Payments

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.

MINNEAPOLIS – U.S. Bank on Wednesday said its Elan Financial Services, one of the largest agent issuer credit card banks, bought a $700 million portfolio of credit card accounts in the name of 28 credit unions and banks from Bank of America, which is exiting the business.

Bank of America Corp. on Dec. 21 sold $700 million in credit card assets to U.S. Bancorp in the struggling Charlotte, N.C., company’s latest effort to slim down.

Verizon Wireless’s decision to prevent Google from providing its Wallet mobile payment app on the new Galaxy Nexus smart phone, has not gone unnoticed in Washington.

In the evolution of Near Field Communication-based mobile payment technology, 2011 was a big leap forward for NFC handset distribution. But experts are stopping short of calling it an unqualified watershed year in NFC development.

Banks have been much maligned for nickel-and-diming their customers, but in another area–cardholder fraud protections–they are being praised as consumer champions.

Persuading consumers and merchants to shun the traditional way to pay and accept payment for goods and services using plastic remains Dwolla Corp.’s chief goal. But the company also is working to plug some holes in its service.

Mobile wallets have turned into vital payment tools for consumers in many African nations thanks to M-Pesa. Hoping to take advantage of this trend, Western Union Co. is expanding its mobile funds-transfer service to Tanzania to accommodate users who also subscribe to Vodacom’s M-Pesa mobile wallet.

Mobile wallets have turned into vital payment tools for consumers in many African nations thanks to M-Pesa. Hoping to take advantage of this trend, Western Union Co. is expanding its mobile funds-transfer service to Tanzania to accommodate users who also subscribe to Vodacom’s M-Pesa mobile wallet.

Someday, such a thing as an alternative payment no longer may exist.

A year ago, banks expressed an interest in mobile banking and payments during discussions with Fiserv Inc. This year, those that have not already made a real play to support the technology appear ready to do so, Fiserv says.