Credit

The biggest trend in merchant acquiring this year is a concentration on developing and selling mobile card acceptance to micromerchants, a new report suggests.

Isis, the wireless carrier-led mobile-payments venture, just crossed off a relatively small but integral item on its to-do list in signing Visa Inc., American Express Co. and MasterCard Worldwide to its system.

Pushing to improve the airport experience for travelers and offer more than mileage rewards, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chase Card Services unit and United Airlines on July 19 launched the United MileagePlus Explorer Card.

Boosted by a massive reduction in loan-loss reserves, Bank of America Corp.’s global cards unit produced second-quarter net income of $2 billion, up 142% from $826 million during the same period a year earlier, the company announced July 19.

Isis, the mobile carrier-led mobile payments venture that initially planned to compete against incumbent payment networks, now has formed relationships with them, it announced July 19.

Boosted by a massive reduction in loan-loss reserves, Bank of America Corp.’s global cards unit produced second-quarter net income of $2 billion, up 142% from $826 million a year earlier, the company announced July 19.

American Express Co. wants to get closer to its legion of 2 million friends on Facebook.

Citigroup Inc. plans to issue chip-based credit cards that adhere to the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications later this year.

Union Bank of India Ltd. has signed an agreement with electronic payment services provider ElectraCard Services Pvt. Ltd. to set up an online payment gateway to help strengthen its presence in electronic payments.

Continuing efforts to get its Serve digital wallet into consumers’ hands, American Express Co. has signed a deal with Sprint Nextel to put the payments application on the Sprint Zone website, where Sprint customers go to manage their mobile-phone accounts, Amex announced July 18.

Trying a new approach to prod consumer interest in contactless payment, U.S. Bancorp is testing a wrist gadget that combines tap-and-pay technology with an emergency medical notification device, the bank announced July 18.

The final parameters of an antitrust settlement submitted to a federal court in New York Friday by the Department of Justice promises to give merchants and cardholders more choices when paying for goods and services by preventing Visa and MasterCard from enforcing anti-steering bylaws.

Still on the fence about EMV? High uptake from an early adopter, the United Nations Federal Credit Union, is allowing it to expand the card's availability, and provides evidence U.S. cardholders really like to use chip and PIN cards when traveling overseas.

Until last month, there was little that was actually rewarding about the redemption process for JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Amazon.com rewards credit card.

Citicorp’s net credit losses dropped 27% to $2.2 billion during the second quarter, driven by Citi-branded cards in North America, John Gerspach, Citi chief financial officer, told analysts during a July 15 conference to discuss the quarter’s earnings.

Responding to consumer demand for multiple alternative online-payment options, Retail Decisions Ltd. has added six payment types to its fraud-prevention and payment-processing offerings, the company announced July 7.

Supporting acceptance of electronic payments at large, international sporting events promotes higher transaction volumes among tourists for the countries that host them even after the events are over, according to a recent tourism impact report from Visa Inc.

Acknowledging the growing movement toward EMV chip-and-PIN technology in the U.S., most card-security professionals believe banks eventually will move away from issuing magnetic stripe cards, albeit slowly, a new survey report suggests.

Years after social networking sites became mainstream, banks are still trying to figure out the best ways to use them – and in particular, how to manage the risk and compliance issues connected to sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Powered by an influx of credit card customers who are continuing to use their cards for routine spending while paying off their outstanding balances at a higher rate, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Card Services unit on July 14 reported a strong increase in second quarter profits and spending volume.