Credit

As banks, card issuers, processors, terminal makers and others involved in electronic transactions are well aware, many new software engineers would rather work for Google Inc. or a hot new start-up than enter the payments or banking industries.

Be it through acquisitions, marketing or customer service, you've got to spend money to make money.

Can card issuers heave a sigh of relief that consumers are returning to pre-recession spending patterns on credit and debit cards?

Smaller payment card issuers would provide the strongest data security and enable their customers to shop anywhere in the world by opting to add chip-and-PIN EMV technology to their magnetic stripe cards as the U.S. moves toward full smart card adoption, a new report suggests.

Capital One Financial Corp. set aside an additional $75 million in its reserve in the first quarter, saying some of its salespeople did not adhere to its practices in trying to sell additional products to credit card customers.

Capital One Financial Corp.'s profit from U.S. and international credit cards declined during the first quarter but purchase volume rose sharply, the company said April 19.

Bank of America Corp. has more work to do in refining its credit card operations, but the issuer’s first-quarter earnings suggest purchase volume and new-account growth is moving in the right direction.

Citing a number of “unusual items” in Fifth Third Bancorp’s first-quarter earnings report, Dan Poston, the bank’s chief financial officer, assured industry analysts the quarter was “not as noisy as it might seem.”

American Express Co.'s affluent base of cardholders apparently felt pretty confident about the economy, driving strong growth in card purchases that helped to produce record first-quarter profits for the card company.

South Korea’s financial regulators have issued new rules to govern credit card issuance to stem what many experts say is a vulnerable card market.

Increased consumer spending and rewards redemptions helped all three of Alliance Data Systems Corp.’s business units, including private-label card services, to report significant first-quarter gains, the company announced April 19.

Debit card interchange-rate reductions that took effect Oct. 1 triggered a big reduction in Fifth Third Bancorp’s first-quarter card and processing revenue compared with the same period last year, the company reported April 19.

Benefitting from higher cardholder spending and low loss rates, American Express Co. posted record profits for the first quarter.

Within a couple of months, MasterCard Worldwide expects its cardholders to have easy access to daily coupons from merchants.

Despite new rules and legislation that have cut into certain revenue streams, credit and debit cards are showing some positive trends at U.S. Bancorp.

The state of Hawaii has sued seven major credit card issuers over the marketing of credit card insurance-like products, known as payment-protection plans.

U.S. Bank is moving to roll out mobile instant-credit apps for its key cobranded retail credit card partners after a successful pilot.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s credit card unit is evolving into a leaner, more upscale transaction machine.

Orange continued its push to stay at the forefront of mobile payments in the United Kingdom, expanding its Quick Tap contactless payment system to handsets powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

This story was updated from its original version with more information.