Credit

American Express Co. is closing customer-service centers in Madrid, Spain, and in Greensboro, N.C., because the locations have become too understaffed to maintain, the New York-based company announced Jan. 19.

Starbucks Corp.’s Grande-sized mobile payments trial has gone Venti.

Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC has rolled out a suite of services called Safetech Fraud and Security Solutions, the New York-based merchant-processing unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced Jan. 18.

Gemalto NV is participating in a Near Field Communication payment pilot in Japan that launches this quarter, the France-based technology provider announced Jan. 18.

Using mobile phones to track and redeem credit and debit card loyalty points soon may become key elements of loyalty marketing, according to Andrew Davidson, senior vice president at Mintel Comperemedia.

Citing improved credit quality and higher overall purchase volume, Citigroup Inc. on Jan. 18 reported a $623 million profit for its Citi-branded credit card operation for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31; the unit reported a $51 million loss during the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 71%, to $4.07 billion from $2.38 billion.

MasterCard Worldwide will be the exclusive brand of the Transport for London’s Oyster card wallet as the international card brand hopes to raise consumer awareness of its PayPass contactless-payment service, MasterCard announced Jan. 17.

The average U.S. bankcard charge-off rate in December declined 144 basis points to 6.73% from 8.17% a year earlier, according to data Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group and ExperianPLC released Jan. 18.

Global Payments Inc. will provide multi-currency processing services to merchants in the United States and Canada through a deal with Planet Payment Inc., the Atlanta-based merchant processor announced Jan. 18.

Netherlands-based RePay International Ltd. and Chinese loyalty-management company China Rewards Pvt. Ltd. jointly plan to introduce the ClimaCount Card Scheme, a carbon-offset program, to the Chinese market, the two companies announced on Jan. 11.

Merchant-level salespeople who use POS Portal Inc. as their point-of-sale equipment distributor now have a mobile-phone tool that enables them to check the availability and wholesale pricing of devices, POS Portal announced Jan. 4.

Punjab & Sind Bank Ltd. has awarded a contract to HCL Infosystems Ltd. to provide smart card technology support for a rural financial-inclusion project, according to a regulatory filing by the state-owned bank.

UniCredit Group has awarded GmbH a three-year contract to supply electronic-payment services for banks in UniCredit’s international banking network, the Germany-based technology provider announced Jan. 17. The contract took effect Jan. 1.

Person-to-person payment services increasingly are becoming available, but most consumers are using them to substitute check use to pay bills to small businesses instead of to exchange funds with other individuals, such as when splitting a dinner check, new research suggests.

As business lending begins to show some vigor, fainter signs of life have cropped up in other credit categories.

Discover Financial Services' execution of its long-expected "mobile wallet" will define its role in mobile commerce, a future where consumers make contactless payments with their cell phones and receive wireless deals as they enter stores. "Unlike existing mobile technologies that are transactional in nature, the mobile wallet truly facilitates mobile commerce," predicts Gloria Colgan, Discover's svp of emerging payments.

Target Corp. is seeking a buyer for its $6.7 billion credit card receivables portfolio, but it plans to retain operational control of its card program because of its “deep integration” with the company’s broader retail operations, the company announced Jan. 13.

MasterCard Worldwide has hired an executive who has been integral in French wireless carrier Orange’s rollout of mobile-payment services, according to an online report by NFC Times.

Driven by a lower provision for credit losses, partially offset by lower net revenue, the Card Services unit at JPMorgan Chase & Co. generated fourth-quarter net income of $1.3 billion; it reported a $306 million loss during the same quarter ended Dec. 31 last year, Chase reported this morning.

Fleet card provider and processor Wright Express Corp., which over the past few years has focused on building an international presence, is setting its sights on new regional opportunities, including Latin America, Mike Dubyak, the company’s chairman, president and CEO, tells PaymentsSource.