Credit

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.

PARIS–Vendors will ship 6.02 billion smart cards next year, up 13.2% from 5.32 billion this year, fueled by growth in emerging markets, vendor trade group Eurosmart announced here Dec. 7 at the Cartes & IDentification conference.

PARIS–This year’s Sesame awards presented during a ceremony here Dec. 6 included a broad variety of technologies among the various winners.

PARIS–Visa Inc. is making mobile payments a standard feature offering for its partner banks by moving into commercialization with a system it has been testing with four of the largest U.S. issuers.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson claims in a lawsuit that Discover Bank telemarketers selling identity-theft and credit-score monitoring services fail to tell consumers when they are agreeing to purchase those products, according to Bloomberg News.

As regulation spurs banks to cut operating costs, FIS has developed a purely electronic account that dispenses with paper statements and checks and does not even require a debit card.

FICO's quarterly survey of bank risk professionals indicate a credit gap that has hindered U.S. consumer spending is likely to continue well into 2011. Also, lenders are unlikely to meet the credit demands of small businesses in the near term.

Financial institutions looking to make up for revenue lost should debit card interchange rates dramatically drop next year could target what increasingly has become a thorn in their side: third party automated clearinghouse debits from their customers’ checking accounts, new research suggests.

Payvment’s grown rapidly in its first year, fast enough for the Facebook shopping site to find itself in need of more talent and larger digs while it considers how bank involvement can enhance the business model.

(This article contains some corrected information.)

Motorists in Dubai reportedly are upset about the new mParking service launched by the Road Transport Authority of Dubai because of its limited functionality. The service enables motorists to pay for their parking lot tickets by sending a text message from their mobile phones.

As the effects of recent financial legislation may cause some card issuers to scale back on the rewards and loyalty programs they offer to encourage card use and, inherently, shopping, the doors may be opening for third-party loyalty-program providers to align with merchants.

More than 450 C&A Mode KG fashion-retail stores in Germany plan to deploy 2,700 Hypercom Corp. Artema Hybrid point-of-sale terminals, Hypercom announced Dec. 6.

The majority of companies are using outdated methods to reach customers and fail to take individual preferences into account, according to a survey of retail banking industry and customer communication trends.

Inside Contactless, whose semiconductors power smart cards, says it has changed its name to Inside Secure to reflect the company’s enhanced product portfolio and market focus following its acquisition of Atmel Corp.’s secure microcontroller business (see story).

Vienna, Va.-based Navy Federal Credit Union has slashed rates on credit card balance transfers to just 2.99% to help members and prospective members kick-start holiday spending.

Citgo Petroleum Corp. has agreed to make Heartland Payment Systems Inc.’s SmartLink payment system available to its 6,500 Citgo retailers, payment processor Heartland announced Dec. 2.

Think Finance wanted to give underbanked consumers access to credit when they needed it and help them avoid a bad cycle of debt.

Consumer spending online during the five-day period that started with Black Friday last week grew by double digits compared with the same period in 2009, merchant processor Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC announced Dec. 1.

Air New Zealand Ltd. has become the second airline Down Under in recent weeks to increase the surcharge it applies to bookings initiated with certain payment cards.