Consumers are attacking their debt and borrowing less, but the average U.S. borrower with debt from unsecured loans, including credit cards, still owes an average of $10,000 spread among an average of seven creditors, according to data CareOne Services Inc., a national for-profit consumer debt-relief firm, released Feb. 2.

Seeking to cater to its consumers who do not have Apple Inc. iPhones or Google Inc. Android smartphones, TD Bank NA last week launched a mobile-banking application for Research In Motion Inc.’s BlackBerry devices.

Many risk managers across Europe expect an improvement in credit card and auto-loan performance in the next six months, with much less optimism for mortgage and small-business loans, recently released survey data suggest.

Online payments are becoming faster, as person-to-person payment providers forge ties with PIN-debit networks.

Most consumers in the United Kingdom have not changed their payment habits, but some say they will rely less on credit cards even if the economy improves, suggest recent survey data from New York-based Auriemma Consulting Group.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the financial-services watchdog agency Congress mandated last year as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, on Feb. 3 launched its website, laying the groundwork for soliciting consumer complaints about credit cards and other financial-services products.

Consumers are attacking their debt and borrowing less, but the average U.S. borrower with debt from unsecured loans, including credit cards, still owes an average of $10,000 spread among an average of seven creditors, according to data CareOne Services Inc., a national for-profit consumer debt-relief firm, released Feb. 2.

Zumogo, ProPay Inc.’s new social-media payment tool for mobile phones, leaves out vital information that ProPay says some competitors leave in.

Electronic Payment Exchange has entered into a long-term, exclusive payment-processing relationship with Private Quarters Inc., the provider of credit and debit card and electronic check-processing services announced Feb. 3

In yet another sign 2011 promises to include an avalanche of Near Field Communication-related announcements, LG Corp. is jumping on the bandwagon. That should shock no one, one analyst contends.

CashEdge Inc. is linking to NYCE Payments Network LLC to allow for real-time person-to-person payments.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – NYCE Payments on Thursday said it will begin offering CashEdge’s Popmoney person-to-person payment solution to its more than 3,000 credit union and bank customers.

Continuing its expansion into newer payments-related territory, Visa Inc. intends to focus on increasing its presence in mobile payments, online commerce and funds transfers, Joseph W. Saunders told analysts during a conference call to discuss fiscal first-quarter earnings.

Visa Inc. is expanding its relationship with MoneyGram International Inc. to grab a bigger piece of the remittance market.

Sports-graphics retailer Fathead LLC will use ModaSolutions Corp.’s online eBillme service as an option at checkout, the alternative payment provider announced Feb. 3.

Visa Europe and Monitise PLC have formed a partnership to develop mobile-payment services for Visa’s member financial institutions within Europe, the companies announced Feb. 3.

Payments processor ProPay Inc. is testing a mobile application that enables consumers to pay brick-and-mortar merchants using their smartphones instead of handing over a card.

Commuters on the 14-mile-long rail line connecting Lindenwood, N.J., and Philadelphia would be able to use any contactless-payment card to access trains following a pilot Cubic Corp. announced Feb. 2.

Users of Apple Inc.’s iPhones in the United Kingdom will be able to securely purchase Chiltern Railways train tickets and display them as on-screen barcodes using an application set to launch this spring.

An estimated 426 different collection agencies and creditors were sued under consumer statutes in the first half of January, up from 392 in the second half of December but down from 510 in the fist half of December, according to data from U.S. district courts.