Credit

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Durbin, author of the controversial rule to set caps on debit fees, yesterday denounced assertions by banks and credit unions that having card giants MasterCard and Visa set prices for debit is preferable to having the Federal Reserve set price limits on the increasingly popular form of payment.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Durbin, author of the controversial rule to set caps on debit fees, yesterday denounced assertions by banks and credit unions that having card giants MasterCard and Visa set prices for debit is preferable to having the Federal Reserve set price limits on the increasingly popular form of payment.

Helped by improving economic trends, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Card Services unit on April 13 reported a healthy increase in credit card sales volume for the first quarter ended March 31.

Visa Inc. has adapted the fraud scoring tool that it uses to vet card-not-present transactions to aid government agencies and private businesses with corporate card accounts.

Wells Fargo & Co. is planning to issue 15,000 EMV cards to U.S. residents in a test this year, making it by far the largest bank to offer the smart cards to domestic customers.

Driven by lower provision for credit losses, partially offset by lower net revenue, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Card Services unit generated net income of $1.34 billion for the first quarter ended March 30; it reported a $303 million loss during the same period last year, the New York-based issuer reported April 13.

he breach last month at Epsilon, the email marketing arm of Alliance Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas, was probably four months in the making, according to an April 9 story in CNet, and it could have started with a phishing attack against an email services partner that Epsilon used, called Return Path Inc., of New York.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has added former executives from ING Direct and Hypercom Corp. to its management team.

American Express Co. is continuing to extend its presence in social media with a new online community developed with interactive online travel community FlyerTalk that rewards cardholders for sharing their best travel tips.

A consortium of technology companies with banking-industry connections is urging lawmakers to delay implementation of the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit-interchange rules, warning they could heighten risk by forcing banks to reduce their investments in security and fraud-protection services.

Consumer protections under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 should be applied to small-business credit cards, according to a lead-generation website that tracks card products.

Through their promotion offering new holders of the British Airways Visa Signature card the opportunity to earn up to 100,000 miles, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and British Airways are hoping to increase loyalty among international travelers, according to Chase.

Direct carrier billing is becoming more popular as consumers see the convenience and merchants are more willing to accept higher transaction fees to increase sales, contends Zong Inc., a mobile-payments platform provider.

IDBI Bank Ltd. has become the second bank in India to support cash withdrawals initiated at point-of-sale terminals, a spokesperson for the Mumbai-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

India’s IndusInd Ltd. on Apr 12 confirmed it would take over the credit card business of Deutsche Bank India Pvt. Ltd. in a deal valued at 2.24 billion rupees (US$50.3 million or 34.8 million euros). The companies expect to close the deal by the end of April.

SIMalliance is opening its software to third-party developers in its effort to discourage hackers’ attacks against wireless devices.

Even a brief, voluntary online financial-literacy lesson can have a significant positive effect on how college students use credit cards, including driving them to have higher average credit scores and fewer credit card late fees, new research suggests.

WASHINGTON – Jaws were dropping around Capitol Hill last week as CUNA President Bill Cheney began a tour of Senate offices with Camden Fine, head of the credit unions’ most virulent enemy, the Independent Community Bankers Association, to lobby for delay of the interchange rule.

A federal court in Dallas has granted motions made by Heartland Bank and KeyBank to dismiss civil suits brought against them by credit unions and banks for their involvement in the 2009 Heartland Payments Systems breach.

A federal judge last week denied American Express Co.'s bid to have an antitrust case against it dismissed.