Payments

Last year, KeyBank saw an important gap in its credit card strategy – not owning its card portfolio meant it did not have the control it needed to properly manage its relationships with its customers.

A German mobile network operator and a bank's digital technology unit will soon introduce a smartphone-based digital wallet and person-to-person money transfer system.

The Federal Trade Commission recently mailed 70,511 refund checks to consumers who lost money to a scheme that allegedly sold bogus "platinum" credit cards and illegally debited consumers’ bank accounts.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Ent FCU said it has signed a five-year renewal of its card issuing contract with Elan Financial Services, a unit of U.S. Bancorp.

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida has temporarily shut down Innovative Wealth Builders Inc. (IWB), which allegedly operated a credit card interest rate reduction scam.

Mainstream consumers are still slow to adopt newer payment technology, but several cities are pushing ahead of the rest of the world.

Penalty fees fell 8% among credit card issuers last year, an industry consultant estimates.

U.S. consumers are likely to remain diligent about paying down their debts, while personal bankruptcy filings should drop again this year, according to a report by Fitch Ratings.

Walmart and the other Merchant Customer Exchange members recently announced they would opt for a software-based mobile wallet instead of one based on Near Field Communication hardware. Is this a blow to NFC's future or does the technology have enough supporters to eventually change how people pay?

Many companies are trying to repurpose iPads as payment terminals. Leaf, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup, instead created a commerce-specific tablet for small-business owners.

American Express Co., the lender that plans to cut 5,400 jobs this year, said profit at its U.S. card business declined 42 percent in the fourth quarter as the firm set aside more money to cover soured loans.

PayPal has won repeated partnerships with large merchants for its new point of sale payment system, but it paced itself with consumer adoption — a strategy the eBay unit seeks to change in 2013.

State attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission have regularly skirmished with the collection industry over what they regard as the use of aggressive legal tactics supported by scanty records.

The amount of new credit card limits opened in the first three quarters of 2012 hit $675 billion, up from $523 billion during the same period in 2010, according to Equifax's National Consumer Credit Trends Report.

Research in Motion Ltd. received a significant stamp of approval for its software from Visa Inc. Visa has approved Waterloo, Ontario-based RiM's secure element manager software for Near Field Communication mobile payments.

Square has built its reputation as a quick and simple way for micro-merchants to accept card payments, but the company says it has proven it can serve the more demanding needs of larger retailers.

Payments acquirer WorldPay US is working with Discover Financial Services to allow merchants with brick-and-mortar stores to accept PayPal at the point of sale.

The mega-retailers' Merchant Customer Exchange venture argues that the mobile-payment system it is developing will appeal to retailers in a way no other mobile wallet can. That’s leaving some companies divided on which mobile approach is best—MCX's focus on gaining retailer acceptance or the emphasis on consumer adoption championed by Isis and others.

If Apple Inc. wants to make a strong move into mobile payments, it could do so by transforming its iTunes database into a payment and loyalty program, a recent industry report says.

PayPal Inc., pushing ahead with its drive to become the payment option of choice at the point of sale, has entered an agreement with hardware maker NCR Corp.