Credit

All banks operating in India must add security measures for credit card transactions using interactive voice response systems that enable cardholders to access their card information by Jan. 1, the Reserve Bank of India announced in an April 28 statement. The central bank believes the systems will improve security by adding an extra step to the authentication process.

Purchase volume on Visa Inc. debit and credit cards surged 20.8% to $745 billion in its fiscal second quarter ending March 31, the San Francisco payments company reported Wednesday.

Four witnesses testifying April 28 before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on credit card interchange regulation agreed on one thing: A handful of the largest banks benefit most from interchange. And the potential effect of interchange-rate regulation on smaller community banks and credit unions, which struggle to compete against the giants, is murky.

Restaurateurs may have another reason to use pay-at-the-table terminals from Ingenico S.A., which has added software to the devices to help lower the interchange rates for credit and debit card transactions.

A majority of qualified security professionals that assess compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard believe encryption is the most-effective means of protecting card data, according to a study released April 27 by Thales Group and the Ponemon Institute.

China’s leading online-payment platform provider Alipay is set to receive 5 billion yuan (US$731 million or 538 million euros) over the next three years from its parent, Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group.

Two card issuers this spring have launched credit cards backed by air-mile rewards, one in the Middle East and the other in India.

St. George Bank Ltd. and Qantas Airways Ltd. on April 1 announced the launch of “Amplify,” a cobranded rewards credit card. The Visa-branded product will be available to customers later this month, according to the Sydney-based bank.

Residents of the Bangladesh city of Dhaka soon may use contactless prepaid cards to pay bus fares, an official at private operator Suchana Associates Bus Co., tells PaymentsSource.

Cool. Hip. Fresh. These words are rarely used to describe traditional retail banking.

Fidelity National Information Services yesterday reported that first quarter net income almost tripled to $93.6 million after last year’s combination with Metavante Technologies.

MasterCard Worldwide absorbed a sharp downturn in U.S. consumer credit card purchase volume and total consumer credit card accounts in 2009 as the recession drove consumers to cut spending. But the company turned a healthy profit anyway, thanks to its success in other areas, including relatively strong international purchase volume.

American Express Co. began 2009 on a negative note but ended the year positively with cardmember spending rising 8% from the previous year. But the year overall proved challenging.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee is resurrecting discussion about credit card interchange regulation with a hearing scheduled for April 28 on Capitol Hill. The hearing before the full committee will focus on the “Credit Card Fair Fee Act,” which committee member John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced in 2008 and 2009.

A Vermont House committee passed a bill April 27 that would prohibit card networks from fining merchants that set minimum amounts for accepting credit and debit cards from customers.

A directive Visa issued last week should make it clear to online merchants that they are not allowed to offer consumers third-party offers without asking for their card information a second time, the card brand noted in an April 27 statement.

Indian consumers in February initiated 18.3 million credit card transactions, down 6.6% from 19.6 million during the same month last year. Credit card sales volume, however, increased by 6%, to 49.4 billion rupees (US$1.1 billion or 819.2 million euros) from 46.6 billion rupees, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India.

Debt-ridden Taiwanese credit cardholders now are subject to new regulations designed to lighten their financial burdens, an official from the Financial Supervisory Commission, the country’s financial regulator, tells PaymentsSource.

WorldNet TPS last week announced an open-ended agreement with Ingenico SA that France-based Ingenico contends will enable its Northern European customers to lower their payment-gateway costs.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. said that even though consumers are willing to use online person-to-person payments, banks have to be proactive in making the service visible.