Outstandings for Citibank-branded (Citi) cards in North America continues to erode, declining 4.3% last year from $70.5 billion at EOY 2013. Since 2009, Citi’s outstandings posted a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -3.39%, according to CardData. Among Citi’s peers, BofA and Chase are also in negative CAGR territory.
Visa’s Central Europe – Middle East – Africa (CEMEA) region remains the fastest growing international region with Gross Dollar Volume (GDV) up 16.8% Year-on-Year (YOY). However, Visa’s Asia Pacific region continues to claim the lion’s share of the international market with a 45.3% share, but Quarter-to-Quarter (QOQ) growth is slowing, according to CardData.
MasterCard’s (MC) global gross dollar volume (GDV) rose 6.0% on a nominal U.S dollar basis in 2014, but currency adjusted is up 12.9% year-on-year (YOY). The European and Latin America Caribbean regions are the big drivers behind the growth. RAM Research projects MC global GDV will log in around $1110 billion in Q1/15.
After a rocky road with prior credit card partnerships, Charles Schwab is setting its hopes on a new co-brand relationship with American Express. The two companies inked a multi-year deal to issue two new premium co-branded cards, presumably a charge card and a credit card in early 2016.
RI-based Citizens Bank has unveiled a new credit card offering up to 1.8% cash back with no annual fee and none of the category restrictions or caps on rewards often found with other rewards cards.
Citi announced it will be consolidating the Office Depot and OfficeMax retail credit credit agreements into one program, following the announced merger of Office Depot and OfficeMax. Citi Retail Services previously provided credit solutions to both retailers prior to the integration.
Oberthur Technologies, based in France, is investing in its manufacturing hub in Shenzhen to boost production capacity for its display and dynamic CVV (dCVV) cards. Shenzhen, which is strategically located at the heart of one of the largest global electronic ecosystems.
CardWeb.com’s CardExecs database of payments industry movers and shakers today features Greg Cohen, President of iPayment.
Gemalto has inked a major deal with Pellegrini to supply EMV digital meal vouchers. Pellegrini is a leading issuer of meal vouchers delivering 35 million units every year.
Prepaid card specialist Blackhawk Network has been issued a patent that covers the DirectSpend RAN program and equivalent methods of filtering transactions. Blackhawk also owns a variety of patents that apply to e-wallet technology, swipe reload technology, card network processing, digital gift card delivery, gift card exchange, and card security technology.
Mumbai-based Money-On-Mobile continues to rack up strong numbers in usage for its mobile payments service. The company, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Calpian, had 8.3 million total users in February, with 4.04 million repeat users.
Germany’s Wirecard and Drillisch have inked a mobile payments strategic cooperation agreement to launch a mobile payment solution. The new boon payment system will be launched in August.