Credit

Borrowing on credit cards is close to bottoming out, according to lenders, but the nation's biggest players have had to cede market share during the sharpest contraction in the industry's history. Now they are increasingly fighting for the same kinds of customers.

The fraud management provider Memento Inc. announced April 28 that Bremer Financial Corp.’s Bremer Bank has agreed to use its technology.

A Pennsylvania woman filed a federal lawsuit April 20 against Target Corp. and its law firm over the department store’s collection practices, claiming false affidavits were used to go after customers who allegedly owed money to a subsidiary bank that issues the store’s credit cards.

Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Co. soon will enable consumers to pay their electricity bills though their mobiles phones.

Citibank announced it is hiring up to 1,400 debt collectors in Indonesia after the country's central bank found irregularities in the bank’s collection practices handled by third-party collectors.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc., or FIS, is pushing its debit-processing network to banks and credit unions as they await the outcome of pending caps on debit card interchange fees.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla.–The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act did not deliver the death knell to introductory low-interest credit card offers that many predicted. In fact, many issuers are enriching such teaser offers, a top marketing expert told attendees last week at the 23rd Card Forum and Expo at Miami Beach, Fla.

The Federal Reserve Board’s July deadline for capping debit interchange is just around the corner, but MasterCard Worldwide said it does not expect to feel its effects until at least next year.

MasterCard Inc.’s profit leapt 23.5%, to $562 million in the first quarter from $455 million a year earlier, driven in part by a rise in payments. The card brand’s revenue rose 14.5%, to $1.5 billion from $1.31 billion.

MasterCard this morning reported a 23.6% surge in first quarter profits, as the number and dollar amount of debit transactions continued to lead its growth.

Sony Corp. is reporting that 12,700 credit and debit card numbers and expiration dates were exposed in a separate database from that affected by the massive PlayStation breach.

If 7,500 credit unions across the United States would get their members to contact their Congressional representatives, it would “help keep the pressure on” lawmakers and potentially halt implementation of the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act, Nat Rosenberg, senior vice president of U.S. Markets for MasterCard Worldwide, told attendees at the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations Annual Conference in Las Vegas last week.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. said that its processing joint venture in Brazil with Banco Bradesco SA is handling its ELO-branded credit cards.

A host of new mobile payment applications promise many of the perks of near-field communication technology, without the costly hardware.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla.–Payment-industry experts who gathered in Miami Beach, Fla., April 27 to 29 to attend the 23rd Card Forum & Expo reflected for the first time in a few years an attitude that seemed genuinely ready to greet certain disruptive changes instead of brace against them.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. would consider reimbursing financial institutions for any costs associated with reissuing credit cards that might have been compromised when someone breached the company’s PlayStation Network last month (see story).

MIAMI BEACH, Fla.-If certain “conspiracy theories” have any merit, the Federal Reserve Board might be heeding signals from Capitol Hill as it takes more time to craft final debit-interchange rules, one payment-industry analyst suggested April 28 at the Card Forum & Expo in Miami Beach, Fla.

A Virginia circuit court on April 29 awarded $5.3 million in damages to the former chief executive and chairman of banking technology vendor Online Resources Corp. in an employment lawsuit he filed against the company.

Encore Capital Group Inc., a San Diego-based debt buyer, reported net income of $13.7 million in the quarter ended March 31, up 26% from the year-ago period.

Debt buyer Asset Acceptance Capital Corp., based in Warren, Mich., reported a drop in revenue and an uptick in cash collections for the first quarter ended March 31.