Credit

A federal judge reportedly has denied Fair Isaac Corp.'s request for a new trial, leaving in place a jury verdict that favored the defendants in the credit-scoring company's lawsuit accusing rival VantageScore Solutions and national credit-reporting agencies Experian PLC and TransUnion LLC of trademark infringement and unfair competition, reports.

For the time being the mobile banking environment is fairly safe. That's not because mobile phones are secure, often they're not. Few people use passwords or install anti-virus software. Security experts say they're safe simply because cybercriminals have not yet seriously targeted phones for malware. But as more people adopt mobile banking and it becomes more transactional-not just checking balances and getting alerts-the threats are likely to mount quickly.

The fast growth of social-networking sites containing users’ personal information is drawing concern from some payment data-security experts who say the risk of exposing consumers’ sensitive data is rising. And mobile-payment devices pose similar risks because many developers lack data-security expertise, they say.

U.S. consumer credit scores are holding steady, with the average score reaching 670 in April, up one point since the beginning of the year, according to new data from Credit Karma Inc.

Amalgamated Bank of Chicago has agreed to issue a Discover-branded credit card designed for Joint Council Teamster local union members throughout the U.S., Discover Financial Services announced May 12.

The PIN Transaction Security standard consolidates three formerly separate requirements for PIN-entry devices in an update released today by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

Yespay International Ltd.’s Emboss platform has become Canada’s first EMV chip-and-PIN card-acceptance service fully certified by Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, according to the London-based payment-services provider.

With demand surging for person-to-person transfer systems, payments companies are developing ways to make the transactions settle faster.

Before the mobile contactless payments race has even kicked off, First Data and Visa have grabbed the wheels of the pace car to move the pack faster. Tired of waiting for phone makers and carriers to embrace the concept, both firms have teamed with tech firms to develop products that allow customers to place NFC chips into mobile phones that accept microSD cards.

Merchant acquirers should be as concerned as the card brands over proposed legislation that would alter merchant fees, according to the Electronic Transactions Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group representing the acquiring industry.

Undeterred by Blippy’s embarrassing public exposure of certain customers’ credit card data, Swipely, another social-networking site broadcasting users’ credit and debit card purchases, on May 11 made its debut. But Swipely hopes to differentiate itself with a few new twists and promises of more-robust security.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. intends to roughly double its sales force in the next 18 months to increase its presence in the restaurant, lodging and health care industries, according to the Princeton, N.J.-based merchant processor.

Thanks to an improving economy and a more positive spending outlook among consumers, credit card issuers have started to pump up their mailings once again, and offerings to the subprime market are helping drive the boost.

Square Inc. on May 11 announced its much anticipated payment card-acceptance software application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Emirates NBD PJSC may sell a partial stake in its credit card-processing unit, according to local media reports, which say the Dubai-based financial group has hired a firm to advise it on the valuation of its Network International LLC subsidiary.

Obopay Inc. is all but abandoning the mobile transfer service it offers to consumers now that it's learned — maybe too late in the game — that banks are where the money is.

MasterCard Inc. said Monday that it has hired Andrew Ong to head its worldwide person-to-person money transfer efforts.

2010 will be remembered as the year that implementing mobile banking moved from being a get-on-the-bandwagon trend to table stakes in the American retail financial services market, the year that big banks began to recognize the channel's own legitimacy, and the year that most mid-tier and community banks put mobile banking on their short list of things to get done.

Now's an exciting time to be the bank executives charged with rolling out mobile banking. As industry fortunes rebound, funding is suddenly available at many financial institutions, and consumers' ever-increasing use of their ever-more-sophisticated mobile devices put institutions in the enviable position of rolling out technology just as consumers are ready to embrace it, as opposed to inventing tools and trying to motivate adoption.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. experienced more merchant losses during the first quarter compared with previous quarters in part because of sustained economic weakness, the discontinuation of large individual merchants and shoddy management oversight of risk, according to Robert Baldwin, president and chief financial officer of the Princeton, N.J.-based processor.