Retailers

WASHINGTON – With the toughest campaign of his career on tap, Montana Senator Jon Tester collected tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from credit unions, banks and other interests before the Senate Banking Committee, just days before Tester lent his name as co-sponsor of a bill to delay the controversial rule cutting debit fees.

Visa Inc. plans to unveil an improved fraud detection system Monday for CyberSource Corp. customers that it says will cast a wider net than its earlier technology.

A severe security breach at EMC Corp.'s RSA Security may threaten the thousands of banks that use its technology.

Zong Inc. said March 17 that its mobile carrier billing service is now available for video game consoles, interactive television services, mobile websites and other channels.

Responding to growing concerns about cardholder data being exposed when merchants process payments over the telephone, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council on March 18 announced guidelines for handling and storing card data within audio recordings at call centers.

More ISOs and agents could begin mining an overlooked “merchant” category. The Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council has begun using AppNinjas Inc.’s Swipe Credit Card Terminal for iPhone to accept credit and debit cards from consumers buying members’ cookies.

ISOs and agents are continuing to offer processing services for mobile acceptance devices despite the risk some say might arise from a lack of technical standards.

A number of Olympic and Paralympic fans who tried to purchase event tickets March 16 to next year’s London games were unable to complete orders March 16 if their Visa-branded payment card expired before a certain date.

Littlewoods Europe’s addition of Optimal Payments PLC’s Neteller’s e-wallet as an accepted payment method will help protect customers against card-not-present fraud because they will not have to enter their financial or personal information when making an online purchase, according to the United Kingdom-based online retailer, which announced the service March 15.

Bengaluru Metro Rail Corp. on March 16 launched a prototype of the contactless smart card the subway network for the Indian city of Bengaluru will use starting Apr 4, a spokesperson for the agency tells PaymentsSource.

The National Payments Corp. of India has informed banks that it will charge remitting institutions 0.1 rupees (0.002 U.S. cents or 0.0015 euros) for every mobile transaction that flows through the interbank funds-transfer service it launched last year, the company announced March 14.

India Post, the country’s state-owned postal service, has begun enabling customers to conduct and pay for postal services online, a spokesperson for the agency tells PaymentsSource.

Many small businesses that do not use mobile bill-payment services are unlikely to use them in the near future, new survey data suggest.

WASHINGTON – Credit union and bank lobbyists hope to convince senators who voted overwhelmingly for last year’s Durbin amendment on debit interchange and may have buyer’s remorse to change their vote and approve a proposed delay.

Visa Inc. is making a bigger play in person-to-person payments by teaming with CashEdge Inc. and Fiserv Inc. for new options in money transfers to and from Visa cards.

WASHINGTON—The banking industry saw the first tangible signs of progress March 15 in its fight to overturn the Durbin amendment, as House and Senate lawmakers officially introduced bills that would delay implementation of a plan to restrict interchange fees on debit cards.

Payments-industry representatives rushed to throw support behind legislation introduced March 15 in the U.S. Senate that would delay implementation of new Federal Reserve Board rules that would cap debit interchange beginning this summer.

PayPal Inc. has paid LML Patent Corp., a wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of LML Payment Systems Inc., $7.5 million to settle a patent dispute that stemmed from an infringement complaint involving 19 other financial institutions, LML announced in a press release.

Major credit card networks on March 14 announced they are waiving interchange fees charities otherwise would pay card issuers on donations cardholders make to provide support for Japanese relief efforts in the wake of the devastation caused by last week’s earthquake and tsunami.

Google Inc.’s interest in Near Field Communication technology might be more about advertising than establishing its own payments network, observes one analyst.