Credit

Credit bureau Equifax on Wednesday said an 11% rise in third quarter revenues helped fuel a 28% rise in earnings for the period.

Visa Inc. said it is prepared to confront alternative and mobile payments head on.

Citing a resurgence in international spending, Visa Inc.’s total debit and credit card sales volume for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30 rose 15%, to $828 billion from $720 billion during the same period last year, the company reported Oct. 27.

Consumers may earn rewards, discounts and comparative pricing based on their purchase histories under a statement-based program BillShrink Inc. launched earlier this month.

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Commission reportedly is warning credit card companies in that country against offering personal cash loans to their cardholders.

Visa Inc. on Oct. 27 reported net income of $774 million for the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, up 50.6% from $514 million during the same period a year earlier. Net operating revenue rose 12.8%, to $2.12 billion from $1.88 billion, the company said. Currency fluctuations boosted revenues during the quarter by 1%.

Consumer demand for more-robust Internet tools is helping push forward banks’ technology investments, Fiserv Inc.’s chief executive noted during an Oct. 27 earnings conference call with analysts.

MasterCard Worldwide’s premium cardholders in Europe now may receive benefits from both The Hertz Corp. and Accor Hotel Group, the card brand’s European operation announced on Oct. 26.

State Bank of India Ltd. soon plans to begin offering merchant-acquiring services through a new joint venture company after it finalizes how much equity each of the venture partners holds, a spokesperson for the Mumbai-based bank confirms to PaymentsSource.

Euronet Worldwide Inc.’s epay division will install and run the retail operations of Sydney’s much-awaited smart card transit system, the electronic-payments processor announced in a recent statement.

A second merchant acquirer in Brazil and a payment processor in Ecuador will install a combined 26,500 Hypercom Corp. point-of-sale terminals by the end of the year, the terminal maker announced in separate releases this week.

American Express Co. this week signaled its eagerness to tap into new mobile and prepaid payment technologies that will include “debit-like” products, but one analyst says AmEx has far to go before it catches up with competitors’ mobile-payments momentum.

Higher bank spending helped Fiserv Inc.'s revenue increase 3.3%, to $1.03 billion in the third quarter from a year earlier.

Credit card issuers paid more than $83 million to colleges and educational organizations in 2009 in connection with affinity card programs, according to a Federal Reserve Board report released Monday.

Overnight, the young mobile payment company Bling Nation Ltd. became visible to 4 million smartphone users.

Setting a limit on credit card interest rates could adversely affect several government programs seeking to provide Filipinos with financial services, contends the Bankers Association of the Philippines regarding plans in that country to cap card interest rates.

Ormeno & Associates will offers its merchant clients in Latin America protection against card-not-present fraud under a reseller agreement the Internet-technology consultancy has reached with Retail Decisions Ltd., the London-based card-fraud prevention and payment-processing company announced Oct. 25.

The average charge-off rate on outstanding receivables for the nation’s credit card issuers in September fell sharply to 8.9%, down 113 basis points from 10.03% in August and down 182 basis points from 10.72% a year earlier, Moody’s Investor Service reported Oct. 22.

Discover Financial Services and Toronto-based debit and credit card processor Moneris Solutions Corp. on Oct. 26 announced an agreement that Discover hopes will lead for the first time to broader acceptance of Discover’s cards in Canada.

PayWare Mobile users that have Apple Inc.’s iPhones would be able to accept PayPal funds by bumping their phones with PayPal's users' iPhones under an agreement PayPal Inc. and VeriFone Systems Inc. announced Oct. 26.