More than a year after it snapped back from the financial crisis, American Express Co. is ramping up investments for growth.

Visa Europe and Wireless Dynamics Inc. are teaming up to offer a mobile contactless-payment service for Apple Inc. iPhone users in the United Kingdom, the card association announced Jan. 25.

The Shazam electronic funds network has made a “strategic investment” in Adaptive Payments, a payment-authentication company that has developed technology that uses any mobile or landline phone to help verify Internet PIN-debit transactions conducted at participating merchant websites.

U.S. states with the greatest amount of outstanding consumer credit card debt roughly parallel those with the most population, but a few states buck that trend, according to new data Equifax Inc. released Jan. 24.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore has set up a wholly owned subsidiary, Assurity Trusted Solutions Pte. Ltd., to lead its initiative to increase the security of online transactions in Singapore, the organization announced Jan. 20.

MasterCard Inc. confirmed that it is hiring Mung-Ki Woo as group executive for its mobile business.

Several issuers in the United Kingdom and Ireland recently announced plans to issue contactless cards usable at several major merchants. And while one observer says few consumers see the benefit of contactless payment, more European merchants, especially quick-service restaurants, have begun to accept contactless cards.

ModaSolutions Corp. has adapted its eBillme online payment system to work with Magento Inc.’s e-commerce platform, the company announced Jan. 24.

Safaricom Ltd., the largest mobile operator in Kenya, is working with U.S.-based payments provider PayPal Inc. on a platform to enable consumers to pay school fees directly to institutions’ bank accounts using their mobile phones, the companies announced earlier this month.

First Data Corp. has expanded its agreement with Warsaw, Poland-based Getin Noble Bank SA to include card-issuing and payment-processing services for the bank’s contactless card program, First Data announced Jan. 19.

The online banking and bill payment provider Online Resources Corp. said Friday that its board is "evaluating unsolicited expressions of interest in potential business combinations."

After a year in testing, RDM Corp.’s smartphone check-imaging application Simply Deposit Mobile is now available for all merchants, RDM announced Jan. 20.

Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. Ltd. has acquired 14.9% stake in Qiwi Ltd., a Russian company registered in Cyprus that specializes in instant-payment kiosks, the two companies announced Jan. 18. Terms were not disclosed.

SoftBank Mobile Corp. will start a Near Field Communication payment pilot with smartphones powered by Android 2.2 operating system late this quarter, the Tokyo-based subsidiary of Japanese telecommunication operator SoftBank Corp. announced Jan.18.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has filed suit against a local college professor over the patent rights to Square, a credit card reader that can be attached to smartphones.

First Data Corp.’s decision to consolidate its merchant and card-issuer processing operations could help the payments company trim costs and better seize opportunities stemming from pending debit card regulation, analysts said last week.

As business lending begins to show some vigor, fainter signs of life have cropped up in other credit categories.

Proposed limits on debit card interchange fees should have a neutral to positive impact on eBay Inc.’s PayPal Inc. operations, at least in the short term, Bob Swan, eBay chief financial officer, told analysts Jan. 19 during a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings.

EBay Inc.’s PayPal Inc. unit in 2010 nearly tripled its eBay Mobile gross merchandise volume to $2 billion from the previous year, driven by strong holiday shopping, John Donahoe, eBay president and CEO, told analysts Jan. 19 during a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings.

Convoke Systems announced that 15 of the nation’s top credit card debt buyers are now customers only two years after the company entered the market.