Payment processing

Though First Data Corp.’s second-quarter earnings show losses tied to debt service from a 2007 takeover by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., company executives pointed to positive revenue numbers and strong liquidity during an Aug. 3 conference call with analysts.

Visa Inc. fired the first shot in the post-Durbin pricing war, but MasterCard Worldwide is not ready to pull the trigger, at least not yet.

Touting heavier consumer and commercial card-spending as the economy gradually improves, MasterCard Worldwide on Aug. 3 said its second-quarter purchase volume showed healthy increases in all worldwide regions, with its biggest gains in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Growth in payment-processing business in North America and continued success with its MasterCard corporate card program helped generate a 54.6% increase in second-quarter revenue for fleet card provider Wright Express Corp.

Increases in debit-network fees and favorable changes in foreign currency fueled a 5.4% increase in second-quarter revenue for First Data Corp., to $2.75 billion from $2.61 billion a year ago, the company reported Aug. 3.

Higher spending on its credit and debit cards boosted MasterCard Inc.’s second-quarter net revenue by 21.4% from a year earlier.

Payments technology vendor Fundtech Ltd.’s second-quarter revenue rose 16.4% from a year earlier to $40.5 million as it closed 130 new deals and added 14 new bank clients.

For a large international operation such as RBS' wholesale banking unit, drawing a mobile roadmap means scaling the knowledge curve posed by fast-developing new devices and technology to find the best match between innovation and client demand.

Debit card issuers scrambling to ensure they have appropriate fraud-protection strategies in place before new debit-interchange rates kick in Oct. 1 are likely to confront some dilemmas, some analysts suggest.

Uncertainty remains for clients of payments and banking software provider S1 Corp. despite its plan to stay the course on a proposed merger with Fundtech Ltd.

With 2.6 billion China UnionPay cardholders and 1.2 million Elavon Global Acquiring Solutions merchants worldwide, the math simply added up for an agreement that would enable Elavon merchants to accept UnionPay cards, an Elavon executive says.

Financial technology vendor S1 Corp.’s board of directors has rebuffed an unsolicited acquisition bid from rival ACI Worldwide Inc., signaling its commitment to an existing agreement it has to buy another competitor.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is prepared to pass along what it calls “Durbin Dollars” to its merchant clients.

One of the most significant challenges to widespread adoption of Near Field Communication-enabled mobile payments has been determining how the card brands, issuers, mobile operators and handset manufacturers will divvy up transaction revenues.

To help distribute its Serve digital payment and wallet service, American Express Co. on Aug. 1 announced a deal in which Verizon Wireless will integrate the platform into many of its mobile phones and tablets.

State Bank of India Ltd. on July 28 became the first card issuer in the country to announce plans to convert its entire portfolio of magnetic stripe credit cards to EMV chip-and-PIN formats.

Continued strong performance in European and Latin America markets, combined with expansion into Asia, helped provide Ingenico SA with a double-digit lift in revenue for the first half of 2011, the French terminal maker reported July 27.

New York mass-transit riders no longer will need a crystal ball to know how far their bus is from their stop under a service from VeriFone Systems Inc. that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to launch in Staten Island later this year and eventually throughout the city.

Double-digit growth in funds-transfer revenue, transaction volume and agent locations helped create a significant boost in MoneyGram International Inc. second-quarter net income

Visa Inc. is overhauling its pricing to spur merchants to route transactions its way and defend a dominant share of the U.S. debit card market, a position endangered by new regulations.