Credit

Consumers filed an estimated 524 consumer statute lawsuits in the first half of July, down from 567 in the second half of June.

Chris Olson doesn't count himself among EMV's detractors or evangelists. "It's a lot like Beta or VHS, you don't really know how it's going to turn out," says Fremont Bank's COO on the question of whether EMV cards (debit or credit cards embedded with a computer chip that meets the standard named for creators Europay, MasterCard and Visa), magnetic stripe cards or some other kind of point-of-sale plastic will dominate the U.S. card market in the future.

FICO, provider of the ubiquitous credit scores, on Wednesday said fiscal third quarter net increased almost 30% to $23.2 million, despite a 3% drop in revenues.

A possible tie-up between bank technology vendors Fidelity National Information Services Inc., or FIS, and Misys PLC has fallen through after the companies failed to agree on price.

Though First Data Corp.’s second-quarter earnings show losses tied to debt service from a 2007 takeover by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., company executives pointed to positive revenue numbers and strong liquidity during an Aug. 3 conference call with analysts.

Visa Inc. fired the first shot in the post-Durbin pricing war, but MasterCard Worldwide is not ready to pull the trigger, at least not yet.

In another attempt to tap the growing travel segment in India, HDFC Bank Ltd. on Aug. 1 launched a new range of travel-themed credit cards.

Touting heavier consumer and commercial card-spending as the economy gradually improves, MasterCard Worldwide on Aug. 3 said its second-quarter purchase volume showed healthy increases in all worldwide regions, with its biggest gains in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Growth in payment-processing business in North America and continued success with its MasterCard corporate card program helped generate a 54.6% increase in second-quarter revenue for fleet card provider Wright Express Corp.

Increases in debit-network fees and favorable changes in foreign currency fueled a 5.4% increase in second-quarter revenue for First Data Corp., to $2.75 billion from $2.61 billion a year ago, the company reported Aug. 3.

Higher spending on its credit and debit cards boosted MasterCard Inc.’s second-quarter net revenue by 21.4% from a year earlier.

Payments technology vendor Fundtech Ltd.’s second-quarter revenue rose 16.4% from a year earlier to $40.5 million as it closed 130 new deals and added 14 new bank clients.

For a large international operation such as RBS' wholesale banking unit, drawing a mobile roadmap means scaling the knowledge curve posed by fast-developing new devices and technology to find the best match between innovation and client demand.

Account opening has long been an arduous process for banks and their customers alike, due to banks' procedures and regulatory requirements. But some banks, including Citi and Wells Fargo, are devoting resources to streamlining the onboarding process and making it mirror the experience of shopping at Amazon.com, Apple or Netflix.

In what it is calling a return to decades-old marketing tactics combined with new technology, credit-score giant FICO on Aug. 2 introduced a product designed to target credit card customer prospects more effectively in a sluggish market.

Uncertainty remains for clients of payments and banking software provider S1 Corp. despite its plan to stay the course on a proposed merger with Fundtech Ltd.

With 2.6 billion China UnionPay cardholders and 1.2 million Elavon Global Acquiring Solutions merchants worldwide, the math simply added up for an agreement that would enable Elavon merchants to accept UnionPay cards, an Elavon executive says.

A United Kingdom-based consumer-advocacy group once again is calling attention to card surcharges merchants add when consumers make credit and debit purchases online.

Barclaycard, the card-issuing unit of Barclays PLC, on Aug. 2 reported a £76 million (US$121.7 million) loss for the six months ended June 30, citing £600 million it set aside as a nonrecurring expense for customers reclaiming costs incurred for mis-sold payment-protection insurance. The unit of the London-based bank earned a £317 million profit during the same period last year.

A woman who sued a collection law firm for twice attempting to garnish her wages for a debt she did not owe was awarded $1.26 million, according to a ruling July 29 by a federal jury in New Mexico.