U.S. consumer revolving credit, mostly credit card debt, exploded in November, growing at double-digits annually. While slipping downward over the past three months, consumer credit jumped to a 13.5% annual rate of growth, compared toto a revised +2.9% annual rate in October and a revised +5.1% annual rate in September. Overall consumer credit increased at…
Applied Merchant Systems (AMS) has expanded its senior credit facility with Goldman Sachs and Business Development Corporation of America through a Strategic Transaction with Blue Square Resolutions. Blue Square’s founder, Sabin Burrell, has become a significant shareholder; while also continuing to serve as CEO of BlueSquare. AMS now has 17,500 merchant accounts that contribute over…
Star Micronics is teaming up with seven top payments related software partners at National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show to show-off their latest cool payments products. Partners include: Star Cloud Services, Itemize, Dôr, MoZONE, Thirdshelf, nClose and e-Nabler. Star Micronics has designated a portfolio of printing, secure cash management, and customer engagement solutions for any…
Germany’s Rakuten Deutschland, the eponymous e-commerce platform, is gearing-up to add new payment methods via Wirecard. Rakuten Deutschland is a subsidiary of the Japanese platform Rakuten and is a shop software for merchants and a marketplace for end customers in a single solution which also handles payment processing. More than 7,000 suppliers currently use the…
U.S. cards-in-force (CIF) for Visa and Mastercard payment cards (credit & debit) increased 7.8% year-on-year (YOY) in the third quarter (3Q/16), according to CardData.com. U.S. credit cards increased 11.2% YOY while CIF for debit cards rose 5.1% YOY, in 3Q/16. There are were 1249 million Visa and Mastercard payment cards in circulation in the U.S.…
The impact of the loss of the U.S. Costco and JetBlue programs continues to manifest itself in the American Express (AmEx) U.S. Card Services (USCS) unit during the third quarter (3Q/16). Revenue and income declined significantly year-on-year (YOY) as outstandings (OUT) also took a big hit, all by double-digits, according to CardData. AmEx reported 3Q/16…
New research reveals 65% of all respondents and 78% of young adults aged 18 to 34 use online payment services such as PayPal, Google Checkout, Pay by Amazon, and others accessible online and in app by mobile devices and more have been doing so since 2014. The latest Insight Summary Report from Mercator Advisory Group’s…
JCB has inked a partnership for its merchant acquiring business with Procesos Medios de Pago, one of the largest merchant acquirers in the Peruvian market. JCB cards are now accepted at more than 70,000 Procesos merchants throughout Peru. JCB has begun building a merchant acceptance network in Peru from 2003 to facilitate card use for…
Honda and Visa have joined hands to demo in-vehicle payments with Gilbarco and IPS Group at this year’s CES. The demonstrations will be done with fuel pumps from Gilbarco Veeder-Root and smart parking meters from IPS Group. Developed by the Honda Developer Studio, the fuel and parking proof-of-concepts offer a quick and seamless in-vehicle…
Payfone, a specialist in mobile identity authentication for digital channels, has nailed another funding round of $23.5 million. Among new investors is Transaction Network Services. American Express Ventures remains an initial investor. BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Andrew Prozes led the round with new investors Strauss Zelnick, Maclab Development Group and Transaction Network Services, and with participation from current investors…
The Big 6 issuers, based on U.S. total outstandings of $979 billion, control 50.8% of the U.S. bank credit card business at the end of the third quarter (3Q/16), the same as one-year ago, according to CardData. There has been clear shift among the peer group with Capital One and Citibank snatching marketshare from the others.…
Charge-offs among the nation’s top four U.S. issuers inched up six basis points (bps) year-on-year (YOY) to 2.74%, but down significantly 32 bps sequentially for the third quarter (3Q/16). All four issuers reported sharply lower credit card losses from the prior quarter. A huge decline in Citibank losses, related to its Costco card acquisition, drove…
