Payments

Japan Airlines International on June 1 plans to launch the “JAL Mile Phone,” a service that will enable members of the airline’s JAL Mileage Bank frequent-flyer program to earn miles using customized mobile phones and users of the airline’s JAL credit card to secure additional benefits.

UOB Bank Ltd. has begun offering an application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android smartphones called the Lady’s Soulmate as part of the issuer’s effort to revamp its Lady’s credit card. The goal is to add 1 million cardholders by 2014 as part of the initiative, the Singapore-based bank said in a statement.

Target Corp.’s first-quarter performance exceeded the company’s expectations, including its credit card segment’s rise in profitability.

PRINCETON, N.J. – Heartland Payment Systems has agreed to pay MasterCard issuers $41.4 million to settle claims in the massive cards breach of 2008.

Software platforms that have enabled developers to create payment applications for use on Apple's iPhone and social-networking websites will have a significant effect on the payments industry over the next decade, David Evans, founder of Market Platform Dynamics, said.

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IPayment Inc., a Nashville, Tenn.-based payment processor, is reselling Roam Data Inc.’s RoamPay mobile-payment services, Roam Data says. RoamPay can be loaded onto cell phones and used to accept credit and debit card payments.

Banks have devoted much of their mobile banking efforts to making apps for Apple Inc.'s popular iPhone, but a rival system may be more important to consumers who handle their finances by phone.

WASHINGTON-The credit union lobby was fighting new threats last week as the Senate debated the bank reform bill, including an expanded effort to lower credit card interchange fees.

Bling Nation Ltd. wants to see how well its hands-on approach to deploying mobile payment systems can scale, with a new partnership that gives it access to over 330 potential bank clients.

NEW YORK – United Nations FCU, with members all over the world, yesterday said it has signed with Gemalto to provide its members with the first U.S.-issued, globally compliant microprocessor payment card.

For the time being the mobile banking environment is fairly safe. That's not because mobile phones are secure, often they're not. Few people use passwords or install anti-virus software. Security experts say they're safe simply because cybercriminals have not yet seriously targeted phones for malware. But as more people adopt mobile banking and it becomes more transactional-not just checking balances and getting alerts-the threats are likely to mount quickly.

U.S. consumer credit scores are holding steady, with the average score reaching 670 in April, up one point since the beginning of the year, according to new data from Credit Karma Inc.

The fast growth of social-networking sites containing users’ personal information is drawing concern from some payment data-security experts who say the risk of exposing consumers’ sensitive data is rising. And mobile-payment devices pose similar risks because many developers lack data-security expertise, they say.

Before the mobile contactless payments race has even kicked off, First Data and Visa have grabbed the wheels of the pace car to move the pack faster. Tired of waiting for phone makers and carriers to embrace the concept, both firms have teamed with tech firms to develop products that allow customers to place NFC chips into mobile phones that accept microSD cards.

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Square Inc. on May 11 announced its much anticipated payment card-acceptance software application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Determined to improve earnings on sales of bad debt, many credit issuers and consumer lenders are holding back the amount of chargeoffs placed for sale. The strategy is working as prices have inched up since late 2009.

Americans unexpectedly increased borrowing in March, but their credit-card use fell an 18th straight month as unemployment remained high, according to a Dow Jones report.

Obopay Inc. is all but abandoning the mobile transfer service it offers to consumers now that it's learned — maybe too late in the game — that banks are where the money is.