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Citibank Bahrain is collaborating with a travel operator in Bahrain to introduce an interest-free card-payment initiative for travelers leaving the country, the bank announced Nov. 29.

As some Republican lawmakers continue to press for a repeal of the recently enacted U.S. health care system reforms, one provision of the new law already will affect consumers’ ability to use prepaid debit cards linked to health care savings and flexible spending accounts.

Starbucks Corp. has begun a national rollout of the mobile-payment system it began testing more than a year ago, the company announced Dec. 1.

Competition is heating up among the several companies that provide merchant-funded card-rewards programs to financial institutions seeking loyalty mechanisms and revenue from alternative sources.

MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. on Wednesday reported higher spending on their U.S. debit and credit cards.

With pending debit interchange rules tipping the power scale in favor of merchants over issuers, payments networks are expected to use their issuer playbook on retailers.

About one in five consumers would stop frequenting merchant locations that refuse to accept their credit cards for small payments, new survey data from Market Strategies International suggest.

Independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers wondering what steps they should take as VeriFone Systems Inc. prepares to buy Hypercom Corp., its chief U.S. rival in the point-of-sale terminal market, should remain patient, observers suggest.

RewardsNow Inc. has launched an online retail-shopping platform to enable consumers to earn extra rewards and financial institutions to increase revenue through greater card use, the loyalty-marketing services provider announced late last month.

India’s Ministry of Finance is recommending that state-owned banks increase the credit limits they offer farmers under the Kisan Credit Card scheme, a ministry official tells PaymentsSource.

Petroleum retailers in New Zealand reportedly are considering a proposal to accept contactless credit cards for the fuel payment.

Transactis Inc. recently secured $7 million in financing from New York-based venture capital firm StarVest Partners that will enable it to focus on growing its electronic billing and loyalty programs, the electronic-billing technology company announced Nov. 30.

PKO Bank Polski S.A., Poland’s largest bank, has selected Gemalto NV as its partner in converting its entire consumer debit card portfolio from magnetic-stripe to contactless chip-and-PIN technology, the two companies announced Dec. 1.

The Dutch Central Bank has granted international payments provider GlobalCollect a Payment Services Directive license, making the company a certified payment institute, Amsterdam-based GlobalCollect reported on Nov. 29.

Serverside Group Ltd. on Nov. 30 announced a settlement in a patent-infringement lawsuit Quark Images LLC brought earlier this year against the maker of payment card-customization systems and several of its financial-services customers.

Transaction processor First Data Corp. and online-payment service PayPal Inc. are reporting double-digit increases in consumer Black Friday spending this year compared with the same day in 2009, with First Data saying same-store sales returned to prerecession levels.

American Express Co. has struck a deal with social-game developer Zynga Inc. to enable AmEx cardholders to redeem Membership Rewards points for virtual goods, the card brand announced Nov. 30.

Roam Data is making available a Roampay Swipe card reader that plugs into the audio jack of BlackBerry smartphones, the Boston-based firm announced Nov. 30.

Another longtime assumption related to consumers and their finances is being turned on its head.

Eight million more U.S. cardholders have shelved their bank-issued credit cards, bringing to 40% the percentage of creditworthy, credit-active consumers who did not use their bankcards within the past 12 months, according to new data TransUnion released Nov. 29.