Credit

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.

Siberian Bank of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, in July issued sharply more credit cards than during the same month a year ago, the bank told PaymentsSource.

PayPal Inc.'s next round of mobile payment features, including its rumored future as an additional payment system for Google Inc. phones, shows the strength of PayPal's mobile strategy and the weakness of Google's historical approach to payments.

Tight supply has sent prices for the freshest portfolios of charged-off consumer debts soaring in recent weeks to as much as 12 cents on the dollar.

The transaction marketing company Cardlytics said Monday it has raised new funding.

Legions of potential investors want to buy a piece of the merchant-acquiring business, but most independent sales organizations would prefer not to sell. Both camps appear to believe the industry represents a safe haven in hard times and promising opportunities during a recovery.

The Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry in August said it will pass the question of how to handle banks’ excessively high credit card interest rates on to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the country’s central bank.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Ltd and UAE-based Etihad Airways this month unveiled a suite of cobranded debit cards and credit cards, the Abu Dhabi-based bank recently announced.

Using a payments technology company's transaction gateway service, some merchants and product makers are creating promotions that can be tied to such details as an item's stock-keeping unit or serial number.