Credit

With e-commerce becoming a bigger target for payment data theft, Global Payments Inc. intends to provide its online merchants with another set of fraud-detection tools.

PayPal Inc. is putting itself at nearly every possible point of a consumer's banking relationship – from account-opening to payments and even reward-redemption – through a series of new partnerships.

Capital One Financial Corp. is preparing to relaunch its small-business credit card under the new Spark Business brand, while adding enhancements to existing products and incentives for new customers, PaymentsSource has learned.

Seeking to become a dominant player in the growing school-meals payments arena, a Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. unit has announced the purchase of School-Link Technologies Inc., its fourth such acquisition in the last 10 months.

Indian credit cardholders in August spent 80.8 billion rupees (US$1.6 billion or 1.2 billion euros), up 29% from 62.6 billion rupees during the same month last year, according to new data from the Reserve Bank of India.

Despite sluggish economic growth and worrisome unemployment rates, certain indicators on the eve of payment card issuers releasing third-quarter results suggest credit and debit card purchase volumes remained relatively healthy through September, according to two new reports from New York-based equity firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

U.S. Bancorp said Tuesday that it has launched a new iPhone app that lets its retail partners offer instant credit to their customers.

No matter how rewarding a credit card is, redeeming points can often be a hassle involving complex math and mailed vouchers – except at Amazon.com, where a growing number of issuers let users spend rewards points as easily as cash.

Participants in a large international credit card-skimming ring allegedly stole credit card data from thousands of U.S. and European consumers over a 16-month period, resulting in at least $13 million in losses, the Queens, N.Y. district attorney’s office announced Oct. 7.

JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Sapphire credit card will be a presenting sponsor of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for the second year in a row with a few new twists, a move one analyst says may bring the affluent-targeted card brand closer to its core audience.

Thailand’s government recently said it has scuttled plans to issue credit cards to farmers, which was part of an electoral promise its ruling party made earlier this year.

In a move that MasterCard Worldwide says is helping to pave the way for contactless mobile payments in the U.S., the card company on Oct. 7 announced that 7,000 Subway restaurants will accept PayPass by the end of the first quarter of 2012. Subway follows McDonald’s Corp., which began taking PayPass in 2004 at its U.S. locations.

In an effort to thwart fraud attempts at the earliest stage of the online ticket-purchasing process, Turkish Airlines Inc. has opted to link its website to CyberSource Corp.’s fraud-monitoring services.

Alliance Data Systems Corp. will take over the private-label credit card program for Pier 1 Imports Inc., the retailer announced Oct. 5.

The combined effects of tighter lender underwriting criteria and continued consumer discipline in keeping credit card accounts current drove the bankcard delinquency rate to new lows through the second quarter, according to new data from the American Bankers Association.

Though it established a two-tier rate structure to accommodate issuers exempt from new caps on debit card interchange established by the Federal Reserve Board, Visa Inc. made only minor changes to the rates acquirers use to determine how much they pay card issuers with less than $10 billion in assets.

A regional rural bank in India on Sept. 29 launched a trial to test a new mobile-based version of India’s Kisan credit card, which farmers use to buy equipment and products such as fertilizer and seeds at a lower interest rate.

New regulations that are sweeping across the banking industry, particularly the Durbin amendment to the Dodd/Frank Act, have financial institutions and other card issuers scrambling to find alternative ways to boost fee income as traditional revenue streams tighten over time.

The Secure Remote Payment Council reached a watershed moment of sorts last month when it cosponsored a one-day symposium with the Federal Reserve Board of Chicago.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union, which has been cutting fees on its cards and mortgage programs over the past 12 months, has eliminated the foreign transaction fee from the remainder of the credit card programs in its card portfolio, it announced Oct. 3.