Payments

Capital Access Network Inc.'s (CAN) Data Services Division reports that the nation’s "Main Street" brick-and-mortar retailers and service providers experienced a 3.09% decline in same store credit and signature debit card sales in Q1 2011 as compared to Q1 2010.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla.-Poor service from a credit card service independent sales organization helped convince James McKelvey to co-found Square Inc., the exec told attendees on April 27 at the 23rd annual Card Forum and Expo co-sponsored by PaymentsSource and the American Banker in Miami Beach, Fla.

WASHINGTON — For consumers, convenience and rewards are the most commonly discussed benefits of near field communication for mobile payments. There is also a substantial security benefit, though banks are reluctant to let consumers know.

The opportunity to capitalize on the explosive growth in payments as the industry steadily moves to electronic and mobile platforms is attracting many new players and business models, but the winners ultimately will be those who can leverage payments on a massive scale, according to Citigroup Inc.’s top enterprise executive.

Visa Inc. has invested an undisclosed amount of money in Square Inc., the start-up company that lets merchants accept card payments through a small square-shaped device that plugs into smartphones.

Existing payments-industry giants are at risk of becoming obsolete if they do not begin experimenting soon with new payments technologies and finding innovative partnerships to meet the changing marketplace demands, according to Dan Schulman, group president for enterprise growth at American Express Co.

The average charge-off rate on U.S. consumer credit cards fell in March, resuming its general trend of improvement after a slight uptick in February, and account-delinquencies also declined, according to new data Moody’s Investors Service released April 25.

DEL RIO, Texas – Border FCU has signed with Fifth Third Processing Services for ATM and debit card transaction processing, ATM driving, card production and network gateway access.

American Express Co. is hitting the streets in Eugene, Ore., to promote Serve, its digital wallet for those consumers who are turned off by the elite branding of its main product line.

Square Inc. is making its smartphone magnetic stripe card reader available through Apple Inc.’s stores and website, but the move has left one observer unimpressed.

Many banks' mobile strategies have hinged on getting smartphone applications to market as fast as possible, but now the early adopters are moving on to the next step — making sure those apps live up to consumers' expectations.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Two Russian immigrants on Thursday were charged with skimming credit and debit card data from members at four credit unions at three local ATMs.

Visa Inc. is working with clothing retailer Gap Inc. to deliver discounts to cardholders via mobile phone SMS text messages.

VIENNA, Va. — When calculating the biggest losers of the Durbin amendment's cap on debit fee count among them Navy FCU, the nation's largest credit union and seventh-largest issuer of Visa debit cards.

American Express Co. earned first quarter net income of $1.2 billion, up 35.6% from $885 million during the same period in 2010. Total revenues net of interest expense rose 6.1%, to $7 billion from $6.6 billion, the company announced April 20.

POCATELLO, Idaho – Students at Idaho State University will be able to use their student ID as a debit card for Idaho State University CU starting fall semester.

Payment-terminal software applications are poised to play a significant role in the Near Field Communication payment ecosystem.

The Republic of Botswana’s First National Bank has launched a mobile wallet for its customers in the African country, a spokesperson for the bank tells PaymentsSource.

As the average credit card charge-off rate has declined sharply over the past six months, so has demand for collection agencies’ services.

Merchant processor WorldPay is reselling mobile-payments technology from vendor CellPoint Mobile that will allow clients’ customers to conduct transactions in several ways.