Credit

A mobile-commerce company in Berkeley, Calif., says it has devised a means to enable mobile phones to communicate with chips in attached stickers to support true Near Field Communication payments and two-way communications between NFC chips.

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide impose restrictive and anticompetitive rules on merchants who accept their credit cards, the Competition Bureau is alleging in Canada in a Dec. 15 application with the country’s Competition Tribunal.

U.S. consumers’ average credit card debt fell by 7.4% through the first 11 months of the year, while the average November credit score dropped a point from October’s score, according to new data Credit Karma released Dec. 15.

EMC Corp. has launched a consulting service designed to help prepare merchants to manage their payment-security needs, the Hopkington, Mass.-based security-technology company announced Dec. 15.

An estimated 428 different collection agencies and creditors were sued under consumer statutes between Nov. 16-30, a drop from 497 in the first half of the month, according to data from U.S. District Courts. The tally likely dropped in part because of the Thanksgiving holiday.



Russian Standard Bank has become the first European bank to offer person-to-person funds transfers through MasterCard Worldwide’s MoneySend platform, the companies announced Dec. 6.

Voltage Security Inc. said that the online payment provider ClickandBuy International Ltd. would use its system to protect payment data.

Total System Services Inc., or TSYS, announced Dec. 14 several executive promotions.

Visa Inc. has launched a mobile shopping application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone to enable holders of Visa cards to access various merchant discounts using their mobile phones, the card company reported on Dec. 14.

PKO Bank Polski SA has selected Gemalto NA to support the transfer of the bank’s entire portfolio of Visa Inc. magnetic stripe debit cards to EMV smart cards that support Visa’s payWave contactless functionality, France-based chipmaker Gemalto announced earlier this month.

Giesecke & Devrient GmbH recently became the first company to receive MasterCard Worldwide’s certification for an M/Chip Advance-compliant card product, the Germany-based technology provider announced on Dec. 9.

Consumer shopping in November reversed a five-month decrease in the average transaction size, transaction processor First Data Corp. notes in its November SpendTrend report.

S1 Corp. has signed 10 clients to use the payment service it offers from PayPal Inc., the software provider announced Dec. 14.

Consumer borrowing rose in October by the largest amount in more than two years, a jump led by a recently enacted law that makes the government the primary lender to students, the Federal Reserve reported earlier this month.

Banks have gotten over the fear that offering online account transfers will put them at risk for deposit flight.

The 3M Company announced Dec. 6 that its Non-Metallic Foil technology has been accepted for use by MasterCard for credit, debit and gift cards, giving credit unions and banks the option of cards with a metallic-like finish.

Battle Creek, Mich.-based OMNI Community Credit Union is paying its third consecutive Cashback Rebate – an estimated $800,000 this year – as a way to say “thank you” to its members for banking with the credit union.

Banks may soon do the work of their vendors as they are handed the tools to design software for core banking functions — just as new services demand that systems be developed with greater speed.

Among the companies supporting alternative payment services, PayPal Inc., a division of eBay Inc., remains the dominating force and continues to grow, new research from New York-based management-consulting firm Auriemma Consulting Group shows.

Cardlytics Inc. and ClairMail Inc. have announced a partnership to enable financial institutions to deliver coupons and other merchant offers to customers’ mobile phones, Atlanta-based Cardlytics reported on Dec. 7.