Consumer credit card spending was down 6.4% by $4.25 billion to $795.5 billion in January after December, which saw an increase for the first time in 27 months to $799.7 billion. But, according to First Data’s “SpendTrend” analysis, credit dollar volume (CDV) growth in February was higher than signature or PIN debit for the first…
American Express and foursquare are debuting their pilot program at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas. The pilot will feature American Express’ new Smart Offer APIs and enable SXSWi attendees cardmembers to link their American Express Card accounts to their foursquare profiles from March 11th – 15th. Following the pilot at SXSWi the companies will be planning the official roll-out of the functionality in the months ahead. Throughout SXSWi, American Express Cardmembers in Austin will be able to register on-site or visit www.amexnetwork.com/foursquare to link their American Express Card and foursquare accounts to take advantage of the “Unlock a Badge and Support Grounded in Music” and “Spend $5, Get $5 Automatically” reward programs.
Capital One Financial has launched its “Match My Miles Challenge” promotion, giving consumers who open a Capital One Venture Card the opportunity to match up to 100,000 miles they currently have in an airline credit card rewards program, for which the Company plans to match up to one billion miles. Match My Miles is being promoted via an integrated marketing campaign including a national television advertisement featuring Alec Baldwin. In the 30-second ad, which premiers tonight at 10:30 PM EST on Capital One’s Facebook page, he encourages consumers to sign up and take the “Match My Miles Challenge.” To receive the miles match, a new cardholder must register and provide proof of their current airline credit card miles and then spend $1,000 on their Venture Card during the first three months.
MoneyGram International’s tailored software system to combat fraud is proving effective over the past year. Monitoring send transactions and identifying transfers that could involve fraud, the software allows MoneyGram to intervene and prevent its customers from losing money to fraudsters. Since its introduction in May 2010, it has prevented thousands of fraudulent transactions and saving its customers about $22.5 million. This is made abundantly clear with consumer complaints of fraud in January 2011 compared to January 2010 having dropped 72%, with the most significant reductions in Canada, Nigeria, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, for the first two months of 2011 alone, MoneyGram identified and interrupted 2,200 transactions suspected of fraud, saving its customers from losing more than $7 million.
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Regions Financial enhanced its Regions Mobile Banking, allowing more customers to bank anytime, anywhere using their mobile device. This allows Regions Online Banking customers to bank simply and securely on their mobile phone through text banking, by visiting m.regions.com on their mobile internet browser or by downloading the updated iPhone application. The enhanced Regions Mobile Banking service allows customers to check accounts, transfer funds, pay bills, locate bank branches and ATMs, receive text banking alerts, and complete everyday banking transactions and receive confirmations by sending simple text commands.
Cybera PCI compliance solutions has partnered with MAPCO Express convenience store chains to implement a comprehensive security solution at its 405 locations. MAPCO addresses PCI compliance requirements with the Cybera ONE solution, which includes wireless IDS (intrusion detection service) for rogue access point detection. This partnership allows Cybera ONE to simplify security and PCI compliance challenges by bundling all the components needed for comprehensive store security into a single, managed solution that includes wireless security services. By providing all necessary hardware and software as a service, Cybera ONE eliminates the costs of integration and management.
U.S. Bank will offer Secure Vault Payments (SVP) online payment option for student tuition payments and related education fees to the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University. This allows students or their parents to initiate payments on a college or university web site and are automatically redirected to their own financial institution’s online banking platform to select which account they wish to use for payment. They are then returned to the school’s site, where they receive payment confirmation. SVP was developed by NACHA to reduce paper checks and increase use of the ACH Network while the SVP switch technology that transfers users between the biller’s site and the financial institution’s site is provided by eWise.
Federal Savings Bank of Ottawa, IL has implemented the Fiserv integrated banking solution based on the “Cleartouch” bank platform. The real-time account processing solution integrates with Fiserv products to address the retail and commercial banking needs of growing community and mid-sized banks and offers a hybrid processing environment for both memo-posting and real-time processing. The bank platform for account processing, First Federal chose an integrated suite of solutions from Fiserv, including modules from “EFT Solutions,” “Branch Source Capture,” Item and Statement processing, “Prologue General Ledger” and the “iVue for Cleartouch” business intelligence solution.
nCircle has officially made available its “IP360” and “Configuration Compliance Manager” small business solutions. Providing the broadest discovery and most accurate assessment technology available. The new small business solutions include an “IP360” vulnerability management package and a Configuration Compliance Manager package, both designed for easy deployment and can be installed separately or together. The “IP360” includes coverage for up to 1024 IP addresses, discovery and vulnerability assessment of all IT assets, and integrated web application scanning to identify security risk in web applications.
Jack Henry & Associates electronic payment solutions for financial services organizations announced its “Jack Henry Banking” division has established a new strategic alliance with Redi Enterprise Development to offer the Redi “iRisk” solution. With this, “iRisk” enhances Jack Henry Banking’s existing suite of risk management and protection solutions with the ability to consolidate disparate risk management activities across the entire enterprise into digestible information so banks can more frequently, accurately, and quickly evaluate their overall operational and financial risk. Twenty-two Jack Henry Banking clients have already contracted for the iRisk solution.
Union Privilege, the AFL-CIO’s member benefits arm, plans to offer private label, union-endorsed prepaid cards to the 13 million union members it serves through a partnership with Rev Worldwide, the companies announced. The Union Plus Prepaid Card program is fully customized for participating unions and will deliver a range of best-in-class features such as high-yield savings and mobile capabilities at unmatched value. Rev Worldwide developed and provides the distribution and processing platform for the Union Plus Prepaid Card program and promotes the card program through a variety of channels in collaboration with Union Privilege. Inter National Bank, member FDIC, issues all cards offered through the program.