Credit

MoneyGram International Inc. swung to a second-quarter profit on an 11% drop in operating expenses as revenue came in short of analysts' expectations, reports Dow Jones.

U.S. consumer credit charge-off rates continued declining in June, continuing a trend underscoring the improving health of card issuers’ portfolios.

Ingenico S.A.’s strategy of building recurring, services-based revenue appears to be paying off.

Significant improvement in two key business metrics–fleet-fueling volume and number of vehicles serviced–combined with stronger cobrand MasterCard purchase volume helped boost second-quarter revenue at Wright Express Corp.

Wright Express Corp. on July 30 announced a $318 million deal to acquire the Australian prepaid and fleet card operations of London-based Retail Decisions Ltd. as part of Wright’s strategy to diversify its fuel card operations.

Economic pressures that caused volume to decline in Europe and decreases in mobile-operator rates in some markets contributed to a relatively poor second quarter financially for Euronet Worldwide Inc.

Visa shares slumped more than 5% Thursday after the company revealed that the U.S. Justice Department is considering suing it over a policy that bars merchants from charging extra to customers who pay with credit cards. Visa reports its earnings July 28 (see story).

PBS A/S, a Denmark-based electronic-payments provider, will process all transactions initiated with cards issued in Germany by Luxembourg-based Ikano Bank SE under an expanded contract agreement PBS announced on July 27.

The virtual gift card provider Giftango Corp. said eight incentive and loyalty companies have signed with it to date.

ProPay is introducing a secure virtual terminal that can help small merchants improve their data security.

In their first presentations to analysts after the financial reform bill passed, some bank executives treated the landmark legislation like any other facet of business, sandwiching relevant cost estimates between the usual slides on capital ratios and credit losses.

Visa Inc. may begin to see bottom-line effects from pending debit interchange regulations as early as next summer, Joseph Saunders, Visa chairman and CEO, revealed to analysts July 28 during a conference call to discuss quarterly results.

Citing continued spending momentum and positive payment trends globally, Visa Inc. on July 28 reported increases in Visa card spending both domestically and internationally for the company’s fiscal third quarter ended June 30.

Mobile banking through mobile devices such as cellular phones, smart phones and personal digital assistants has more than doubled globally since 2008 with consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, Central and Eastern Europe and the United States at the forefront, new research from KPMG International suggests.

IPay POS Credit Card Terminal, the new version of the mobile-payment acceptance application called ProcessAway, now works with multiple gateways and comes with a card reader to accommodate card-present transactions, according to Randy Palermo, who developed the application that works on Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Taiwan’s Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Ltd. and department store Uni-Hankyu this week announced a chip-based cobranded MasterCard credit card that also functions as a transit card, the bank said.

All U.S. merchant processors likely will benefit from anticipated reductions in debit card interchange rates once the Federal Reserve Board next year finishes its rate-setting task mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill President Obama signed into law last week. But they will need to be careful in how they share their savings, Paul Garcia, chairman and CEO of Global Payments Inc., told analysts July 27 while discussing the company’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings.

About a fourth of First Data Corp.'s 800 call center employees will be laid off by Sept. 1, according to the transaction processing giant.

Visa Inc. on July 28 reported net income of $716 million for the fiscal third quarter ended June 30, down 1.8% from $729 million during the same period a year earlier. Net operating revenue was $2 billion, up 21.2% from $1.65 billion, driven by growth in data processing and international transaction revenue, the company said.

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston precisely defining how much certain consumers win or lose from rewards-based credit cards is stirring debate among some payments industry experts.