TransUnion has announced Common Point of Purchase, a new fraud detection service designed to identify merchants where magnetic stripe skimming may be occurring. A similar service has been available in Canada for five years.   » Continue Reading

eBay and PayPal have announced that, beginning August 19, all eBay sellers who offer PayPal as a payment option must accept all forms of PayPal payments "including payments made via PayPal account balances, bank accounts, or credit cards, regardless of whether sellers display the PayPal logo with credit card icons."

When the new policy takes effect, sellers who list with a PayPal Personal account may still receive payments funded via account balance or bank account transfers but must also be willing to upgrade to a PayPal Premier or Business Account if they receive a credit card payment via PayPal from their buyer.

SecurityPark.net reports on potential security risks associated with downloadable mobile banking applications such as the MobileATM service recently announced in the UK.

“We’ve tested other mobile Java applications on behalf of several clients and seen some concerning security issues,” said Ken Munro, Managing Director of SecureTest.

“Freeware decompilers make Java applications easy to exploit by hackers. Unless the bank has strong server-side validation, these mobile applications can and will be used to harvest sensitive information and, once the banks add transactional capabilities, they risk losing customers’ money.”

Bank of America this morning reported second quarter financial results with some interesting highlights:

Average managed consumer credit card outstandings rose to $58.5 billion as the company added a record 1.6 million consumer credit card accounts in the quarter.

The bank added a record 629,000 net new retail checking accounts in the quarter.

Debit card purchase volume rose to over $35 billion in the quarter, an increase of 27 percent from second quarter 2004.

Total retail deposits grew 11 percent from the second quarter of 2004 to more than $428 billion in the second quarter of 2005.

Active online banking users increased to 13.6 million, while 6.6 million active online bill-payers paid more than $30 billion worth of bills, an increase of 41 percent from the second quarter of 2004.

Citigroup this morning announced second quarter financial results that included a revenue decline of 3 percent in its North America Cards unit. Citi attributed the revenue decline to high payment rates and lower risk-based fees. Net income for the unit rose about 1 percent. Citi also reported a 9 percent growth in card purchase sales along with higher interchange fees.

Revenues declined 3%, as a 9% increase in purchase sales was offset by net interest margin compression, higher payment rates and lower risk-based fees. Net credit margin increased 7% as continued favorable credit conditions and asset sales offset the impact of a temporary increase in bankruptcy filings, which added approximately $175 million pre-tax to credit costs.

Brian Monroe reports for Florida Today on increases in monthly minimum credit card payments.

Barbara Grunkemeyer, deputy comptroller for credit risk, said the regulators were concerned that, when the minimums were set too low, consumers' payments were barely covering the interest and fees on the cards and not making a dent on the principal amount that was owed.

"It took the banks and other issuers awhile to deal with minimum payments because there were such broad implications," Grunkemeyer said.

The Cincinnati Enquirer, Kroger's home town newspaper, has an editorial about Kroger's anti-trust lawsuit against Visa.   » Continue Reading

ExtremeNano reports on Piggly Wiggly's adoption of Pay By Touch's fingerprint-based payment service.

In fact, initial statistics reflect consumer adoption rates that are more stunning than just satisfying. Just months after Piggly Wiggly introduced the service, it is finding that between 15 and 20 percent of its noncash customers, or those who typically paid by check, credit card or debit card, now use Pay By Touch, said Postell.

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