Credit

In another sign that consumers' financial health is recovering, the American Bankers Association reported the second consecutive quarterly decline in delinquencies. However, analysts warned the improvement could level off in coming quarters.

Medical marijuana dispensaries in three states have agreed to use payment processing services from Cannabis Medical Solutions Inc.

U.S. merchant compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard has changed little since last fall, according to latest compliance update Visa Inc. released this week.

Dirk Rossmann GmbH, a German drugstore chain, is deploying 5,000 Hypercom Corp. Artema Hybrid payment terminals in more than 1,000 locations throughout Germany, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based point-of-sale terminal maker announced Tuesday.

Taiwantrade.com has inked a payments acceptance deal with international online payments provider PayPal Inc., an official from Taiwan’s national business-to-business e-commerce platform tells PaymentsSource. PayPal is a unit of eBay Inc.

Illustrating the downturn in the country’s economy, consumers in the United Arab Emirates used debit and credit cards to initiate 3.04 million purchases during last year’s fourth quarter, down by 10.6% from the 3.4 million during the same period a year earlier, data from the country’s central bank show. The value of the transactions fell 25.7%, to 1.24 billion dirham (US$338 million or 235 million euros) from 1.67 billion dirham.

Bank of America Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and HSBC Holdings PLC reportedly have agreed to settle a class action over credit card arbitration clauses, according to lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

The New York money transfer company CashEdge Inc. has hired Citigroup Inc. veteran Catherine Palmieri as its global head of product and marketing.

Implementing provisions of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act will cost JPMorgan Chase & Co. $500 million to $750 million this year, Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said last week in his annual letter to shareholders.

Citizens living in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack in the Indian state of Orissa now have access to kiosks they may use to pay various utility bills and city taxes, an official from the state’s Information Technology ministry tells PaymentsSource.

Total credit lines among the top five U.S. credit card issuers soared 56.5% to a peak of $3.74 trillion in 2007 from an aggregate $2.39 trillion in 2005 following the rise of home prices during the first half of the decade. But as the bubble burst in 2007 and housing values began to decline, followed by two years of recession, credit card customers defaulted on their accounts en masse, PaymentsSource data show.

Consumers want their card issuers to notify them by any means possible when it comes to fraud detection, a new survey says.

SocialWise Inc. is planning to take the BillMyParents online payment system it launched last year mainstream through an advertising blitz.

Citigroup Inc.’s ThankYou Network rewards program last week announced an Earth Day-themed promotion enabling its members to win free music downloads from Sony Music Entertainment.

Credit cards are the major borrowing tool behind the rapid rise in consumer debt in South Korea, the National Information and Credit Evaluation credit-scoring agency reported last week in a research note.

VeriFone Holdings Inc. on April 2 announced the acquisition of TaxiTronic Inc.’s minority ownership in the VeriFone Transportation System joint venture the two companies formed in 2005.

Corserv Solutions Inc. earlier this month went live with an operating platform designed to enable U.S. community banks wanting to re-enter the credit card industry to own and control the business, the Atlanta-based consumer and small-business credit card loan servicing company announced.

This past weekend’s launch of Apple Inc.’s iPad also saw the introduction of Square Inc.’s payment card-acceptance application for the device.

Most consumers want issuers to contact them through multiple communication channels if the institutions suspect fraudulent activity on their debit or credit cards. But their preferred communication channel varies significantly by age group, suggest the results of a recent survey.

The U.S. Council of Better Business Bureaus is warning consumers about online scams designed to get them to provide credit card and other personal information by offering free Apple Inc. iPads, which went on sale as of Saturday.