Payments

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines FCU has become one of the first credit unions to offer EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) Travel Prepaid Cards, incorporating both EMV chip-and-PIN technology and the standard magnetic stripe.

Mobile wallets promise simpler payments, but the road to get there has been bumpy and, quite often, bizarre.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard University Employees CU rolled out a new MasterCard rewards card last week for the Harvard Alumni Association that offers benefits uniquely designed for the Ivy League grads.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Dick Durbin, who led the effort to cap debit interchange fees last year, responded to the banking and credit union lobbies’ letters to Congress last week, saying the cap has resulted in a victory for consumers.

Discover Financial Services has agreed to refund hundreds of millions of dollars to settle a regulatory probe of its credit card marketing practices.

Financial institutions got another nudge toward converting their card base to EMV, with MasterCard announcing a deadline for U.S. issuers to either make their ATMs EMV capable or accept fraud liabilities at the teller machine.

TAMPA, Fla. – The University of South Florida Alumni Association has begun offering a USF FCU debit card to its 260,000 members, expanding its financial services program with the credit union.

WASHINGTON – The retail lobby, which has turned back credit card giants Visa and MasterCard, as well as the banks and credit union in recent battles, on Thursday called on Congress to continue efforts to regulate the card networks, as the merchants fight to scotch the historic antitrust settlement with Visa and MasterCard.

The operators of a Philadelphia-based telemarketing scheme will pay more than $7.5 million to settle FTC charges that they peddled bogus credit cards and illegally debited consumers’ bank accounts.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Summit CU has converted its debit and ATM processing to Jack Henry & Associates’ JHA Payment Processing Solution.

ATHENS, Ohio – Ohio University FCU signed new five-year contracts with PSCU for full service credit processing, as well as PIN and signature debit processing.

Echoing elements of the mortgage robo-signing controversy, investigators are looking at whether JPMorgan Chase and other banks botched the documentation and amounts owed on card debts they sold.

Issuers are finding more and more sophisticated ways to entice consumers to swipe their cards over those of their rival banks.

Apple has — yet again — left payments out when it designed its newest iPhone, despite numerous indications that it explored using Near Field Communication technology to create a mobile wallet. Apple had many good reasons to choose the course it did.

MANSFIELD, Texas – Texas Trust CU donated $110,000 to local high schools from interchange revenues the credit union earned on its Spirit Debit Reward card.

Total consumer borrowing fell $3.3 billion in July from June, the first decline since August 2011, according to the Federal Reserve.

CUs likely to experience more reductions to debit interchange, Belvoir Federal Credit Union is testing whether prized-based incentives can alter cardholder behavior to drive more debit transactions and larger-dollar purchases.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue FCU has rolled out a new debit card design for Harrison High School students, parents, staff and fans that features a lightning bolt, the Harrison mascot.

A program announced Thursday allows any individual with a security background or interest in payments security to become a certified PCI Professional.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Greylock FCU yesterday said it signed with Elan Financial Services to offer a variety of card products with rewards options, including allowing for business card holders to receive rewards for every dollar spent and have access to tools that help track and manage their expenses.