Payment cards

CHICAGO—Consumers will decide which mobile wallets they want to use and that is why financial institutions should participate in as many as possible, a Citigroup Inc. executive on Oct. 12 told attendees here at the BAI Retail Delivery conference.

Despite sluggish economic growth and worrisome unemployment rates, certain indicators on the eve of payment card issuers releasing third-quarter results suggest credit and debit card purchase volumes remained relatively healthy through September, according to two new reports from New York-based equity firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

First Tennessee Bank is getting ready to rake in the pennies. Lots of them, it hopes.

S1 Corp. has accepted a sweetened takeover offer from ACI Worldwide after spurning ACI’s earlier bid, the company announced Oct. 3.

Payment-technology provider Fuze Network Inc. believes it has an answer for consumers who would prefer to use cash to pay their credit card bills: use the credit card.

More financial institutions have done away with free checking accounts or have raised the minimum-balance requirements to avoid the charges, and the fees they are applying to accounts are up this year, new research shows.

Citigroup Inc.'s Vikram Pandit said Friday it may be time for the U.S. to follow other nation's lead and start approaching consumer lending as a corporate finance issue.

NetSpend Corp.’s recent decision to expand its prepaid debit card distribution partnership with the Blackhawk Network illustrates how prepaid card marketers will form stronger alliances within the industry to drive more card sales, notes one analyst.

New Federal Reserve Board rules that on Oct. 1 will reduce debit card interchange revenue for larger issuers may cause banks to raise fees associated with using debit cards, and that could drive consumers to use credit cards more, a new research paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston contends.

TORONTO–Banks are starting to notice that their online banking and mobile sites are not as good as customers expect.

The convergence of the major card brands within various evolving Near Field Communication-based mobile payment schemes could inspire more merchants to prepare for contactless-payment acceptance. But the path to individual banks’ participation remains hazy, observers say.

West Bengal is planning to distribute a new credit card designed to provide credit to the Indian state’s small and midsize enterprises.

Legislation in California that would restrict fees associated with prepaid payroll debit cards likely would offer little economic incentive to providers and issuers to support such products, notes one analyst.

Banks processing their own debit cards should modify their networks to accept new payment technologies, but it may be too soon to determine whether vendors pushing software to make that process easier will trigger a quick change, an industry analyst says.

Standard Chartered Bank India Pvt. Ltd. is adopting a more aggressive stancetoward the Indian credit card market thanks to positive changes in the market, a top bank official said on Sep. 19.

Woori Finance Holdings Co. Ltd. plans to spin off its credit card business into a new company to diversify and bolster its nonbanking services, the South Korea-based issuer announced Sept. 18.

A global payments report issued Sept. 15 by Capgemini and the Royal Bank of Scotland strikes a positive note: the use of e-payments is rising, while use of old-school checks and cash is fading.

Another Iowa credit union has added a Dwolla Corp. account and payments link to its online banking format, continuing a trend for the Des Moines, Iowa-based mobile-payment startup as it attempts to expand its reach.

Federal agents in Seattle nabbed the third suspect in two elaborate card-skimming schemes on Sept. 6, ending a crime spree that netted more than $500,000 in fraudulent transactions and affected hundreds of consumers in six western states.

Sallie Mae announced on Tuesday that it had introduced mobile banking to certain Apple products, allowing customers to manage their savings, money market and no-fee student checking accounts remotely. The student lender has wasted no time rolling out mobile check deposit, and lets customers deposit checks not only by snapping a photo with their iPhone or iPad, but also by using their "dorm room scanner."