Cards

Warning that the weak U.S. economy will continue to drag down consumer spending this year, Wells Fargo & Co. issued a blanket downgrade of the transaction processing segment.

Large retailers’ efforts to attract more business are adversely affecting transaction fee revenue at Global Payments Inc., the processor said Jan. 7 when announcing its earnings for its fiscal second quarter ended Nov. 30, 2009.

3Delta Systems Inc. has become a participant in a merchant-services referral deal for the 19,000 members of the National Association of Credit Management, Chantilly, Va.-based 3Delta announced last week.

PSCU Financial Services this week reported a record year for debit and credit card transactions processed despite the economy and the turmoil in the nation’s financial markets.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. and Visa Inc. on Jan. 8 announced they have reached a settlement agreement in which Heartland will pay up to $60 million to Visa Inc. card issuers for damages sustained from the 2008 breach into the payment processor’s network.

Visa Inc. is expressing disappointment that Best Buy Co. recently decided to stop accepting its contactless payWave cards. But Visa on Jan. 8 noted the retailer continues to accept Visa contactless and traditional payment cards as magnetic-stripe transactions.

Ingenico SA on Jan. 7 joined its peers in the payment terminal-manufacturing industry in offering merchants enhanced data-security support throughout the transaction process.

State Bank of India plans to modify up to 7,000 ATMs so blind customers can use them, an official with the alternate channels department at the Mumbai-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

VeriFone Holdings Inc. announced yesterday it will deploy its taxi payment terminals in South Africa through an agreement with iMobilise Transportation Systems, according to the San Jose, Calif.-based point-of-sale terminal maker.

Merchants that have added PayPal Inc. as a payment method have attracted new customers who tend to spend more, according to research from Forrester Research Inc.

The share price of MasterCard Inc. fell Thursday after the company was downgraded.

Diebold Inc. today named Charles E. (Chuck) Ducey Jr. executive vice president of North America operations, a region where the company has faced significant challenges because small and regional banks have refused to buy ATMs and open new branches, key revenue drivers for the ATM maker.

PowerPay, a provider of e-commerce and point-of-sale payment-processing products, will offer to its customers a terminal from Transaction Wireless, a mobile-commerce and marketing provider, under an agreement between the companies announced this week.

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

DFCC Vardhana Bank has signed a partnership deal with Sampath Bank, another Sri Lankan financial institution, to extend the institutions’ ATM coverage, a DFCC spokesperson tells PaymentsSource.

Merced School Employees Federal Credit Union members now can pay bills using their mobile phones through a recent agreement the Merced, Calif.-based institution made that provides them access to Fiserv Inc.’s Mobile Money service.

Diebold Inc. Thursday named Charles E. (Chuck) Ducey Jr. executive vice president of North America operations, a region where the company has faced significant challenges because small and regional banks have refused to buy ATMs and open new branches, key revenue drivers for the ATM maker.

Best Buy Co. Inc. has made good on threats it made in July to drop acceptance of Visa Inc.’s contactless payWave cards because of the interchange rates the network applies to them, according to an industry analyst.

Best Buy Co. Inc. has made good on threats it made in July to drop acceptance of Visa Inc.’s contactless payWave cards because of the interchange rates the network applies to them, according to an industry analyst.

British issuer Barclaycard and mobile-network operator Orange UK have launched a cobranded contactless credit card, a product that brings the two firms closer to offering payments via mobile phones.