Credit

Sovereign Bank will draw in part on marketing strategies that have succeeded abroad for parent company Banco Santander S.A. when it relaunches its branded credit card portfolio next year under its own roof, Eduardo Tobon, Santander's U.S. cards division head, tells PaymentsSource.

Electronic funds transfer networks such as First Data Corp.’s Star are hearing increased chatter from financial institutions about securing and authenticating purchases at point-of-sale retail locations and online.

Discover Financial Services has agreed to purchase $2.5 billion of private student loans from Citigroup Inc., as the lender continues diversifying beyond its main credit card business.

Representatives of 13 corporate credit unions and Co-op Financial Services have abandoned efforts to buy the payments functions from U.S. Central Federal Credit Union, the latest corporate initiative to fail, the representatives announced Sept. 2.

EFT Canada Inc. has completed its acquisition of the credit card gateway of privately held Linterna Technologies Ltd., the companies announced Sept. 2.

Viewing the world of bloggers as a potential retail landscape, Jumio Inc. has broadened the availability of its webcam credit card reader software to anyone using a WordPress Foundation website, the company CEO says.

Large banks such as Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. have been working for years to build global payment “hubs,” or online-banking platforms their corporate customers may use to send and accept payments of different types and in foreign currencies to their customers and partners around the world.

More than half of U.S. consumers use at least two credit or debit cards each month for online purchases, and many are wary of the potential for fraud associated with online banking, a study security-software vendor AVG Technologies USA Inc. released Sept. 1 suggests.

Sovereign Bank is taking its credit card operations in house.

China's new multifunction contactless social security card will support yuan-denominated cash withdrawals, funds transfers and other consumer-oriented banking applications, government officials told reporters at a press conference Aug. 30.

As Visa Inc. has been ramping up its promotion of one-time-use card data for security, Discover Financial Services is winding down its support of a similar technology.

Not to be outdone by rivals in a month that has seen what may be a record number of new and retooled credit card rewards program announcements, Bank of America Corp. on Aug. 31 rolled out noteworthy upgrades to a couple of its core cash-rewards cards.

Mutual of Omaha Bank, on a growth streak since its 2007 launch, has signed a long-term merchant-services agreement with First Data Corp., the companies announced Aug. 30.

In a move exemplifying efforts to move more cash and check payments to credit and debit cards, a national social network of babysitters and parents called SitterPals.com has signed up to use Square Inc.’s service to accept credit card payments for their services, the company announced Aug. 31.

Alaric Systems Ltd. has issued its newest version of credit card fraud-protection software for financial institutions, card processors and retailers, the London-based company said Aug. 30 in announcing the release of Fractals 3.7.

With competition increasing among card issuers for affluent customers who often travel, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is going on the road to promote its new United MileagePlus Explorer card.

To increase its subscriber base of frequent travelers, Citibank Philippines is teaming with the country’s largest national airline Cebu Pacific Ltd. to launch a cobranded credit card.

U.S. banks are beginning to ramp up their credit card offerings as part of broader strategies to offset declining debit card revenue resulting from new Federal Reserve debit-interchange rules going into effect Oct. 1, certain analysts suggest.

The wireless carriers involved in mobile-payments venture Isis reportedly plan to invest more than $100 million into the project.

Consumers have filed 7,923 lawsuits against collection agencies and creditors this year through Aug. 15, a record-setting pace that easily tops the 7,169 lawsuits filed through the same period last year.