Credit

Credit conditions are improving for some of the top card issuers but the effects of new regulations and long-term unemployment will continue to challenge their portfolios' performance.

Merchants that struggle to pay for breach-related costs may find some help from their merchant acquirers.

MBNA Europe Bank Ltd., a subsidiary of Bank of America Corp., has launched an online service to enable consumers in the United Kingdom to compare MBNA-branded credit cards, the UK-based issuer announced July 13.

Kasikornbank Ltd. plans to embark on a Near-Field Communication payments trial in Thailand this month, an official from the Bangkok-based bank confirms to PaymentsSource.

Mopay Inc., a Germany-based mobile-payments company, has rolled out a service that enables online merchants to bill purchases on a consumer’s landline phone bill account.

Total System Services Inc. on July 20 announced the signing of a contract to support Tesco Bank’s portfolio of 2.4 million credit cards. Tesco, a supermarket bank with more than 6 million customer accounts, is the United Kingdom’s sixth-largest credit card provider.

Sterling Savings Bank has reached a deal to implement core banking software from Fidelity National Information Services Inc.

A payments security startup is trying to minimize compliance headaches for small online retailers through cloning — of webpages, that is.

One hundred fifty credit unions have agreed to offer members a mobile banking service based on software from Fiserv Inc., including 84 that are already using it.

President Obama is expected to sign the financial reform bill on Wednesday, according to lobbyists and sources on Capitol Hill.

The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act legislation, most of which went into effect in February, will cost Citigroup Inc. $400 million to $600 million in pretax revenue this year, John Gerspach, Citi chief financial officer, told analysts July 16 during a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings.

Aptys Solutions LLC last week introduced Active Archive, a platform that enables financial institutions to manage all saved payments data in a single location. Active Archive supports automated clearinghouse transactions, mobile payments, wire funds transfers and check-image exchanges.

Sage Payment Solutions, a merchant-services company with more than 155,000 merchants, has renewed its processing deal with TSYS Acquiring Solutions, a unit of Total System Services Inc., a Columbus, Ga.-based payment processor, TSYS announced July 19.

Merchants unsure about which type of merchant account would be cheaper have another tool to use when deciding between a traditional merchant account, a Square Inc. mobile account and an online PayPal account.

Bank of America Corp. raised almost all the same questions as its fellow megabanks did last week and got no closer to resolving them.

Has Citigroup Inc. finally found a strategy to hang its hat on?

MasterCard Inc. said its issuers have agreed to the terms of a settlement agreement it reached with Heartland Payment Systems over the processor's 2008 data breach.

MasterCard Worldwide said July 15 that it received enough support from card issuers to proceed with a $41.4 million settlement in the Heartland Payments Systems breach, but dozens of credit unions and banks are still holding out as part of a class action lawsuit filed against Heartland.

Jacksonville (Fla.) University plans to the launch an upgraded version of its campus card program next month, enabling students and faculty members to use their campus identification cards to make purchases both on and off campus, according to a July 13 announcement.

India’s HDFC Bank thus far has migrated more than 200,000 of its credit cardholders to smart cards that comply with the EMV chip-and-PIN fraud-deterring technology, an official at the Mumbai-based bank tells PaymentsSource at the condition of anonymity.