Credit

PHILADELPHIA — In his first speech since taking over for Elizabeth Warren as the public face of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Raj Date warned that the agency will take a firm stance when it identifies practices that are harmful for consumers.

As cuts in debit card interchange and changes in credit card regulations have threatened to reduce issuer-provided card rewards, some merchants have responded by working with issuers to bolster their rewards programs. In doing so, those retailers receive a direct line to card-spending consumers and give financial institutions a way to cover their card-rewards costs.

Absa Bank Ltd has suspended all credit card transactions for its cardholders through a bill payment website in South Africa after repeated complaints of credit card fraud.

Two banks in India are reported to be duelling for the credit card business of Barclays India Pvt Ltd, the Indian-subsidiary of the British bank that has been ailing in India.

A California credit union has teamed up with an organization that promotes local shopping to offer a triple-rewards Visa card, PaymentsSource has learned. Los Angeles Federal Credit Union has formed a partnership with ShopLA City to launch a new Visa card that aims to boost sales at Los Angeles merchants by offering triple rewards points on any purchases made within the city.

A global payments report issued Sept. 15 by Capgemini and the Royal Bank of Scotland strikes a positive note: the use of e-payments is rising, while use of old-school checks and cash is fading.

Visa Inc. and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce have extended by three years their partnership that provides Hispanic-owned merchants with customized access to Visa’s suite of small business products, according to a Sept. 14 Visa announcement.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is launching its Single-Use Accounts commercial card product in Canada, the company announced Sept. 12. The bank has offered single-use cards in the U.S. since 2004 and in recent years also in Europe.

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu in mid-September plans to test the use of biometric smart cards to help disburse pensions in an effort to prevent corruption in the process of delivering cash payments to recipients.

TD Retail Card Services will issue and administer a new private-label credit card for Elkhart, Ind.-based Forest River Inc., a manufacturer of recreational vehicles and cargo trailers.

Fraudsters are increasingly using alternative payment methods to make bogus transactions, in many cases moving away from debit cards and checks, merchants report.

Demand from buyers of credit card portfolios owned by U.S. credit unions warmed somewhat during the first half of 2011 after hitting bottom last year, according to a Sept. 13 report from TRK Advisors.

Efforts to streamline the various payment systems across Taiwan’s public transport operations may see progress as the country’s government pushes interoperability among locally issued smartcards.

Building on its growing momentum in contactless payments, Bank of Montreal is rolling out the Mobile PayPass Tag, a Near Field Communication-enabled sticker that consumers can attach to their mobile phones to make contactless payments in Canada, the bank announced Sept. 13.

LVNV Funding LLC, a Greenville, S.C.-based debt buyer, has settled a lawsuit in Maryland's federal court that involved the firm's license status in the state. The company agreed to erase an estimated $10 million in consumer debt for some 3,500 plaintiffs.

The online payment provider eLayaway Inc. said on Monday that it would join the Secure Vault Payments network and offer the service to its customers in the fourth quarter.

At least three of the nation’s largest credit card issuers, as a result of their strategic actions and market positioning, may eke out growth this year despite the sluggish economy, according to a new report from Keefe, Bruyette and Woods.

Conservative lender American Express Co. is trying more and more to look like a start-up.

Federal agents in Seattle nabbed the third suspect in two elaborate card-skimming schemes on Sept. 6, ending a crime spree that netted more than $500,000 in fraudulent transactions and affected hundreds of consumers in six western states.

The Reserve Bank of India on September 7 proposed several recommendations it says could form the basis for certain new customer-service practices it might require Indian banks to adopt that would affect credit cardholders.