Credit

Citing increased consumer spending and improving economic conditions, Bank of America Corp.’s Global Card Services unit posted a sharp profit-increase during the first quarter ended March 31.

Diamond Bank PLC and Qatar Airways Ltd. have entered into a partnership designed to increase use of the bank’s payment cards, the Nigeria-based bank announced April 13.

Bank of America Corp.’s Global Card Services unit continued to show improvement during the first quarter ended March 31, reporting April 15 net income of $1.7 billion, up 76.5% from $963 million during the same period last year.

Minnesota’s TCF Bank filed a an expedited appeal request April 14 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit asking the court to overturn a lower court’s ruling and to block the Federal Reserve’s pending implementation of the Durbin amendment’s debit fee caps.

WASHINGTON – A major technology group comprised of some of the biggest corporations shifted its position on the proposed delay in debit rules a week after expressing support for the delay.

The fight over the interchange amendment heated up on Wednesday when Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon an open letter defending the provision.

Momentum for the EMV smart card security standard, common in many European countries, grew this week with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. announcing plans to start issuing EMV cards to U.S. customers this summer.

For the major card brands, emerging global markets that broadly lack access to financial services likely will represent the greatest earnings potential for mobile-payments initiatives, concludes a report from Macquarie Equities Research Group.

Responding to consumers’ growing concerns about online fraud and identity theft, American Express Co. on April 13 unveiled a premium-level fraud-monitoring service that enables cardholders to opt in to receive beefed-up fraud protection.

Responding to consumers’ growing concerns about online fraud and identity theft, American Express Co. on April 13 unveiled a premium-level fraud-monitoring service that enables cardholders to opt in to receive beefed-up fraud protection.

A Malaysian national, arrested in October hours after flying into Kennedy International Airport, pleaded guilty in New York April 13 to hacking into the Federal Reserve’s computer system and to illegally possessing hundreds of thousands of card account numbers and other account information.

A Woodlands, Texas-based independent sales organization has added a processing platform and is growing into a super ISO with fewer but higher-producing partners, company executives say.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on April 12 published guidelines for online third-party payment providers in an attempt to regulate the fast-developing business-to-consumer e-commerce market.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jon Tester opened debate on delaying the controversial interchange rule this morning insisting the proposed cuts in debit fees will cause unintended harm to rural banks and credit unions, even as the Senator and his allies desperately search for a bill to attach their delay measure to.

Perhaps the most critical thing bankers have learned from the breach at Epsilon, the email marketing unit of Alliance Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas, is that there is no such thing as "low-value" information anymore. All stolen information is worth its virtual weight in gold.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced April 14 it will issue contact smart credit cards to U.S. customers in June, making it the second bank to bet that this technology, commonplace in Europe, will finally take hold in the States.

American Express Co. is positioning its undisclosed investment in mobile-payments company Payfone Inc. as the next step in adding additional functionality to the card brand’s new Serve digital wallet product.

Independent sales organizations and agents should hire lawyers to help draw up contracts and navigate the revenue split from merchant transactions, as such legal advice can help ward off unpleasant surprises, observers agree.

Visa Inc. last week completed a trial of mobile contactless payments in Australia in collaboration with Melbourne-based ANZ Banking Group Ltd., Vipin Kalra, Visa country manager for Australia, tells PaymentsSource.

The Reserve Bank of India is clamping down on foreign airlines operating in India by mandating they stop using overseas banks to settle card transactions used to buy airline tickets in India.