Jaikumar Vijayan writes for Computerworld about the MasterCard Online Fraud Monitor that MasterCard announced recently being developed with Basepoint Analytics to address PIN-debit fraud.

Global Payments has announced a referral agreement with Ruesch International. a provider of business-to-business payment solutions. Under the terms of the agreements, Ruesch International will refer clients who have payment card processing needs to Global Payments; and, in turn, Global Payments will refer agent banks and business clients to Ruesch International for their cross-border payment processing and foreign exchange transaction needs.   » Continue Reading

American Express has announced the American Express SimplyCash Business Card which "gives cash back on virtually all purchases and automatically delivers the rewards each month as a statement credit."   » Continue Reading

The 21st Anniversary Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends, commissioned by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, reports that "gift cards are expected to continue to be the top gift purchase, with approximately two-thirds (66 percent) of consumers planning to buy them, roughly the same as last year. However, holiday shoppers are planning on buying more of them: this year, consumers intend to buy an average of 4.6 cards, an increase from the 3.9 they bought last year." However, the survey suggests that gift cards may present a "mixed bag for retailers." "Our survey showed that, as a result of buying gift cards last year, 50 percent of consumers spent less time shopping during the holidays and 41 percent bought fewer spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment items," said Pat Conroy, vice chairman and national managing principal of Deloitte's Consumer Business practice. "Successful retailers can benefit from gift-card-and-product bundling, incentives for shoppers to buy additional products while in the store, and other strategies to upsell and cross-sell with gift cards."

MasterCard Incorporated has announced financial results for the third quarter of 2006, reporting net income of $193 million on net revenues of $902 million, a 13.9% increase versus the same period in 2005. MasterCard reported growth in gross dollar volume (GDV), increasing 15.0%, on a local currency basis, to $502 billion and an 18.9% increase in the number of transactions processed. Worldwide purchase volume rose 17.2%, on a local currency basis, during the quarter to $365 billion with the company's customers having issued 818 million MasterCard cards, an increase of 12.6% percent over the same period in 2005. MasterCard held a conference call this morning to discuss the results and has also provided some additional materials online.   » Continue Reading

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