Credit

Consumers who purchased discounted goods early in the holiday season and during Black Friday and Cyber Monday likely contributed to an overall dollar volume decline through the first two weeks of December, suggests First Data Corp.’s SpendTrend payment card transaction analysis of all store sales activity that First Data processes.

This story has been updated from an earlier version.

Merchant acquirers might be breathing a sigh of relief following the Federal Reserve Board’s proposal to cap debit card interchange rates at 12 cents per transaction (see story). But though the proposed rules would not directly affect them, issuer reaction might, observers say.

With so-called debit card fees poised to take a severe hit, some payments analysts say a similar attack on credit card interchange rates is inevitable.

Only two of the 2,150 U.S. credit unions with credit card receivables of $1 million or more sold portfolios during the third quarter ended Sept. 30, as many buyers still remain wary about overall credit union health, according to AssetExchange, a Portland, Ore.-based credit union card broker.

Australia’s ongoing migration to using chip technology on payment cards instead of magnetic stripes, which the country will complete in 2013, should reduce the country’s card-fraud losses, according to the Australian Payments Clearing Association, a self-regulatory body of the Australian payments industry.

As consumers continue to spend more frugally, issuers are stepping up the competition for loyalty programs, where there is still room to develop niches, according to Mintel Comperemedia, which tracks card mailings.

The pace of growth in outstanding credit card balances among credit union members slowed as of Sept. 30.

Deutsche Bank India Pvt. Ltd. reportedly plans to exit India’s credit card market.

Many indicators from financial institutions, consumers and merchants suggest the United States payments industry is ready to adopt EMV chip-and-PIN technology, a new report suggests.

Ten merchants have signed on to use First Data Corp.’s eGift Social system for sending virtual gift cards online, the Atlanta-based transaction processor announced Dec. 17.

Ingenico SA early Monday plans to announce its reaction to a nonbinding stock offer to buy the payment-terminal maker in a deal whose value could approach 1.34 billion euros (US$1.9 billion). The France-based company would not say who made the bid.

Citibank reported Wednesday that its charge-off rate on credit cards fell to 9.4% of balances from 10.3% in October, the largest drop among the top six U.S. credit card issuers for November.



A consortium of non-profit consumer credit counseling agencies filed a joint complaint letter with the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday, calling for the agency to take "immediate investigative and enforcement action against debt settlement companies that have brazenly evaded" the FTC's recently amended Telemarketing Sales Rules.



Russian credit cardholders will spend 10% more this month on their holiday spending compared with what they spent last December, ZAO Citibank predicts in a Dec. 13 report.

Financial institutions in India by 2014 will issue a combined 28 million credit cards, which would represent a 13% increase from the 24.7 million cards they issued as of March 30 this year, according to a new research report released Dec. 13.

The promise of personal financial management is to provide account data in a single view — but not all viewers are single.

The 258 McDonald’s restaurants in Russia now accept bankcards, the fast-food provider’s acquirer Russian Standard Bank announced Dec. 13.

Asta Funding Inc., a publicly owned debt buyer, Tuesday reported net income of $3.1 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, compared to a net loss of $90.7 million during fiscal year 2009. 


Merchant cash-advance company AmeriMerchant LLC says the hundreds of merchant-services sales offices working with transaction processor First Data Corp. will have an easier time selling AmeriMerchant’s services through an agreement announced Dec. 14.