Loyalty and rewards

JPMorgan Chase heavily markets its Sapphire Preferred card to travelers, but without an EMV chip, the Sapphire card was losing its luster for some users.

TD Bank Group and President’s Choice Financial are launching the Near Field Communication-based Ugo mobile wallet in Canada.

Samsung is broadening its mobile wallet through new partnerships with companies in transportation, coupons and hospitality.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) wants to drastically boost membership in its loyalty program, a move that will necessitate going well beyond its typical geographic and demographic boundaries.

American Express Co. is working with VeriFone Systems to allow consumers to redeem membership rewards to pay for rides in New York City taxis.

VeriFone Systems and National Payment Card Association (NPCA) have launched a payments and rewards product that supports mobile payments at gas stations.

Eataly, an international Italian food seller, will offer cooking lessons, tours, recipes signed by famous Italian chefs, and other perks to MasterCard customers.

MasterCard is working with Parkeon, a parking management company, to enable merchants to deliver offers and loyalty programs to motorists while they are parking their cars.

Synchology's Branded Payments Platform allows merchants to offer prepaid cards with their brands' loyalty and rewards programs.

When Google decided to create an iPhone version of its Google Wallet, it turned to Austin-based Mutual Mobile for help — the same app developer that's quietly working on an overhaul of the Isis mobile wallet.

Payments marketing company edo has launched edo Marketplace, a card-linked offers platform that allows merchants to create their own targeted campaigns.

MCX, a retailer-driven mobile commerce initiative, is being steadily built upon retailers' desire to control their own customer data and possibly lessen the sting of, or bypass totally, card payment interchange fees. But it must still deliver two key things: a brand and a product.

Atlanta, Ga.-based Cardlytics Inc. plans to support location-based card-linked marketing with push notifications in the first quarter of 2014.

Card marketing and technology company Dynamics launched a new game-based rewards system that card issuers can use with traditional plastic cards, with Key Bank among the first issuers to offer the program to consumers.

DoubleBeam is using electronic checks in its mobile payment system to cut merchants' costs on interchange.

The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) is testing a loyalty program that ties user preferences and special offers to transit payment cards, a move that's also designed to shift rider volume from peak times.

Card marketing and production company Arroweye believes issuers are sitting on a ton of user data that can be used to quickly distribute personalized cards that carry pinpoint marketing messages.

The launch of PayPal's revamped mobile app is a coming out party for the eBay unit to prove it's laid the foundation to be a serious offline payments player by employing strategies that differ greatly from how it achieved success as an e-commerce payments scheme.

Target has emerged as a leader in store-branded debit cards. The goal of such cards is to use data analytics and discounts to cement customers’ loyalty.

The concept of using the payments stream to promote donations is compelling because it provides an easy way to link everyday consumer payments with charitable giving.