Payments

MasterCard Worldwide today launched an ATM-finder application for Blackberry smartphones, nearly a year after the card brand rolled out the same free downloadable, customizable application for the Apple iPhone.

Discover Financial Services last week signaled to analysts it expects to report lower-than-expected earnings for its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31. Discover plans to report the quarter’s earnings on Tuesday.

Barclaycard reportedly plans to deploy mobile phones enabled with Near Field Communication payment technology in conjunction with France-based mobile-network operator Orange during the second half of this year. The report did not specify where the phone would be available, and both companies operate in multiple countries.

A mobile payments business model Citigroup Inc. tested in India has proven a hit among all the key players, even wireless carriers.

Visa Inc. is looking outside the U.S. for growth and hopes to derive more than half of its revenues from international markets within the next five years, executives from the card company today told investors gathered in San Francisco for its annual Investor Day presentation.

Tio Networks, which today announced the planned launch of a mobile bill-payment platform, estimates it will generate 20% of its revenue from the service by 2011, according to the Burnaby, British Columbia-based expedited bill-payment processor.

Target Corp. has begun delivering coupons to customers' mobile phones.

China Mobile plans to purchase a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for 39.8 billion yuan (US$5.7 billion or 4.2 billion euros) as part of its plans to develop a mobile-payment system in the country, China Mobile announced on March 10.

One of the world’s largest trials of Near Field Communication payments, which Citigroup Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide launched last year in India, provided a glimpse into the challenges of incorporating merchant-sponsored product discounts and coupons within mobile payments.

WorldNet, an Ireland-based online payment gateway, says its virtual payment-terminal application released this week for Apple Inc.’s iPhone is the company’s first, and it plans to add chip-and-PIN capability to the software in later versions.

The original goal of providing uniform protections for all consumer credit is getting lost to lawmakers' preoccupation over where to place a new regulator.

U.S. credit card chargeoffs rose again through January, reaching levels close to the peaks set last fall, according to data Fitch Group’s Fitch Ratings released last week.

Firethorn Holdings LLC is offering consumers free access to their accounts at more than 3,700 financial institutions through a single mobile application, according to the Atlanta-based mobile-service provider.

Credit unions sold 22 credit card portfolios last year, and while the total number of deals was the same as the previous year, the total asset value of the portfolios sold more than tripled, according to consulting firm TRK Advisors.

Merchants appear to like VeriFone Holdings Inc.’s PayWare mobile-phone payment service on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and their customers are completing big-ticket purchases using the devices.

Nokia Corp. plans to team up with Mumbai-based Yes Bank to plot Nokia Money, a mobile-commerce platform, in India, a Bangalore-based official at the Finnish Handset Maker tells PaymentsSource.

Credit card portfolio sales, which dwindled sharply last year as the economy retracted, will remain stagnant for at least another year, one analyst says.

Noor Islamic Bank plans launch the United Arab Emirates’ first mobile Internet-banking service in Arabic, the Dubai-based bank announced on March 1.

It sounds counterintuitive: USAA Federal Savings Bank's customers will soon access a more-secure mobile banking service by entering less information.

Mocapay Inc., a Denver-based mobile loyalty and gift card technology company, last week unveiled a platform enabling merchants to give customers a one-time authorization code to conduct point-of-sale payments from prepaid accounts using mobile handsets.