Credit

Fair Isaac spotted a spike in U.S. credit card fraud taking place online, by mail and over the telephone.

Securitized credit card charge-offs in July rose from the previous month, but the jump was due to one-time factors. Charge-offs should resume their downward trend this month and reach about 4% by the end of the year, according to Moody's Investor Service.

Nearly a third of acquirers surveyed still view mobile payments as a threat.

U.S. gasoline demand rose 1.9% last week as prices at the pump jumped to a 13-week high, according to data from MasterCard Inc.

American Express is most popular for mail-order purchases on the West Coast and in the Northeast; Discover is most popular in the Midwest. Litle & Co. learned these and other trends in an analysis of its processing data.

Bank of America has ceased selling all payment protection plans to credit card customers, killing off a business line targeted by regulators.

PayPal's point of sale mobile payment system combines over half a decade of initiatives — and a few notable setbacks along the way.

As a new partner for PayPal, an early partner for Isis and the first issuer to sign on to a new method of participating with Google Wallet, Discover Financial Services is establishing itself as a foundation for mobile payments initiatives.

PayPal next year will extend its reach through Discover Financial Services' network, enabling direct acceptance of the PayPal digital wallet at more than seven million U.S. merchants.

Visa is offering a new data encryption service that could compete with third-party security vendors' offerings. The service's launch also indicates the card brand's growing desire to push beyond the requirements of the Payment Card Industry data security standards.

Citigroup became the first Western bank to issue credit cards in China without co-branding from a local financial institution as the government relaxes restrictions in the world's second-largest economy.

As Wright Express explores ways to incorporate mobile-payment initiatives, it is beginning to test products outside the U.S. first before launching them here, according to a top executive at the fleet card provider.

U.S. Bank is offering a new charge card designed for small businesses.

Fifth Third Bank is launching a commercial card that has an EMV chip to allow the bank's business customers to make payments overseas.

CreditCall and ChipCap separately announced new readers that handle chip-and-PIN payments from cards that use the EMV standard.

Improved market conditions likely sparked Target's announcement last week that it is in talks with "several well-qualified partners" interested in buying its credit card portfolio.

The rumor mill is catching fire as Apple nears its next product launch. Changes to the iPhone, iPad and other systems could affect initiatives at many payments companies.

In a week's time, the mobile payments world was turned upside down as Square announced a major partnership with Starbucks and a radically different pricing option for merchants. Now payments providers are beginning to piece together how they can ride this wave instead of getting crushed underneath it.

Discover Financial Services now allows consumers to link Discover cards to Google's mobile wallet from Discover's website.

Square is taking a bigger bite at the small-business market by offering flat-fee processing to small merchants, furthering the company's efforts to present itself as a more full-featured option for card acceptance.