Payments

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.

Etisalat Group last week inked a strategic agreement to offer Western Union Co.’s Mobile Money Transfer service in the 18 countries where it the Dubai-based mobile operator operates.

In a move some observers say might represent the future of loyalty and mobile payments, loyalty marketer Maritz Real-Time and smart card technology firm Vivotech Inc. have formed a strategic partnership to provide immediate retail promotions to customer mobile phones equipped with Near Field Communication technology.

Consumers in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada soon may use their smartphone as a contactless payment device and mobile wallet using an application from Yespay International Ltd.

WATAUGA, Texas – My CU has 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.

Though perhaps there is no greater rivalry than Thin Mints versus Samoas, two Girl Scout groups are taking sides in a different debate: which mobile card reader is best for cookie sales.

Square Inc.’s Feb. 22 announcement that it had dropped the 15-cent transaction fee for card-present transactions represents a return to a rate scheme the merchant-services company had last spring.

SAN DIEGO – USE CU has signed with Fifth Third Processing Solutions for electronic funds transfer services, including ATM and debit card processing, card production, fraud protection, debit marketing, rewards programs and gateway services.

CHAMBERSBURG, Penn. – Patriot FCU has signed with The Members Group to process its debit, PIN and ATM transactions.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Authorities discovered nine card skimming devices attached to local ATMs last week that caused thousands of dollars of fraud losses to area institutions, including $5,538 in fraudulent cash withdrawals on members of Hughes FCU.

TUKWILA, Wash.-BECU last week launched a debit card in conjunction with the University of Washington, marking the first credit union to have a partnership of this type with the university.

CHICAGO-Payment card issuers stand to gain tremendously by moving card production and fulfillment to a digital on-demand platform, according to new research.

FRANKLIN PARK, Ill.-The ceiling at Leyden Credit Union looks as if it might be ready for a high school dance, but instead of tin foil stars hanging on strings, there are credit cards.