Payments

The buzz around person-to-person payments has long been claimed by rival upstarts such as PayPal Inc., but banks are striking back, as evidenced by the ClearXChange consortium.

Barclaycard has retooled a contactless-payments television advertisement to feature use of a mobile phone to make payments in a move that could help to raise awareness of the technology in the United Kingdom. The ad first appeared June 4 during the finale of the popular television show “Britain’s Got Talent.”

China Merchants Bank Ltd. is partnering with social networking platform company Renren Inc. to issue a cobranded credit card in China, the bank announced June 13.

WASHINGTON-A bruising lobbying effort waged by credit unions and banks failed last week to convince Congress to delay enactment of the Durbin amendment that will result in major cuts in debit fees over the coming months.

GLENDALE, Calif.-"From interchange to shortchanged" is how one credit union CEO summed up the results of last week's Senate vote that defeated a proposal that would have delayed cuts in debit fees being enacted by the Federal Reserve.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.-With Congress declining to delay the Durbin Amendment on interchange, financial institutions, card processors, payment systems, and merchants have a lot of work ahead to prepare for the July 21 implementation of the new debit interchange guidelines.

"It is very disappointing the Senate could not even approve an amendment to spend additional time to study and fix a bill that they previously approved without knowing what it meant," said John Rhea, CEO of the $1.4-billion Robins FCU.

Charles Schwab Corp. customers with Android smartphones can now deposit checks into their bank and brokerage accounts.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve is expected to vote a final rule on debit fees a week from today, now that a credit union-backed proposal to delay the rules has been shot down in Congress.

LOS ANGELES – Law enforcement agents believe hundreds of thousands of dollars being withdrawn from ATMs in California are related to the data breach announced recently by Michaels Stores.

The twin effects of lenders keeping a tight rein on credit card lines and consumers borrowing less with cards in April drove the average card-account default rate down to levels not seen since February 2009, according data Fitch Ratings released Friday.

Gift and loyalty services company SparkBase LLC is using $3 million in new funding to hasten the development and deployment of its technology platform and mobile services, which includes a smartphone application that enables consumers to quickly enroll in merchant-loyalty programs.

NEW ORLEANS–For all talk about how mobile technology can rapidly bring financial services to emerging markets, it has really only worked in a few countries so far, most notably Kenya and the Philippines. Much of mobile money’s success in Kenya can be attributed to the work of Michael Joseph, a strategic advisor to Safaricom, who discussed here on June 7 his experiences building a new financial infrastructure in that country.

Bharti Airtel Telecom Co. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Pan-African banking group Ecobank Transnational Inc. to provide mobile-banking services across Africa, the companies announced June 7.

Visa Inc.’s acquisition of Fundamo will help it use mobile payments to serve more underbanked consumers abroad, according to the card network, which on June 9 announced a deal in which is will pay about $110 million for the Cape Town, South Africa-based mobile payments company.

Think Computer Corp. has added a contactless-payment capability to its FaceCash mobile wallet.

NEW ORLEANS–One of the prevailing themes of this year’s Mobile Banking Summit is there is nothing inherently wrong with plastic cards: A number of speakers, panelists and attendees with a major stake in mobile payments all acknowledge that physical cards work well, posing a steep hill to climb to get consumers to use their phones to make payments.

WASHINGTON – Credit union lobbyists were licking their wounds yesterday after failing to get a delay in the Federal Reserve’s debit rule, but began work aimed at ensuring the exemption for credit unions and community banks is adequate.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Ltd. last week announced a free mobile-payment service that will enable its customers to make small-ticket purchases at merchant locations within the United Arab Emirates.

Bling Nation, the mobile payments and loyalty company, has shut down its service in a move it insists is only temporary.