Credit

Citing positive customer reviews regarding its mobile-payments service, Starbucks Corp. plans to expand the scheme later this year, CEO Howard Schultz revealed July 21 during an earnings conference call with analysts.

Home Trust Co., a Canadian issuer of Visa-branded credit cards and one of Canada’s leading trust companies, has chosen Gemalto to manage its conversion from magnetic-stripe to EMV chip-and-PIN cards, the France-based chip card maker announced July 27. Terms were not disclosed.

Fiserv yesterday reported a 9% decline in second quarter earnings, based on a drop in income from discontinued operations after last year’s sale of its insurance business.

Dynamic Card Solutions announced July 27 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company a Notice of Allowance for a patent encompassing proprietary instant issuance printing technology for unembossed financial cards.

Consumers in the United Kingdom generally believe their credit card companies treat them fairly and are unlikely to change their card use based on the recently introduced consumer card rights and regulations, new research suggests.

Stuart Harvey Jr., CEO of Atlanta-based Elavon Inc., is leaving the payment processor, next month, Elavon says. Mike Passilla, currently Elavon’s executive vice president for global business development, will replace Harvey on Aug. 16 as president and CEO.

Nxgen Payment Services’ MerchReport.com service that enables merchants to pinpoint transactions that could have been processed at less-expensive rates is diversifying the independent sales organization’s portfolio, says Michael Jaffe, Nxgen vice president of global marketing and new programs.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. has signed a partnership agreement with Mumbai-based Union Bank of India to launch a bill-payment and mobile top-up service in India, a spokesperson for the Delhi-based telecommunication operator tells PaymentsSource.

Fuel retailers operating Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd-supplied gas stations are asking India's competition regulator to intervene with the oil company in a dispute involving credit card terminals, local newspaper Mint this week reported.

Citigroup Inc. has told its U.S. mobile banking customers they should upgrade to a new application for Apple Inc.'s iPhone after the bank's original version was found to have a security flaw, reports Dow Jones.

Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC will offer a New York startup's mobile coupon technology to its merchant customers under an agreement the companies finalized last week.

Metro Bank PLC, perhaps the first new retail bank in the United Kingdom in a century, has agreed to offer MasterCard Inc. credit and debit cards to customers when it opens its doors Thursday.

Despite rising concern in some sectors about a second economic downturn taking hold this year, it is unlikely that a so-called “double-dip recession” would cause credit card charge-off rates to spike again, Moody’s Investors Service notes in a July 26 report.

Small-business owners’ confidence fell again in July as fears about the economy entering another recession rose, the results of a survey Discover Financial Services released July 26 suggest.

National Processing Co., a Louisville, Ky.-based merchant acquirer, announced July 26 plans to resell integrated point-of-sale payment software made by Datacap Systems Inc.

EMV payments are continuing to grow in a variety of venues in Europe, the latest rollout being a deal to supply 1,600 Hypercom Optimum M4100 EMV mobile payment terminals to taxi cabs in Stockholm.

Discover Financial Services’ merchant-acquiring efforts impressed independent sales organization and acquiring respondents to a recent Aite Group LLC survey.

Citizens in the state of Maharashtra in India now may pay their electricity bills online, according to an official from the state’s electricity board.

American Express Co. is looking at potential acquisitions that would strengthen its competitive position in alternative payments as credit conditions continue to improve and competition heats up for high-end consumers.

Hypercom Corp. last week announced a deal in Sweden in which a taxi company in Stockholm is deploying 1,600 of its Optimum M4100 “Blade” payment terminals.