Credit

Most U.S. consumers cite cash as their preferred form of payment despite increasing adoption of debit cards and other electronic modes, according to a report released last week by the Rockville, Md., consumer research firm Packaged Facts.

Visa Inc. has promoted Elizabeth Buse to group executive, international from global head of product. Jim McCarthy, previously senior sales executive for North America, succeeds Buse. Rupert Keeley, previously group president for several international regions, is leaving the company.

Speakers at a recent Internal Revenue Service hearing on proposed transaction-reporting requirements that take effect next January largely focused on the potentially detrimental effects their companies may experience from a foreign-merchant rule contained within the law, according to comments from the hearing.

As many as 100,000 contactless key fobs could be in use this year in a new transit scheme launched in Rio de Janiero, according to Inside Contactless, a France-based contactless-technology firm.

An Indian technology vendor plans to launch a service later this year that will enable investors in India to buy and sell mutual funds using mobile phone text messages.

DataTreasury Corp.'s courtroom victory over three major payments companies is expected to give the check-imaging technology provider more ammunition in its ongoing patent battle with some of the country's largest financial companies.

Discover Financial Services said Monday that it has extended its network agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. through 2015.

As a result of passage of the Credit CARD Act and its Aug. 22 compliance date, 95% of credit unions that issue cards in conjunction with The Members Group have discontinued the authorization of overlimit credit card transactions, the company is reporting.

Fiserv has launched a bill payment widget that enables consumers to pay bills from within their online banking homepage.

Small-business owners’ confidence in March fell to its lowest level in more than a year, according to new data Discover Financial Services released March 29.

Retailer The Wet Seal Inc. acknowledged March 29 it was one of several retailers targeted by a card data-theft ring involving Albert Gonzalez, the hacker a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts sentenced last week for his role in stealing consumer card and financial information from a string of companies.

Limits on issuers’ ability to manage risk represent the most substantial impact from a recent credit card regulation affecting United Kingdom card issuers and cardholders, Auriemma Consulting Group UK Ltd. concludes in a recent report. The UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills enacted the regulation to provide consumers with more control over their credit cards.

Malaysian issuers last year approved 2.3 million, or 48%, of all applicants who applied for credit cards in 2009, an official from Bank Negara Malaysia tells PaymentsSource.

ACH Payments is expanding its payment-processing services to Canada to satisfy its U.S. merchants that have Canadian customers, marking the company’s initial foray into Canada.

The Obama administration reportedly is weighing complaints from U.S. payments companies that China is violating trade rules by shutting them out of its $723 billion payment-processing market, trade representative Ron Kirk said Friday.

Stratus Rewards, a division of Stratus Media Group, this summer plans to launch the Stratus Rewards Visa White Card in Europe. The card, to be issued by an undisclosed European bank, will be available through invite only and will cater to the European elite.

The charge-off rate on U.S. credit cards declined last month, along with the rate of card accounts past due, according to a March 26 report from Fitch Group’s Fitch Ratings Inc.

About 20% of approximately 15,000 merchants in the Solveras Payment Solutions portfolio thus far have been notified as part of a program designed to bring them into compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, the Arlington, Va.-based independent sales organization says. The initiative began in late February.

South Korean credit card issuers have begun lowering or waiving the fees they charge for cash advances, an official from the Credit Finance Association of Korea tells PaymentsSource.

Oita Prefecture, a jurisdiction located on Kyushu Island of southern Japan, plans to roll out a contactless payment card for its bus transport service in the cities of Beppu and Oita.