Retailers

NEW ORLEANS–One of the prevailing themes of this year’s Mobile Banking Summit is there is nothing inherently wrong with plastic cards: A number of speakers, panelists and attendees with a major stake in mobile payments all acknowledge that physical cards work well, posing a steep hill to climb to get consumers to use their phones to make payments.

Consumers now may use China UnionPay-branded credit cards in Brazil under an agreement the card organization reached late last year with Brazil-based Itaú Unibanco S.A. that took effect in late May.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Ltd. last week announced a free mobile-payment service that will enable its customers to make small-ticket purchases at merchant locations within the United Arab Emirates.

American Express Co. is trying to take prepaid debit cards, typically targeted at underbanked consumers, up market.

WASHINGTON — In a nail-biting conclusion after weeks of fierce lobbying by bankers and retailers, the Senate defeated a bill Wednesday that would have delayed the Federal Reserve Board's proposal to cap interchange fees for debit cards.

WASHINGTON — Just hours before the Senate votes on the biggest post-Dodd-Frank bill for the industry, no one in Washington knows what the outcome will be.

WASHINGTON – The credit union and banking lobbies were pulling out all the stops last night to round up a few more votes for their bid to delay cuts in debit fees, but the effort was still a handful of votes short.

Bling Nation, the mobile payments and loyalty company, has shut down its service in a move it insists is only temporary.

NEW ORLEANS — Banks intent on bringing mobile payments to a wide swath of customers will soon have to make difficult decisions about devices, partnerships, vendor management and employee training.

WASHINGTON – Chief sponsors of a bill to delay the cuts in debit fees were still searching for a compromise this morning as they appeared to be short of the 60 Senate votes necessary to pass the delay.

About 200 banks and credit unions are using Fiserv Inc.'s Mobile Money software, more than double the number that were live with the service a year ago, the Brookfield, Wis., vendor said June 6.

Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. are ending a joint venture they formed three years ago to develop a system to process automated clearing house payments, spokespeople for the banks said June 6.

In a move backing its plan to showcase mobile payments at the London Summer Olympics and Paralympics Games in 2012, Visa Inc. says it will roll out a Near Field Communication-based mobile phone for payments linked to prepaid accounts from British bank Lloyds TSB.

Google Inc. is eliminating the Checkout icon next to ads it displays for merchants that use its alternative payment system.

To speed up checkout times for small-ticket transactions, a pilot under way at Australian retail chain Coles Supermarkets is enabling holders of EMV Chip-and-PIN credit cards to make purchases without having to enter a PIN.

Michaels Stores Inc. claims in mid-May it was partway through the process of upgrading the payment terminals in its stores to new, tamper-resistant models when a series of fraudulent debit card transactions pointed to criminals tampering with PIN pads at its stores.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. is opening 6,000 new Virtual Wallet accounts per week, the Pittsburgh banking company's chairman and chief executive James Rohr said June 3.

Google Inc. isn't asking for a share of the payments revenue generated with its new mobile wallet. Nevertheless, partnering with the search engine juggernaut could be a trade-off for banks.

Jane Thompson, the president of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s financial services unit, plans to retire at the end of June, she told PaymentsSource sister publication American Banker on June 3.

Any independent sales organization contemplating a merchant cash-advance business should review the best-practice recommendations of the North American Merchant Advance Association, the group’s president advises.