Payment processing

DFCC Vardhana Bank has signed a partnership deal with Sampath Bank, another Sri Lankan financial institution, to extend the institutions’ ATM coverage, a DFCC spokesperson tells PaymentsSource.

Merced School Employees Federal Credit Union members now can pay bills using their mobile phones through a recent agreement the Merced, Calif.-based institution made that provides them access to Fiserv Inc.’s Mobile Money service.

British issuer Barclaycard and mobile-network operator Orange UK have launched a cobranded contactless credit card, a product that brings the two firms closer to offering payments via mobile phones.

Product rebates present yet another potential niche for prepaid cards, and a rebate-processing company is working with MasterCard Worldwide on a prepaid initiative designed to improve its rebate fulfillment and redemption process.

Hypercom Corp. on Jan. 6 announced its Optimum L4150 point-of-sale terminal can send consumers digital receipts to their e-mail addresses, an option the terminal maker says could save merchants in terminal printer and ink costs.

Meru Cabs will enable its customers to pay fares with credit and debit cards under a deal signed with Mumbai-based Axis Bank, according to a spokesperson for the India-based taxi operator.

UCO Bank plans to undergo a major ATM-expansion drive this year, according to a spokesperson for the government-owned, Mumbai-based financial institution.

German consumers are facing problems using their debit and credit cards at home and abroad this week because of a programming glitch. The glitch renders some 30 million chip cards unable to recognize the year 2010, making it impossible for millions of consumers to use their cards at ATMs and point-of-sale terminals. Unclear was whether the glitch originated in cash machines and terminals or on card chips.

At the start of 2009, consumers said, almost timidly, that it would be nice to be able to manage their bank accounts with mobile phones. Now, they are demanding such services.

Count the merchant acquirer First American Payment Systems LP among the U.S. payment processors looking abroad for growth.

Spain-based financial institution Grupo Santander announced Tuesday it will offer free use of 4,300 ATMs in Spain to consumers from the United Kingdom. The offer will begin on Monday, the financial institution says in a statement.

Malayan Banking Bhd, or Maybank, in Malaysia will allow its customers in Singapore to use their ATM cards to pay credit card bills at AXS kiosks in Singapore, according to a bank spokesperson. Those customers also can pay their phone and other utility bills and reload their EZ-Link contactless fare cards for public transit.

International payment services company Global Collect announced today that it has joined the PCI Security Standards Council as a participating organization that will help develop the data protection standards.

Mophie, a Paw Paw, Mich.-based provider of technology accessory products such as smartphone batteries, later this week expects to reveal an external card reader and an application that manages transactions for Apple Inc.’s iPhone at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Banks are taking a tag-team approach to attract customers in the increasingly automated health care market, bundling commercial lending services with payments, technology management and other services.

BluePay has developed a processing product designed to help nonprofit organizations increase funding and decrease expenses by enabling consumers to set up reoccurring donations, according to the company.

VeriFone Holdings Inc. today announced it has acquired the Taxi Media business from Clear Channel Outdoor Inc., a division of Clear Channel Communications Inc. The deal expands VeriFone’s taxi sales staff to about 30 workers from a “handful” previously, a VeriFone spokesperson tells PaymentsSource.

Historically rivals, alternative payment providers and banks are laying down their swords.

Hoping to tap an emerging market, Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and American Express Co. have been working to open their networks to third-party developers of software and smartphone applications.

No single market for new business surfaced in a recent survey of independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers. The survey findings, contained in the report from Aite Group LLC “ISOs and Merchant Acquirers: Two Sides of the Same Coin,” suggest ISOs and acquirers have different views on where they might find new card-accepting merchants.