Credit

Australia’s taxation authority in September announced plans to seek contacts with various third-party providers to support its e-commerce payments.

Vodacom Pty. Ltd. is teaming with Nedbank Ltd. to launch the M-Pesa mobile cash-transfer service in South Africa, the mobile operator announced last week.

Transaction processor First Data Corp. expects to sign up more than 100,000 merchants by the end of this year for its new TransArmor payment card security product. TransArmor uses a combination of tokenization and encryption to secure transaction data as it passes through merchants’ systems.

Payments-software provider ACI Worldwide Inc. on Sept. 8 announced an extension and a broadening of its contract agreement with First Data Corp. The new agreement will enable the Atlanta-based transaction processor to more cost effectively develop products and drive infrastructure efficiencies in its global operations, ACI notes in a news release.

Obopay Inc. has struck a deal to route person-to-person funds transfers over First Data Corp.'s Star debit network, which accelerates the payments and could make the service more appealing to bank customers.

Tony retailer Bloomingdale’s and American Express Co. on Sept. 7 announced the launch of their cobranded credit card, which, by touting some lofty perks, indicates rewards still will play a key role as card issuers use the offers to compete.

More banks should consider combining their debit and credit card rewards programs, which could better help them stave off customer attrition, according to the results of a survey released Tuesday by Synergistics Research Corp.

MasterCard Worldwide’s recent collaboration with a Belgium-based payment company to improve cross-border online shopping may be a way for the card company to compete with PayPal Inc., one expert contends.

BancVue Ltd., an Austin, Texas-based product-development and marketing company focused on community banks and credit unions, on Sept. 7 announced a strategic partnership in which it will provide Total System Services Inc.’s electronic payments services to community financial institutions.

Tyfone Inc. has received $5 million in financing from HDFC Holdings Ltd., Polaris Software Labe and Ojas Venture Partners, the provider of mobile-banking and mobile contactless-payment technology announced Sept. 7.

A growing number of payments-industry players are concerned that card-fraud rates may begin to rise sharply next year in the United States, one of the only remaining industrialized nations relying solely on magnetic stripe card technology while neighboring nations adopt more-secure EMV chip-and-PIN cards.

The mobile banking train hasn’t left the station yet, but time is running low to be considered an early adopter before the service becomes ubiquitous among banks. In the case of Bank of the West, which introduced its new mobile platform in late August, now’s the time to jump in as more banks will likely view mobile as a must-have in the near future.

Commonwealth Bank Ltd. has added an extra security measure for its customers who shop online, according to the Australia-based bank.

A prepaid card company is trying to drive down fraud with an application that replaces plastic cards with virtual accounts that users access with mobile phones.

Andrew Kahr, a preternaturally intelligent and occasionally controversial architect of the credit card industry, has spent his career solving intricate problems for financial companies, often by finding loopholes in regulation.

Only acquiring banks and the largest ISOs have to file formal written plans with the card brands to explain how they intend to bring the nation’s 5 million small retailers, restaurateurs and other mom-and-pop businesses into compliance with Payment Card Industry data security standards. But everybody in the credit and debit card “food chain” feels the sometimes-unpleasant effects of those plans.

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s $9 million deal this week to buy mobile point-of-sale terminal maker Way Systems Inc. is not surprising to analysts who follow the POS device industry (see story).

Consumers are willing to purchase high-ticket items such as concert tickets through mobile-payment services, although many are dissatisfied with the process, according to a survey Netsize NA released this month.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. on Sept. 1 announced it has entered a $5 million agreement with Discover Financial Services to settle claims stemming from the 2008 security breach of the Princeton, N.J.-based company’s processing systems.

Interchange-fee costs are the top concern among merchants, acquirers and processors that primarily handle card-not-present transactions, new survey data suggest.