide cards and card readers for a smart card-based project that includes fingerprint biometrics for India's vast unbanked rural population, an official from the India-based vendor tells PaymentsSource.

Financial companies are trying to make tax season a bit less taxing for people who bank online.

The Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode online card-security protocols are relatively weak compared with other available options. And as fraud continues rising among card-not-present transactions, more-robust authentication methods will be needed to prevent online fraud from skyrocketing, two United Kingdom-based researchers contend in new research released this week.

China UnionPay customers last year initiated 6.94 billion debit and credit card transactions in China in 2009, up by 21.8% from 5.7 billion in 2008, according to China UnionPay. The value of the transactions grew by 66.8%, to 7.7 trillion yuan (US$5.4 trillion or 3.9 trillion euros) in 2009 from 4.61 trillion yuan in 2008.

Sandy Spring (Md.) Bank has renewed its agreement with the Allpoint surcharge-free ATM network, both companies announced recently. Terms were not disclosed.

NYCE Payments Network LLC Friday named Neil Marcous as president. Marcous replaces Steven A. Rathgaber, who is leaving to become CEO of Cardtronics Inc on Feb. 1.

The hardware works, and consumers worldwide think it's a cool idea. Still, near-field communication chips have made about zero progress morphing mobile phones into contactless payment tools.

Fiserv Inc. said Thursday that Mutual of Omaha Bank has implemented 11 Fiserv systems, including online banking and bill pay.

Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC said Thursday that five banks have agreed to use its processing services.

The Center for Financial Services Innovation, an affiliate of the ailing ShoreBank Corp., says it is not only insulated from the bank's troubles but thriving.

Three county jails in Colorado and Utah have installed or are scheduled to install payment kiosks, eliminating the need for jail employees to handle inmates’ cash, according to agreements the jails signed with Continental Prison Systems Inc.

U.S. card-industry players may be overestimating certain technical barriers perceived to be holding the U.S. back from adopting the EMV smart card payment standard used around the world, smart card industry executives say.

Planet Payment Inc. will provide its Pay in Your Currency service to merchants in the United Arab Emirates under an agreement with Network International LLC, an acquirer in the Middle East and North Africa and a card-services provider in the United Arab Emirates, according to Long Beach, N.Y.-based payment processor Planet Payment.

Five villages will become the first in the Indian state of Tripura to be covered under a biometric card initiative by Tripura State Cooperative Bank, an official from the Agartala-based bank tells PaymentsSource.