Payments

Green Dot Corp. has been busy lately, closing out its long-awaited and controversial $15.7 million purchase of Bonneville Bancorp and plotting a customer acquisition initiative.

Credit card users have been unusually diligent in paying off their bills recently in the wake of the financial crisis. Their discipline slipped a bit late last year, however, which led revolving credit to post a surprise jump in November.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Service CU unveiled a new ATM surcharge and Visa International Service Assessment fee refund program, essentially making all cash withdrawals at the credit union’s ATMs worldwide free.

U.S. consumer borrowing surged 10% in November, its largest gain in a decade, and a positive sign for the fragile economy. The increase was the 13th in 14 months and the biggest jump since creditors boosted lending after the September 11 attacks.

The new year brings new scrutiny to how long the debit interchange window of opportunity will remain open for credit unions.

Efforts by big-box retailers to avoid interchange fees will further eat into CU debit revenue this year, asserts one person, and potentially create a position between a "rock and a hard place."

There might not be a better time to enter the mobile-payments arena than now.

VeriFone Systems Inc. has its GlobalBay iPad retail mobile-payment software literally rolling on the sales floors at U.S. Guess Inc. clothing and accessories stores, further establishing that the company intends to position itself as a key player in mobile payments and customer marketing.

Security experts have long considered restaurants a happy hunting ground for credit card skimmers and payment-system hackers. So much so, diners have become understandably reluctant to let a waiter take their credit card away from the table when settling their bill.

E*Trade Financial Corp.’s securities unit has introduced mobile deposit for the Apple Inc. iPhone, the company anounced Dec. 5.

The economy may be crawling back to normal in some sectors, but credit card industry revenue continues to fall, according to one longtime observer.

Independent safety-science firm UL LLC signaled its desire to enter growing payment areas such as mobile transactions with its purchase this week of Australia-based payment card security-assessment company Witham Laboratories Ltd.

Consumers might be warming up a bit to using credit cards again after overindulging in card use during the recession, a new poll suggests.

If mobile-payment technology providers stub their toes with security, or if merchants deem a vendor’s mobile payments too complex, another company likely is working to resolve the problem.

NEW YORK–Verizon Wireless yesterday announced it will be implementing a $2 fee for every payment subscribers make over the phone or online with their credit cards.

The explosion of mobile applications, especially those involving banking and payments, is almost certain to lead to ingenious new hacker attacks on consumer data next year. After all, why should 2012 be different from any other year, as crooks continually look for holes in security in hopes of reaping financial rewards?

The chatter coming from the industry near the end of last year was that 2011 would be when mobile card acceptance and payments finally emerge as legitimate experiences for consumers and merchants in the United States.

How wide should credit card lenders open the gates to borrowers after slamming them shut during the recession when losses soared? It depends on their analytics.

The Reserve Bank of India has removed the daily limit on mobile transactions to help boost India’s mobile payments market.

A Canadian independent sales organization is offering its merchants a proprietary mobile-payment acceptance device that other Canadian ISOs also could sell.