Payments

DES MOINES, Iowa-Sara Petty, VP of strategic initiatives for The Members Group, said raising point plateaus is just one way to ensure rewards programs continue to create value for issuers. Because rewards are such good differentiators, she said most issuers are ramping up their rewards programs.

DES MOINES, Iowa-Coopera Consulting and TMG (The Members Group), both affiliates of the Iowa CU League, have partnered to provide Affinity CU prepaid reloadable cards to serve the Hispanic market in a pilot program.

SECAUCUS, N.J.-NYCE said it has signed an agreement with Select-a-Branch, giving participants in NYCE's SUM selective ATM surcharging program access to select terminals in SAB's growing network of surcharge-free ATMs.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.-INSIDE Contactless and Dynamic Card Solutions announced a partnership to facilitate the deployment of a new wave of contactless cards, mobile payment stickers and mobile payment peripheral devices.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.-The "floor" has dropped from beneath credit card issuers with a surprise rules interpretation by the Federal Reserve, and now the race is on to meet a Feb. 22 deadline.

WASHINGTON-A recent survey commissioned by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and CUNA revealed that, while most consumers (61%) are aware there are new credit card protections, most (65%) don't know they take effect later this month and don't understand the specific protections Congress approved last year.

Under the new law, card issuers must:

A new regulation approved by the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea could slow domestic growth in mobile payments, an official from the regulator confirmed. Under the new policy, all transactions initiated with advanced handsets would be subject to the same security requirements that control online transactions initiated with personal computers.

A small mobile-phone Near Field Communication payment trial is under way in Slovenia designed to test consumer use of MasterCard and Maestro contactless payments, Inside Contactless announced today.

Target Corp. customers now may store gift card data electronically and make payments at the point of sale using their mobile phones.

Financial companies, discovering that people who bank by phone don't always bank online, are changing how they look at mobile services.

Electronic-payment services provider Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., known as NETS, has launched a mobile-payment option for its cashless-payment service iNETS, according to a company statement. The service will enable consumers in Singapore to pay bills, make purchases and book tickets using their mobile phones.

Texas consumers wrote fewer checks for purchases in 2009 compared with the previous year, reaching instead for their debit or credit cards, according to survey results released by Swacha, a not-for-profit regional payments association.

Indian Overseas Bank has launched its first mobile ATM as part of its drive to expand access to the institution’s services, an official from the Chennai, India-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

Consumers continue to place a higher priority on making their credit card payments than their mortgage payments, affirming a trend that began with the recession, according to a new data TransUnion released this week.

Card readers that attach to mobile phones suddenly have become a hot industry topic, and HomeATM ePayment Solutions is about to throw its own device into the mix, PaymentsSource has learned.

Smart Communications Inc. has signed a mobile-payments deal with Central Negros Electric Cooperative Inc., the Philippines-based company announced on Jan. 31.

VeriFone Holdings Inc.’s Payware Mobile payment software for Apple Inc.’s iPhone is now available from Apple’s iTunes store, the San Jose, Calif.-based terminal maker says.

Nearly a year after USAA Federal Savings Bank launched a service that enables customers to deposit checks into their accounts using images captured with cameras on their Apple Inc. iPhones, the bank last weekend launched the same service for Android-powered smartphones.

Card fraud costs the U.S. payments industry, including issuers, merchants and acquirers, an estimated $8.6 billion per year, according to a report from Aite Group LLC, a Boston-based consulting firm.