Credit

Card issuers within the past two years dramatically reduced consumers’ borrowing capacity to reduce the risk of losses during the recession, but new data suggest the bulk of the credit-line cuts came from closing inactive card accounts, not slashing active borrowers’ credit lines, Moody’s Investors Service notes in a Sept. 9 report.

Consumers have mixed feelings on differential pricing for cash and card purchases, and their views similarly are mixed on whether merchants might reduce product prices if caps are set on interchange rates, new research suggests.

Larger financial institutions are beginning to engage in broader product and service agreements, and that is opening the door to more outsourcing opportunities, the chief financial officer at Fidelity National Information Services Inc. said Sept. 7 during the Citi Global Technology Conference.

Tourism is rebounding, as Visa card spending by international visitors to the U.S. was up considerably during the first half of the year, according to Visa Inc.’s Tourism Outlook for the United States.

Bank of Montreal and Sobeys Inc. announced a partnership Sept. 9 to offer cobranded MasterCard credit cards to Sobeys’ customers in Canada with rewards-earning options, including airline miles for one of two cards.

Japan's first internet bank, SBI Net Bank Ltd., on Sept. 6 launched an online funds-transfer service in partnership with with Tokyo-based Telecom Credit.

The electronic-billing technology company Transactis Inc. has acquired OfferIQ, a mobile coupon service provider for banks and merchants, the companies said Thursday.

Payment cards are becoming more versatile.

Issuers are tightening their credit criteria, according to Fair Isaac Corp.

A Netherlands-based group consisting of banks and mobile operators has agreed to form a joint-venture company to support Near Field Communication mobile payments at the point of sale in 2012.

Card-not-present fraud in the United Kingdom is on track to decline 9% this year compared with last year as merchants and consumers adopt more strategies to thwart fraud, Retail Decisions PLC, a London-based payment fraud prevention firm, announced Sept. 6.

ANZ Banking Group has launched an application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone that enables customers to transfer funds to other mobile-phone uses in Australia, an official for the Melbourne-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

Jack Henry & Associates Inc. announced Sept. 9 it is launching a person-to-person payment system based on technology from iPay Technologies, a company it bought in June. The service, called TheWayiPay, enables online-banking users to send funds to other individuals using only the recipient’s name and e-mail address.

VeriFone Systems Inc. on Sept. 9 announced the acquisition of encryption-services provider Semtek Innovative Solutions Corp., a company in which it previously provided equity funding.

If the U.S. government could mandate the switch to digital TV, why can't it mandate that credit and debit card issuers switch from magnetic stripe cards to the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications to improve security?

The mobile payment tech company Vivotech Inc. said Wednesday that it is working with DeviceFidelity Inc. to provide contactless payment capabilities for smartphones that can accept microSD memory cards.

MasterCard Inc. on Wednesday released a dedicated application for BlackBerry owners who want to use MoneySend, the card company's mobile person-to-person payment system.

ViVOtech and DeviceFidelity announced a joint solution they say brings contactless mobile payment, loyalty, transit, ticketing and coupon redemption capabilities to leading smartphones, including BlackBerrys and iPhones.

Some credit card issuers are using a “dirty trick” to get around the new Credit CARD Act by marketing small-business cards to consumers, according to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Apriva, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based wireless-payments company, on Sept. 8 announced the release of its AprivaPay wireless point-of-sale application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone.