Credit

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking comment on a proposal to revise a Federal Reserve rule limiting credit card fees issued before a borrower opens an account.

By backing off a plan to limit large up-front fees banks can charge on credit cards, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau feels it has protected cardholders from other increased costs, the Associated Press reported April 12.

Alliance Data Systems Inc. has agreed to buy the existing private-label credit card portfolio of jewelry retailer Premier Designs.

SmartMetric Inc. came up empty in federal appeals court April 11, but the payments-technology provider plans to continue its fight against three of the major card brands it says stole its patented technology.

Visa Inc. has rolled out another point-of-sale fraud-fighting tool for payment card issuers already facing costly changes to block fraud at the checkout level with EMV technology.

Visa Inc. has launched a new tool to help issuers spot fraud, the card brand announced April 11.

The credit card industry is slowly turning a corner.

ING Vysya Bank India Pvt. Ltd. will issue a new Kisan Credit Card targeting Indian farmers that incorporates an ATM function, the Indian subsidiary of the Netherlands-based bank last week.

Philippines financial authorities are discussing the possibility of establishing a debt-restructuring mechanism to address rising loan defaults among the country’s credit cardholders, many of whom may be defaulting nondeliberately.

Online coupon site RetailMeNot.com plans to ride the momentum of a paperless coupon beta test it held at last month’s South by Southwest multimedia festival in Austin, Texas, to stage a national rollout this summer, PaymentsSource has learned.

MIT Federal Credit Union has been selected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni Association to offer its financial services, including an affinity credit card, to its 125,000 members.

Consumers are increasingly paying down their debts, according to the American Bankers Association.

The journey to align U.S. payments processing security standards with those in most of the rest of the world has all the appearances of progress: "inevitable" is the word most often heard in connection to EMV chip card, and MasterCard and Visa have set what seem to be migration deadlines.

Global Payments Inc.’s massive data breach underscores the need for the U.S. to embrace the EMV standard without delay, at least one chip card proponent contends.

Consumers are becoming less satisfied with their credit card rewards programs as conditions such as expiration dates and spending minimums have diminished the experience, new survey data suggest.

American Express Co. is working with Transaction Network Services Inc. to provide a payment-gateway service for e-commerce.

Two weeks before bitterly contested regulations regarding its debit cards went into effect in the fall, MasterCard Worldwide threw a party in New York. The company wanted to trumpet its commitment to the newest technology in payments, including a role in the about-to-launch Google Wallet, which lets a handful of eligible consumers buy chewing gum or bottled water by waving their smartphones around. Executives at the event were determinedly festive.

Cobranded retail credit cards seem to be gaining favor with recession-weary consumers looking for immediate bargains.

A chip-and-signature route to U.S. EMV adoption certainly would be less painful for banks and merchants than would the chip-and-PIN approach used most everywhere else, but taking the easy way out carries risk.

Credit card issuers in the United Kingdom will have a receptive audience if they strengthen and more heavily promote their rewards programs.