Credit

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chase Card Services on July 12 announced a new cobranded Visa card with Intercontinental Hotels Group, giving new cardholders two free hotel nights with their first purchase and at least one free night annually thereafter.

Halifax Online Bank UK, a division of the Bank of Scotland PLC, last week launched the Halifax Clarity Card, which does not impose a foreign-exchange fee on any purchase transactions or cash withdrawals, the United Kingdom-based online banking company reported July 7.

MOL Global Bhd. has inked a deal with Facebook to enable Asian consumers to purchase virtual goods, such as online games and applications, using the U.S.-based social network, the Malaysia-based online-payments provider announced recently.

First National Bank of Omaha and Veterinary Centers of America Animal Hospitals on July 12 announced a partnership and the launch of the VCA Visa Signature Card with PetCare Rewards.

MasterCard Worldwide and Major League Baseball have teamed up again to support the charity Stand Up to Cancer by posting “Hit It Here” signs in the outfield during the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game.

Alliance Data Systems Corp.’s private-label credit card portfolio weathered rising charge-offs on an expanding base of receivables over much of the past year, but its performance is beginning to improve along with the economy.

Banks are looking for more data to help them make lending decisions, beyond the simple matter of whether prospective borrowers pay their bills on time.

Some signs suggest a general chill in consumer credit card lending may be thawing as the economy improves. However, the American Bankers Association’s chief economist says issuers are likely to keep a tight rein on credit lines.

The Reserve Bank of India on June 9 sent a notice to the country’s banks directing them to set a ceiling on the interest rates and on the processing and other charges they apply to small-value loans, including credit cards.

Social-networking website Facebook quickly is becoming the next playground for payment companies.

Similar to their U.S. neighbors across the pond, consumers in the United Kingdom also dislike credit card late and balance-transfer fees. In response, some UK issuers may start enabling cardholders to prepay their fees upfront, new research suggests.

U.S. revolving credit, 98% of which is credit card debt, in May fell 0.9%, to $830.8 billion from a revised total of $838.2 billion in April, according to a Federal Reserve G.19 report on consumer credit released July 8.

A state-backed program to promote the Go Card, a contactless smart card-ticketing system the TransLink Transit Authority operates in South East Queensland, Australia, apparently is failing to meet its goals.

Lawsuits filed in the U.S. against units of HSBC Holdings PLC charge that the lender's credit card payment-protection service defrauds disabled, retired and unemployed consumers, according to Bloomberg News.

Bluepoint Solutions, a provider of remote deposit capture solutions, announced the release of QwikDeposit To Go, a mobile remote deposit capture application.

The allure of mobile payments, which Generator Research, a United Kingdom-based research firm, estimates will grow to an estimated $600 billion worldwide by 2014, has drawn AT&T Inc. into the fray, as have the merchants accepting payments via their phones. The telecommunication giant announced July 7 it will work with Apriva to sell the wireless-payments company’s AprivaPay and AprivaPay Professional mobile-payment services.

Many of Canada’s merchants and financial institutions are on track to meet a key deadline less than three months from now for converting to EMV chip-and-PIN card technology. And that means certain fraudsters likely will begin looking southward for new crime opportunities, experts in payment processing and terminal manufacturing say.

The number of Visa-branded contactless cards in use in the United Kingdom could reach 12 million by the end of the year, Visa Europe predicts.

U.S. consumer confidence declined in June as uncertainty about the economy increased, according to survey data Discover Financial Services released July 7.

Karachi-based Habib Bank Ltd. reportedly plans to buy the credit card portfolio of Citibank Pakistan.