Credit

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.

Bling Nation Ltd.’s deal with Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC could give them the entree they need to promote the company’s postage-stamp-sized contactless payment sticker across the country.

Westpac Banking Corp. is deploying 15,000 Hypercom Corp. Optimum-branded point-of-sale terminals as part of a $50 million deal the two companies announced last year (see story), Hypercom announced Oct. 5.

Improved economic conditions in India have boosted the overall payment card usage in India, with debit cards growing significantly faster than credit cards, data from India’s central bank revealed.

Students and staff at The London School of Economics and Political Science may use a single contactless card to access school facilities and make purchases on campus using technology developed by United Kingdom-based electronic funds provider sQuid. The school is issuing the cards to new students, and it will enable existing students and staff to upgrade their older cards by yearend.

ItzCash Card Pvt. Ltd. has become India's first multiservice prepaid company to receive a license from the country’s central bank to operate a mobile wallet, a spokesperson for the Mumbai-based company tells PaymentsSource.

A settlement involving the top two payments networks over their merchant acceptance policies gives retailers more clout to promote the use of cheaper cards, but an analyst doubts many businesses will change their practices.

Citigroup Inc. wants to grow its payments revenue by helping other businesses grow theirs.

Looking to boost resources to meet an expected spike in demand for mobile financial services, ClairMail announced a $13.9 million infusion from VCs including Investor Growth Capital (IGC), a Stockholm firm that specializes in growth-stage tech firms.