Credit

Banco De Oro, the largest bank in the Philippines based on assets, on Dec. 1 announced the launch of a China UnionPay-branded credit card.

Credit card delinquencies will drop sharply again in 2011, continuing the large decline experienced in the second half of 2010, predicts TransUnion, a Chicago-based credit bureau.

After cutting off payments to Wikileaks, MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc. and PayPal Inc. have found themselves under assault.

More than three-fourths of all U.S. noncash payments in 2009 were made electronically, a new Federal Reserve study indicates, representing a 9.3% annualized increase since the Fed’s previous study that revealed that in 2006 two-thirds of noncash payments were electronic (see report).

The allure of double-digit payment card transaction volume growth and recent deregulation have prompted Elavon Inc. and Credicard, a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc., to form a merchant acquiring joint venture in Brazil, Elavon announced Dec. 9.

China’s largest telecommunication operator China Telecom Ltd. is partnering with the Bank of China Ltd. and China UnionPay to offer a mobile-payment service in the city of Ningbo in China’s Zhenjiang province.

The Qatar Central Bank, the apex banking body in the Middle Eastern country, has given its nod to mobile funds-transfer and payment services in Qatar.

As MasterCard Worldwide’s website remains inaccessible, its SecureCode payment-verification system seems also to have gone offline.

PARIS–Amid the steady drumbeat of recent mobile-payments announcements, interoperability has emerged as the watchword for developers as they bring their new innovations to market.

PARIS–As contactless payment catches on in certain pockets of Europe, key facts are emerging about what slows and accelerates adoption of the payment method, according to Mark Austin, head of contactless at Visa Europe.

PARIS–The official unveiling this week of the Open Standard Public Transport Alliance, which is developing an open security standard for mass-transit fare-collection systems, illustrates the type of broad collaboration needed to advance the payments industry, its participants suggest.

PARIS–The security of smart cards has as much to do with the financial payoff that hackers stand to gain from unraveling the data inside them as it does protecting the technology.

MasterCard Worldwide and a Swiss bank that attempted to cut ties with Wikileaks apparently are feeling the wrath of Operation Payback, a group of hackers claiming to have shut down both company’s websites.

The Federal Trade Commission announced Monday it has banned a deceptive advertising operation from the debt-relief business under a $28.2 million judgment settlement.

MasterCard Worldwide has added two services to its existing fraud-detection system, enabling card issuers in the United States and parts of Europe, including Ireland and the United Kingdom, to protect cardholders and reduce fraud-related costs, MasterCard announced on Dec. 7.

MasterCard Worldwide is in the process of suspending payments to WikiLeaks, according to a spokesperson for the card brand.

A newly announced mobile phone running Google Inc.’s Android software contains the hardware groundwork for mobile payments.

Hypercom Corp. says its M5000 next-generation mobile point-of-sale terminal will be available next year following merchant tests in the spring and summer.

Co-Op Financial Services announced it has teamed with mFoundry to offer mobile deposits, allowing members to “snap and deposit” checks from anywhere using their mobile phones.

Vivotech Inc. and Monitise PLC have formed a partnership to bring mobile-payment services to banks within the United States, London-based Monitise announced Dec. 7.