Payments

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.

Consumers’ outstanding credit card debt increased during the third quarter, while the proportion of consumers falling behind on their monthly card-account payments rose for the first time in nearly two years, according to a report TransUnion LLC released Tuesday.

This story has been updated from its original version.

M-via Inc. has rolled out a service called Boom designed to provide immigrants with a low-cost, safe alternative to high-fee funds-transfer services, the mobile-payment network provider announced Nov. 15.

Vendors’ smart card shipments could reach 7 billion next year, up 16.7% from 6 billion this year, fueled primarily by strong smart card growth in Latin America and China, vendor trade group Eurosmart announced Nov. 15 at the Cartes & IDentification conference in Paris.

The Central Bank of Nigeria reportedly is in talks with the Nigerian Postal Services to use of the bank’s branches as outposts to promote mobile payments.

Some credit card issuers may be tempted to loosen underwriting standards this holiday season as credit card loss rates hover at record low levels. But such policy shifts could have more far-reaching implications on issuers’ bottom lines than just a few years ago, one analyst warns.

The Reserve Bank of India has authorized the transferring of funds from ATMs to mobile phones as part of an expansion of the country’s Interbank Mobile Payment Service, India’s central bank announced Nov. 9.

More consumers are accessing their credit card accounts online, but only a small percentage are using mobile applications to do so, new research suggests.

With questions about mobile-wallet use at the point of sale centering on technology, security, payment accounts and software applications, banks should focus on pushing Near Field Communication development to ensure they play a vital role in the future of mobile payments, a new study suggests.

The average consumer credit card charge-off rate among the top U.S. card issuers is nearing a historic low but should begin creeping upward next year, new data Fitch Ratings Inc. released Nov. 9 suggest.