Payment processing

Many small businesses in 2010 were hit particularly hard by fraud-related costs, suggesting financial institutions should do more to educate their small-business clients on fraud-prevention strategies, new research suggests.

Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade Ltd. will work with Saigon Fuel Joint Stock Co. to provide prepaid fuel payment card services, a spokesperson for the bank tells PaymentsSource.

Improved foreign-exchange rates and higher fuel prices helped improve the first quarter performance at fleet card provider Fleetcor Technologies Inc.

Seeing an opportunity from consumers who have unspent gift cards, ChargeSmart Inc. is working with gift card exchange firm Plastic Jungle Inc. to enable its customers to use value left in proprietary merchant gift card accounts to pay bills from its website, Tim Brinkman, the online consumer bill payment company’s CEO, tells PaymentsSource.

Credit card terms have not changed much in the past year, despite some concerns that issuers would hike interest rates and fees on new accounts to offset the effects of restrictions imposed last year under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, according to new data from The Pew Health Group.

SAN DIEGO–Mobile payments actually could increase the use of cards instead of replacing them with phones, an analyst said May 11 during a panel discussion on the future of merchant acquiring here at the Electronic Transactions Association’s Annual Meeting & Expo.

PIN-pad tampering at Michaels Stores Inc. occurred over a three-month period and so far has affected “fewer than 100” customers’ debit card accounts, but credit card data also may have been exposed, the retailer said May 13.

After the mobile-purchasing system in Apple Inc.’s iPhone game Smurfs’ Village led Apple to set new spending restrictions for mobile apps, the game’s developer has followed up with further restrictions for the game itself.

VeriFone Systems Inc. and Hypercom Corp. say they believe their merger can be completed in the second half of 2011, despite a civil antitrust lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice filed against the companies May 12.

When the financial-services industry came together this year to oppose the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, retail ATM deployers were ready to do their part with the help of the ATM U.S. Defense Fund.

The news that Isis is seeking to expand its model by working with traditional card systems reveals the importance of wide cooperation in developing an NFC payments ecosystem.

Prepaid debit cards related to unemployment benefits are back in the spotlight with a consumer group criticizing what it believes are unnecessary and undisclosed card costs.

The question of whether an exemption for banks with less than $10 billion in assets is sufficient protection from the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new rules for debit-interchange pricing loomed larger than ever during a May 12 Senate Banking Committee hearing during which a lawmaker grilled the nation’s top two banking regulators.

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Senators this morning he is doubtful whether the Fed can develop a rule adequately protecting credit unions and small banks from the cuts in debit fees mandated for the biggest banks.

SAN DIEGO–No one has brandished a crystal ball, but payment-terminal makers here this week at the ETA Annual Meeting & Expo still have had plenty to say about the future.

With sales of mobile devices outpacing their distribution of debit and credit cards, banks in some countries are looking at new ways consumers may access cash at ATMs.

SAN DIEGO–A future fraught with change is coming into focus, with electronic messages replacing merchants’ ads in the local Gazette, mobile payments proliferating and even the smallest retailers getting an affordable opportunity to link the point of sale to inventory replenishment.

SAN DIEGO–No one has brandished a crystal ball, but payment-terminal makers here this week at the ETA Annual Meeting & Expo still have had plenty to say about the future.

Total System Services Inc.’s TSYS Acquiring Solutions subsidiary has signed an agreement to provide security services on its platform for Caledon Card Services.

In launching its own digital wallet, Visa Inc. says its size will help it succeed in a market where many established payment companies have learned the hard way that bigger is not always better.