Payments

MUMBAI, INDIA–A company that enables India’s banking customers to conduct instant interbank mobile funds transfers is planning to extend the service to enable them to also pay for purchases at merchant locations, the firm’s chief executive told PaymentsSource here March 3 at a technology summit organized by the Indian Banks’ Association.

AT&T Inc. has added WorldPay US Inc. as a processor for the mobile-merchant payment initiative the telecommunication company launched last year, according to an entry posted March 1 on WorldPay’s blog.

MISSOULA, Mont. – Montana Educators’ CU contracted with Fifth Third Processing Solutions for electronic funds transfer services, including ATM and debit card processing services, card production, fraud protection, debit marketing, rewards programs, and gateway services.

Western Union Co. has introduced a mobile Web version of its foreign-exchange payment service that enables small and midsize businesses with international ties to conduct transactions using smartphones, the company announced March 2.

Company Notes

BROOKFIELD, Wis. – The acquisitive Fiserv, fresh off two deals earlier this week, on Wednesday said it has acquired Maverick Network Solutions, a Delaware-based provider of advanced prepaid, reward and incentive card programs.

WASHINGTON – Several key lawmakers expressed support yesterday for a joint credit union and bank effort to delay the proposed rule capping fees on debit transactions, but none has committed to introducing a bill yet.

Dwolla, a low-cost mobile-payments provider, has launched of what it is calling the first location-based payment technology, which will enable users to check in at various retailers and use their mobile phones to pay for purchases, the company. announced March 2.

The number of U.S. credit card accounts rose slightly during last year’s fourth quarter, to 380 million accounts from 378 million the previous quarter, reversing a trend of declining accounts that had gone on since the second quarter of 2008, according to the New York Federal Reserve.

PURCHASE, N.Y. – A top MasterCard official on Tuesday said the cards network is withholding any commitment to create a two-tiered system to apportion debit fees between big banks and small banks and credit unions, and expressed doubt whether a two-tiered system will be workable.

CLEARWATER, Fla. – A $2.10 purchase with a Visa card at a local Bi-Lo convenience store paid off in a big way for a member of SRP FCU – the grand prize winner of Visa’s Super Bowl Trip for Life, including round-trip airfare, accommodations and tickets to the Super Bowl for the rest of her life.

Fiserv Inc. announced three acquisitions this week, including its long-time partner for mobile banking.

Fifth Third Bancorp is enhancing its mobile-banking service using technology from ClairMail Inc. designed to improve customers’ ability to access and manage their accounts from smartphones, San Rafael, Calif.-based ClairMail announced Feb. 24.

Tyfone Inc. is partnering with smartphone-accessory company Dexim Inc. to offer a sleeve that attaches to Apple Inc.’s iPhone to support contactless payments worldwide using Tyfone’s SideTap microSD chip technology, the companies announced Feb. 28.

Fiserv Inc. has purchased Mobile Commerce Ltd., a provider of mobile banking and payments technology, the Brookfield, Wis.-based banking-technology company announced March 1.

A year after the credit card reform law was enacted, Elizabeth Warren, the administration's official in charge with setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the industry has improved its practices and warned against over regulation of the card market.

Celcom Axiata Bhd. is teaming with Maybank Bhd. to enable Maybank’s subscribers to make immediate payments of their mobile bills, a spokesperson from the Malaysia-based mobile operator tells PaymentsSource.

U.S. credit card delinquencies fell about 32% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to TransUnion LLC.

WASHINGTON – At least one House member is expected to introduce a bill as early as this week that would delay enactment of interchange provisions of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill, as the clock ticks toward final implementation of the rules to limit debit fees for credit unions and banks. Credit unions and banks and the rest of their powerful Electronic Payments Coalition are hoping that hearings before the House Financial Services Committee this week and the Senate Banking Committee next week will convince Congress a quick fix is urgent before the April 21 final rule is enacted by the Federal Reserve. “Congress is going to have to intervene. The Fed can’t stop it,” CUNA President Bill Cheney told the Credit Union Journal yesterday at the opening of CUNA’s annual Government Affairs Conference. “This is a train wreck waiting to happen, but a train wreck that can be stopped,’ said Cheney. The stakes in the fight are huge–with an estimated $20 billion a year in debit fees being paid to credit unions and banks from merchants. For credit unions, the stakes are even higher than for banks, with credit unions earning $2.6 billion last year in debit interchange, more than half the industry’s $4.1 billion in next income, according to CUNA. CUNA, NAFCU and the banks–which have teamed again in this odd pairing of traditional rivals–believe that the best solution to the effort to drastically cut their debit interchange is to get Congress to agree to a two-year delay while they continue to lobby on the particulars of the Fed’s rule. In comment letters to the Fed CUNA has made the same basis request as JP Morgan Chase–for a two-year delay in implementation. (The credit unions and banks also teamed on the long-fought bankruptcy reform bill). While a delay has won some supporters in the House, the Senate, where the interchange provision originated is much more problematic. “Don’t forget the real determinate is the Senate,” said NAFCU President Fred Becker, who said NAFCU is working closely with the payments coalition to get a bill introduced in Congress. But most observers see an uphill fight in the Senate, where Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is the main champion of the interchange provisions. Durbin’s representative told the Credit Union Journal the Senator is adamant that the Fed move forward with implementation of a final rule and he sees no interest in the Senate for a delay.

The Central Bank of Kenya has established new regulations for the country’s mobile funds-transfer market designed to protect consumers and mitigate market risk, a spokesperson for the bank tells PaymentsSource.