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Transaction Network Services Inc. said last week that it will supply gateway services for Continental Airlines Inc. to process payments for reservations made online.

Intuit Inc. says the payment services it sells as add-ons for QuickBooks customers are becoming the main attraction — and it says QuickBooks may eventually become the add-on.

Bank of America Corp. is collaborating with Visa Inc. and DeviceFidelity Inc. on a mobile-payment program to begin next month in New York enabling consumers’ smart phones to operate as contactless-payment devices, Visa confirms.

Mobile-marketing firm Mocapay Inc. this month announced a strategic partnership with payments processor eNational Payments with the goal of helping merchants to deliver customized coupons and other promotions to consumers via mobile handsets.

India’s improving economy is helping to drive higher overall payment card usage, with debit cards growing significantly faster than credit cards, new data from India’s central bank show.

Banco Nacional de Costa Rica ordered more than 13,000 Hypercom Corp. Optimum countertop and mobile payment terminals, which it plans to distribute to merchants throughout Costa Rica.

Credit card profits more than doubled for Target Corp. in its fiscal second quarter, helping to boost its overall earnings.

Vertifi Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eastern Corporate Credit Union, said it has developed a fully-featured mobile banking iPhone application for members of Randolph-Brooks FCU in Live Oak, Texas, and it is now available on the App Store.

MasterCard Inc. Thursday fired what analysts say is the next shot in the payments industry’s battle to gain ground in the burgeoning e-commerce market with its planned $520 million purchase of DataCash Group PLC.

Overall credit card customer satisfaction finally rose this year after a three-year slump, but loyalty to card brands is falling, according to J.D. Power and Associates’ 2010 Credit Card Satisfaction Study released Thursday.

Visa Inc.’s most recent statistics of merchant compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard shows that 100% of the largest U.S. merchants—those processing more than 1 million annual Visa transactions—have validated their point-of-sale systems as not storing prohibited data.

India’s Punjab National Bank Ltd recently launched two new MasterCard Worldwide-branded cards, including a prepaid card for travelers and an rewards-based debit card for upscale customers.

MasterCard Inc. on Thursday said it agreed to buy London payments technology developer DataCash Group PLC for $520 million in a move aimed at growing its e-commerce presence.

Banks' budgets for technology spending are loosening, but the overall sales environment is a "mixed bag," Jack Henry & Associates Inc.'s top executive said Wednesday on an earnings conference call.

MasterCard said yesterday it plans to offer Citi cardholders a new card for which users can set spending controls and receive real-time information.

Online Resources Corp. said it has signed up more than 40 utilities for its bill payment services in the past six months.

A new iPhone application that lets consumers rack up reward points by simply walking in to stores could give banks and card issuers the foundation for a truly mobile loyalty program.

Certain definitions within new Internal Revenue Service rules requiring payment processors and merchant acquirers to track merchants’ transactions and report them to the IRS beginning next year are creating additional hassles, some industry observers say.

The government in India’s Karnataka state is developing a new smart card-based system that would enable local silkworm farmers to sell their products directly to customers, potentially eliminating losses from middlemen and other corrupt channels.

The city government of Hong Kong recently ordered officials for Octopus Cards Ltd to cooperate with an investigation surrounding the inappropriate sharing of customer data related to a rewards program for mass-transit fare-payment cards, according to local media reports.