Payments

Consumer credit card originations rose 32% during the first eight months of this year, though the amount of total new credit issued still lags behind pre-recession levels by a full 45%, recently released data show.

Google next year plans to expand its application program interfaces to make it easier for third parties such as Groupon, merchants and banks to interact with the Google Wallet, according to Rob von Behren, co-founding engineer for Google Wallet.

PITTSBURGH-Dynamics Inc. has introduced a new credit card it contends lowers fraud costs.

PITTSBURGH-One company has developed what it believes is the next wave of magnetic stripe payments technology, allowing consumers to link to multiple accounts off the same card.

Two years after launching its first version of mobile banking, U.S. Bancorp has upgraded the service by integrating it with online banking and expanding its remote deposit check capture offering to include more devices.

South Korea’s telecommunication regulator is partnering with mobile-phone operators and card networks in a pilot to test a Near Field Communication-based mobile-payment system on the country’s busiest shopping street.

Retail shoppers who download a Shopkick Inc. mobile application on their smartphones to earn rewards points, or “kicks,” by walking into a store now may earn extra points by paying for purchases with a Visa-branded credit or debit card, Visa announced Nov. 21.

International funds-transfer providers have begun to acknowledge that most consumers in their remittance-heavy target markets use mobile phones as a primary tool. As such, services that require visits to a physical location or access to a personal computer are unlikely to catch on, some insiders say.

The U.S. is in a balance-sheet slowdown: overleveraged households are tightening their belts and holding back on consumption, thereby choking off the economy's main engine.

Isis has had a big week, as 45 partners of the GSM Association mobile operator trade group agreed to support the joint venture’s preferred payments model: Near Field Communication that uses SIM cards used in many mobile phones.

As major U.S. cities with complex transportation systems explore converting to an electronic fare-collection structure that would accept open-loop contactless cards, mobile payments are becoming a factor in future planning.

More consumers might try making mobile payments if more large merchants supported them, new survey data suggest.

3G Direct Pay Ltd. has signed agreements with telecommunication operators Safaricom Ltd. and Airtel Ltd. to provide immediate transaction settlements for the two African companies’ funds-transfer services, the e-commerce firm announced Nov. 16.

Mobile-payment proponents let out a collective groan when Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone 4S lacked a Near Field Communication chip.

Like a pop star who sells more records posthumously, the Google Checkout payment service may prove most beneficial to Google after it is phased out.

Visa Europe plans to develop more loyalty programs for card issuers and merchants through its investment in data-analytics firm Beyond Analysis, the company announced Nov. 15.

Can using multiple branding terms to describe a payment process help an issuer to achieve its own brand loyalty and clarify its product message, or would doing so confuse customers?

Target Corp.’s U.S. credit card segment churned out a $143 million third-quarter profit, up 10% from $130 million a year earlier. But it could be the unit’s last such profitable quarter for a while, an executive for the retailer warned analysts on Wednesday.

Some analysts may question the viability of mobile-payments applications, but MocaPay Inc. is making some changes to help them along.

Credit card debt fell 11% to $6,600 in October compared to the year-ago period but is up 1% since September, according to Credit Karma’s latest U.S. Credit Score Climate report. Credit scores nationally dropped to 661 in October, down five points from October 2010 and two points from a month ago.