Credit

Bank of the West on Oct. 7 announced plans to offer an element of MasterCard Worldwide’s inControl platform, MasterCard Purchase Control, to its commercial card customers early next year and said it is extending its commercial brand agreement with MasterCard to 2013.

CurveNorth Inc., a Silverado, Calif.-based company that makes operation-management software for independent sales organizations and acquirers, has added the merchant-screening service from CoreLogic Inc.’s CredCo division to its offerings, CoreLogic says Oct. 5.

National Payments Corp. of India in November reportedly plans to launch a payment system that would enable consumers in that country to transfer funds for free to any account in India held by participating financial institutions using their mobile phones.

Citigroup Inc. is expanding its proprietary commercial card issuance services to Greece and Luxembourg, bringing its total global card-issuing locations to more than 50 worldwide, the New York-based issuer announced Oct. 7.

VeriFone Systems Inc. said Wednesday that it has begun installing passenger-activated payment and multimedia information systems in taxis in Atlanta.

SecureKey Technologies Inc. has developed a way to turn any computer into a contactless payment terminal, bringing the improved security of contactless payments to e-commerce — without requiring online merchants to do anything to their systems.

An investor advocacy group is searching for Hypercom Corp. investors who feel jilted after the vendor's board last week turned down an unsolicited bid from rival VeriFone Inc. for more than $280 million (see story).

WASHINGTON — When Elizabeth Warren, the top administration official in charge of creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, called last week for simplified, comprehensible credit card disclosures, the industry applauded the goal.

Issuers are showing renewed interest in retail cards, believing that slowly improving economic conditions will overcome the elevated chargeoffs and weak spending that prompted some banks to leave the market.

Consumer confidence held relatively steady in September, but the percentage of consumers who felt their personal financial situation was worsening reached a nine-month high, according to new survey data Discover Financial Services released Oct. 6.

PayPal Inc. is acting more like a bank these days and the addition of a mobile remote-deposit capture feature to its Apple Inc. iPhone application is helping solidify that view, according to one industry observer.

Commuters in the city of Mumbai will have to go through a process of documentation and verification before using their contactless smart cards on the city’s soon to be launched Metro and Monorail service.

Citigroup Inc. has sold $1.6 billion of retail credit card assets to General Electric Co.'s GE Capital arm, the companies said Wednesday.

Discover Financial Services said Tuesday that First National Bank of Omaha has agreed to issue its credit cards, starting next year.

Citigroup Inc. is testing a payment card that lets consumers redeem rewards points at the point of sale, according to Dynamics Inc., which makes the cards.

While the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against three major card networks appeared to bolster merchants' case for regulating interchange fees, it may also have undercut a push for legislation targeting the issue.

In theory, retailers just gained significant ground in their fight against payment card fees.

Latham, N.Y.-based Sunmark Federal Credit Union has introduced a mobile banking application that will allow members to conduct financial transactions and to voice opinions about the credit union’s products and services.

Indianapolis-based Afena Federal Credit Union has launched what is believed to be the first student credit card program in Indiana.

Participants in a cross-industry forum to help develop U.S. mobile payments technology are nearing completion of a white paper that aims to identify the significant obstacles and opportunities facing the industry, Richard R. Oliver, executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, told attendees Oct. 5 at SourceMedia’s ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in Phoenix, Ariz.