01/05/2011 • CardFlash® - Payment Card Industry News

Momentum Continues For Improving COFs

1, Country, Priority, UNITED STATESBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

Losses and delinquencies for U.S. prime credit card chargeoffs still continue with positive momentum and ongoing improvements in delinquency from Summer 2010. Loss rates still remain high on a historical basis, which averaged just over 6% for much of the last 20 years, but chargeoffs fell below 9% for the first time in 20 months. Meanwhile, late stage delinquencies trended improved by six bps to 3.37% while 30+ day delinquencies increased 3bps to 4.54% having improved by 26% since last year. This, according to Fitch’s Prime Credit Card Chargeoff Index for December, which dropped to 8.99% for the period, shows a chargeoff index of now 238 basis points (bps) lower than the all time high of 11.37% set in February 2010 and is down 16% year over year. This compared to last month when charge-offs dropped two basis points (bps) to 9.20% to the lowest point in 19 months to stand at 55% above the long term historic average of 5.93% (Cardflash Library, 2010/12/08).

Discover U.S. Spending Monitor Falls 4.3 Points

2, Country, Priority, UNITED STATESBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

After reaching a 3-year high in November, consumer confidence slid in December with more Americans seeing economic conditions and personal finances as poor. Dropping 4.3 points to 87.5, the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor shows 56% of consumers currently rate the economy as poor, a 2-point increase from November, and only 29% feel economic conditions are getting better, down 2 points from November. Additional findings show 26% rate their finances as poor, up 3 points from November and the highest since the year ago period; 46% say their finances are getting worse, up a point from the previous month; 35% expect to spend less in January, compared to 18.5% in November; and 14% were planning to spend more on holiday gifts than the previous year; compared to only 10% in December 2009. Moreover,57% planned on spending less on holiday gifts this year, 7 points lower than in 2009; 47% spent less on gifts this year due to the high cost of gasoline while 43% said high gas prices did not affect how much they spent on gifts; and only 46% have money left over after paying bills, 3 points lower than November. Additional findings show 73% of those who do have money left over after paying monthly bills planned on having the same or more money left over than the previous month and 42% are expecting an income shortfall in the month ahead.

SAFETYPAY Partners With BANRISUL for Intl. ePay

3, BRAZIL, Country, PriorityBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

SafetyPay secure payment
facilitator and clearinghouse for online shoppers, online
merchants and banks worldwide has partnered with
Brazil-based Banrisul to provide the bank’s three million
customers the ability to pay
with their own currency worldwide online. Banrisul’s partnership with SafetyPay supports its ability to provide customers the
safest way to shop online.
To date, SafetyPay has partnered and integrated with 23 financial
institutions worldwide (with a combined customer base of 90 million).

mopay Sees Predicts Major 2011 mPayments Growth

4, Country, GERMANY, PriorityBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

mopay payment solutions for online merchants is forecasting major growth for the mobile payments industry in 2011, especially in North America thanks to increased consolidation and lower transaction costs. In 2011, the opportunity for increased consolidation is plentiful with credit card issuers, handset manufacturers, telecommunications companies and Internet companies likely to acquire top mobile payment providers. Also, new forms of currency will continue to grow and social networking providers will continue to introduce their individual forms of currency or branded checkout system. Almost all m-payment providers are currently focusing their products and deals on virtual and digital goods merchants. This is about to change; mopay already supports the purchase of physical goods through its platform in 28+ countries, and expects this number to go up significantly in 2011 as the acceptance of mobile payments will grow rapidly. Korea and Japan, where mobile payments for physical goods is commonplace, are good examples of how mopay sees the payment future in the physical goods space. Finally, lower transaction costs will be available from all major U.S. carriers.

Hitachi ID Launches ID management For PCI Compliance

5, Country, Priority, UNITED STATESBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

Hitachi ID Systems has deployed its identity management suite to over 10 million users at over 800 organizations worldwide. In retail, Hitachi ID solutions help some of the world’s leading companies address challenges including PCI compliance, with which they are now required to comply. In doing so, they must implement the use of hard-to-guess passwords, effective controls over access to administrator accounts and more, and assignment of job-appropriate security entitlements. Hitachi ID Systems provides identity management solutions.

ValidSoft Renews European Privacy Seal

5, Country, Priority, UNITED KINGDOMBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

Elephant Talk Communications business software and services to the telecommunications and financial services industries announced ValidSoft wholly owned subsidiary has renewed the European Privacy Seal for the “VALid-POS” fraud detection and prevention product. This renewal provides further validation that “VALid-POS” can fight fraud while maintaining full privacy and can save banks hundreds of millions of dollars a year by helping to determine whether credit and debit card transactions are legitimate or fraudulent. ValidSoft recently signed a contract with Visa Europe for their fraud detection and prevention solutions “VALid-POS” -which works by correlating the origination of a purchase or withdrawal using a credit or debit card to the proximity of the card owner through the card owner’s cell phone- and “VALid.”

SafetyPay Partners With Major Brazil Issuing Bank

5, Country, Priority, UNITED STATESBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

SafetyPay secure payment facilitator and clearinghouse for online shoppers, online merchants and banks worldwide has partnered with Brazil-based Banrisul to provide the bank’s three million customers the ability to pay with their own currency worldwide online. Banrisul’s partnership with SafetyPay supports its ability to provide customers the safest way to shop online. To date, SafetyPay has partnered and integrated with 23 financial institutions worldwide (with a combined customer base of 90 million).

GoPayment and mophie Card Reader on iPhone 4

5, Country, Priority, UNITED STATESBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

The all-in-one credit card reader and processing solution from Intuit and mophie is now available for small businesses that use an iPhone 4. The solution combines the Intuit “GoPayment” app and merchant account with the mophie credit card reader to let small businesses get paid fast on the latest iPhone with no arbitrary transaction limits that delay them from getting their money. The “GoPayment” app has processed more than $70 million in transaction volume and continues to be a leader in the mobile payments space in both growth and innovation since its introduction two years ago. It lets users create and sell from a list of frequently sold items, apply sales tax, and send customized receipts via text and e-mail with a map of where the transaction occurred, charging rates of 1.7% for card swiped; 2.7% for key entered; and 3.7% for non-qualified transactions.

HANSCOM LOYALTY

5, Country, Priority, UNITED STATESBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

Hanscom Federal Credit Union returned nearly $730,000 to its member-owners at the end of 2010 in the form of a Loyalty Dividend. The award total represents a 2.5% bonus on dividends earned and consumer loan finance charges paid over the year. Hanscom Federal Credit Union, headquartered at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., serves 44,376 members across the country and overseas through 14 branches, over 85,000 service centers and surcharge-free ATMs, 24-hour telephone service and a web-based branch. The credit union holds $850 million in assets.

Cardtronics to Present at ICR Conference

5, Country, Priority, UNITED STATESBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

Cardtronics non-bank operator of ATMs is set to present at the 13th Annual ICR XChange Conference on Wednesday, January 12. It will address security measures taken through its more than 11,700 surcharge-free ATMs on the Allpoint Network. Cardtronics operates over 33,500 ATMs for its account in the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and the Caribbean, primarily with well-known retailers such as 7-Eleven(R), Chevron(R), Costco(R), CVS(R)/pharmacy, ExxonMobil(R), Hess(R), Rite Aid(R), Safeway(R), Target(R), and Walgreens(R). Cardtronics also assists in the operation of over 2,900 ATMs under managed services contracts with customers such as Kroger(R), Travelex(R), and Circle K(R).

Lloyds & Swedbank Ink CLS Settlement

5, Country, Priority, SWEDENBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

CLS Group Holdings AG announces that Lloyds Banking Group and Swedbank have become Shareholders of CLS Group, bringing the total number of banking and financial institutions as Shareholders to 72. The two banks join a group that comprises many of the world’s largest commercial and investment banking organizations. CLS links 17 of the world’s central banks and many of the world’s leading financial institutions. In 2010 CLS has settled an average daily volume of close to 800,000 instructions and a gross value in excess of US$4.1 trillion. In November it settled a new record volume of 1,936,790 sides in one day.

Citi Cards Introduces New Card Reward Program

5, Country, Priority, UNITED STATESBy Robert McKinley 01/05/2011

In response to customers’ feedback on what they want in a rewards card, Citi is launching its Citi “ThankYou Cards” credit cards, letting cardholders earn more as a member of the Bank’s “ThankYou Rewards” program. It gives additional point earning opportunities in select categories, no expiration of points at all, no fee for foreign purchase transactions and even complimentary companion travel. No matter which Citi card the cardholder chooses, the cardholder can earn bonus points and there is no limit to the number of points customers can earn. The qualifying cards include the original Citi “ThankYou” Card, Citi “ThankYou Preferred” Card, Citi “ThankYou Premier” Card and Citi “ThankYou Prestige” Card. Additional benefits let users earn 1 “ThankYou” Point for every dollar spent on purchases; earn a bonus for each year of card membership up to a maximum of 3%; earn 100 bonus points for enrolling in Paperless Statement; earn 100 bonus points for registering for Account Online; earn extra bonus points for shopping through the “ThankYou Bonus Center;” and charge no annual fees.

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Abdulaziz AIDahmash, Head of Digital Banking & Payments of SABB in Saudi Arabia, will speak at the 10th Annual Middle East Banking Innovation Summit in Dubai on March 1st. pyvnts.com ecommerce payments pic.twitter.com/G2RWUjYnsd

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