Retailers

WASHINGTON — As Congress continues to struggle over whether to delay a pending Federal Reserve Board plan to cap interchange fees for debit cards, a key question remains unresolved: How far is the central bank prepared to go on its own to modify the rule?

Sears Holding Corp.’s Kmart department stores have begun offering an improved version of Western Union Co.’s walk-in bill payment service.

Acculynk Inc. has put its independent sales organization reseller program on the backburner as it focuses on its core business, but at least one observer believes the company’s PaySecure Internet-PIN debit product is still a valuable add-on service for merchant acquirers.

Selling mobile-processing services can prove quite profitable for independent sales organizations, observers say.

Richard Davis, the top executive at U.S. Bancorp and chairman of the Financial Services Roundtable, told analysts April 19 it is a toss-up as to whether the Federal Reserve Board would press ahead with its proposed 12-cent cap on debit card interchange.

Richard Davis, the top executive at U.S. Bancorp and chairman of the Financial Services Roundtable, told analysts April 19 it is a toss-up as to whether the Federal Reserve Board would press ahead with its proposed 12-cent cap on debit card interchange.

A U.S. appellate court has approved Minnesota’s TCF Bank’s request for an expedited appeal of a lower court ruling denying a bid to block the Federal Reserve’s final rule on interchange charges, setting up a three-way race between the courts, the Fed and Congress on the controversial effort to limit the lucrative fees.

The Obama administration announced Friday the release of a strategy to protect consumer and business identities in cyberspace.

The availability of NFC smartphones — an ingredient many say is necessary for mobile payments systems to take off — may be a less onerous problem by 2014, a report from Juniper Research said.

AisleBuyer LLC, a Boston company, is selling mobile software that enables a consumer to scan an image of a payment card and use it to pay for in-store and online purchases.

Corporation Bank Ltd. has launched a mobile wallet to enable its customers to make purchases with their mobile handsets, a spokesperson for the Mangalore-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

When calculating the biggest losers of the Durbin amendment’s cap on debit fee count among them Navy FCU, the nation’s largest credit union and seventh-largest issuer of Visa debit cards.

Jeroo Inc. said it is testing a mobile payment technology called Scan&Ship Enterprise.

Citing increased consumer spending and improving economic conditions, Bank of America Corp.’s Global Card Services unit posted a sharp profit-increase during the first quarter ended March 31.

MerchantService.com has joined the ranks of independent sales organizations using Web videos to promote their services to merchants.

Minnesota’s TCF Bank filed a an expedited appeal request April 14 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit asking the court to overturn a lower court’s ruling and to block the Federal Reserve’s pending implementation of the Durbin amendment’s debit fee caps.

WASHINGTON – A major technology group comprised of some of the biggest corporations shifted its position on the proposed delay in debit rules a week after expressing support for the delay.

The fight over the interchange amendment heated up on Wednesday when Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon an open letter defending the provision.

Momentum for the EMV smart card security standard, common in many European countries, grew this week with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. announcing plans to start issuing EMV cards to U.S. customers this summer.

For the major card brands, emerging global markets that broadly lack access to financial services likely will represent the greatest earnings potential for mobile-payments initiatives, concludes a report from Macquarie Equities Research Group.