Payments

Consumer spending online during the five-day period that started with Black Friday (Nov. 26) grew by double digits compared with the same period in 2009, merchant processor Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC announced.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The 3M Company announced yesterday its Non-Metallic Foil technology has been accepted for use by MasterCard for credit, debit and gift cards, giving credit unions and banks the option of cards with a metallic-like finish.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – DataCard Corp. said its recently acquired Dynamic Card Solutions unit has been granted a U.S. patent on instant issuance printing technology for unembossed “flat” financial cards.

Motorists in Dubai reportedly are upset about the new mParking service launched by the Road Transport Authority of Dubai because of its limited functionality. The service enables motorists to pay for their parking lot tickets by sending a text message from their mobile phones.

As the effects of recent financial legislation may cause some card issuers to scale back on the rewards and loyalty programs they offer to encourage card use and, inherently, shopping, the doors may be opening for third-party loyalty-program providers to align with merchants.

Singapore’s telecommunication regulator, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, has issued a “call for collaboration” seeking participation in the deployment of an interoperable Near Field Communication payments infrastructure in the country.

Starbucks Corp. has begun a national rollout of the mobile-payment system it began testing more than a year ago, the company announced Dec. 1.

RIVERWOODS, Ill. – Discover Financial has begun issuing its new Zip contactless credit cards and stickers, targeted at early adopters of its mobile technology.

Roam Data is making available a Roampay Swipe card reader that plugs into the audio jack of BlackBerry smartphones, the Boston-based firm announced Nov. 30.

While most bank mobile apps are focused initially on iPhones, then move to Blackberry and Android in subsequent rollouts, it would appear that Android and iPhone are the way to go as BlackBerry falls behind its two rivals in sales.

Credit card delinquency rates continued to fall in the third quarter as consumers continued to pay down debt and higher-risk borrowers stopped using credit cards at all, according to a report from TransUnion.

The National Payment Corp. of India on Nov. 23 rolled out its instant interbank mobile fund-transfer service, which enables customers of seven banks in the country to exchange funds to one another.

In 2009, banks and credit unions reported 41,548 suspicious activities related to card fraud, representing a 4.6% jump from 39,711 reports the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which maintains data on suspicious activity reports.

U.S. consumer credit card charge-off and delinquency rates fell once again in October as recession-related credit card losses continued to abate, according to new data Moody’s Investors Service released this week.

Omnego Inc. has launched a mobile wallet application that converts physical loyalty cards including stores’ coupons, rewards and other merchant updates into digital formats usable on mobile devices such as smart phones, the Toronto-based mobile technology company recently announced.

Bank of America Corp. is building on its mobile payments strategy with plans to issue contactless stickers to its credit and debit card customers next year.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Calling it a first-of-its-kind agreement, TMG Financial Services and Desjardins Bank of Florida, a subsidiary of Desjardins Group of Canada, have entered into an agreement to offer a consumer rewards credit card to bank clients in the United States.

WASHINGTON – With Black Friday later this week marking the official launch of the holiday shopping season, the National Retail Federation said its 2010 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions survey has found that 43% of holiday shoppers will rely on debit cards as a primary form of payment, a 20% increase from 2005’s 34.3%.

The man who developed the concept for what is now the most popular social-networking website has created a mobile-payments application that relies on facial recognition to confirm a user’s identity at the point of sale.

Bank of America Corp. is planning to issue contactless payment stickers to at least some of its card customers, a source familiar with the plans said.