Credit

VeriFone Systems Inc. continues to show positive quarterly results in terms of revenue and net income, and company executives expect the trend to continue as contactless mobile payments grow worldwide and EMV chip-and-PIN takes hold in the United States.

Amid a resurgence of interest in issuing private-label credit cards and noteworthy behavioral shifts affecting consumer creditworthiness, First Data Corp. is adopting a new instant-credit decisioning and underwriting system from Zoot Enterprises Inc., the two companies announced Sept. 7.

ACI Worldwide Inc. and Fundtech Ltd. are squaring off in a protracted and very public tug of war over a combination with S1 Corp., and the prize could go to either company.

Equifax Inc. has acquired Datum, a Costa Rican credit reporting company.

Following recommendations from India’s central bank urging the country’s financial institutions to issue chip cards, ICICI Bank Ltd. has begun to issue its first EMV-compliant credit card, the issuer announced Sept. 5.

Zions Bancorp., in its attempt to spot fraud, was gathering much more data than its technology could handle. While searching for a needle in a haystack, it was just piling on more hay.

Fewer than half of all cardholders have a private-label credit card, but those who do are more likely to routinely carry a balance on their various cards than are consumers who rely only on general-purpose cards, new data from Auriemma Consulting Group suggest.

A directive earlier this month from Visa Inc. designed to motivate merchants to support the EMV chip card standard for U.S. cards and payment terminals may spark a cottage industry in EMV training seminars and consulting.

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.