Payments

Even a brief, voluntary online financial-literacy lesson can have a significant positive effect on how college students use credit cards, including driving them to have higher average credit scores and fewer credit card late fees, new research suggests.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. has updated its Virtual Wallet application for the Apple inc. iPhone to include mobile check capture, the bank announced April 11.

SIMalliance is opening its software to third-party developers in its effort to discourage hackers’ attacks against wireless devices.

Financial institutions that are taking a “wait-and-see” approach to mobile payments risk falling behind early investors as the market begins to take shape, concludes a whitepaper from Fiserv Inc.

More than 10% of U.S. consumers had set up mobile-banking services in 2009, but a smaller proportion actually used the services, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

CULVER CITY, Calif.-Not too far down the road, credit unions may offer members a credit card that displays a member's balance, available credit, and delivers an ad pitch on a small LCD screen.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Jeff Russell, EVP of The Members Group here, said the LCD card being piloted by MasterCard is another example of the payments industry seeking solutions to credit card fraud and consumers' needs. "The industry is trying to figure out what is that next step as we transition to other types of payment technology, away from the mag stripe. Will that be EMV? Maybe we skip straight to mobile devices?"

Recent data indicating that U.S. consumer credit card delinquency rates continue to improve is a positive for card issuers, despite what analysts view as a short-term uptick in U.S. consumer credit card defaults during February.

Estimating the growth of social media and mobile channels equals a $70 billion global opportunity across banking and other consumer-facing
 industries, IBM has formed a new consulting practice to offer navigation
 expertise for companies looking to embrace the new technologies, many of 
which are offered in some form by IBM itself.

NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. – Niagara Choice FCU has signed with Covera Card Solutions to implement the company’s FlexDebit card processing.

WASHINGTON – Montana Sen. Jon Tester on Wednesday said he believes he has enough votes to approve his bill to delay proposed debit interchange rules for as long as two years and now is concentrating on the Senate’s arcane parliamentary procedures to get it passed.

WASHINGTON – Powerful Senate leader Dick Durbin appeared to have stopped the efforts to vote to delay the interchange fee rules, leaving credit unions and banking lobbyists hunting for another way to pass their bill.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Time for credit unions to "take their foot off the brake" and develop strategies to compensate for a loss of debit interchange revenue.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Bill Lehman, VP of portfolio consulting for CSCU, is offering these steps for credit unions to consider to address reduction in debit interchange revenue.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — BB&T Corp. is launching a prepaid card that costs slightly more per month than some competing products — but lacks many back-end fees that have caught the ire of advocacy groups.

WASHINGTON — A new report suggests that if the Federal Reserve proceeds with its proposed cap on debit card swipe fees, banks plan to eliminate a number of free products, cut jobs and make other reductions.

SAN FRANCISCO — A new Javelin Strategy Research report forecasts a decrease of $16.4 billion annually due to both Durbin and recent modifications to Reg E, with a loss of approximately $10.8-billion in FI revenue specifically associated with proposed Durbin revisions.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Credit unions are projecting a negative effect on their bottom lines of 35 basis points due to the Durbin Amendment and resulting lost interchange income, according to NAFCU's most recent Economic & CU Issues Monitor.

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke notified Congress last week that the Fed will not be able to meet an April 21 deadline for approving a final rule on debit fees, but said it still expects to meet a July 21 implementation deadline.

WASHINGTON – Credit union and banking lobbyists were confident last night they were moving closer to the 60 votes necessary in the Senate to delay the debit fee rule, but the measure was not expected to be attached to a sure-thing small business bill being debated yesterday.