On the web:

• Does Square Have A Doppelganger In The UK? Meet mPowa - paidContent
• O2 Wallet Delayed For More Tests as Rivals Ready New Initiatives - Mobile Today
• Make and Accept Mobile Payments with Square's Card Case - Mobile POS News
• Popular Barcode Scanning App ShopSavvy Launches Mobile Marketplace - TechCrunch

On the wires:

• Chase Launches Disney’s Premier Visa Card
• New, Free GoPayment Credit Card Reader Now Available
• Leading Global Prepaid Provider Offers State-of-the-Art Loyalty Solutions
• NetSpend and 7-Eleven Announce New Prepaid Card Distribution Agreement

JPMorgan Chase has reported financial results for the fourth quarter 2011.

• For its Card Services unit, Chase reported net income of $1.1 billion, a decrease of $497 million, or 32%, compared with the prior year. The decrease was driven by a $1.7 billion lower reduction in the allowance compared with the prior year, predominantly offset by lower net charge-offs.
• Excluding the Washington Mutual and Commercial Card portfolios, Card Services net revenue as a percentage of average loans was 11.64%, compared with 11.78% in the prior year and 11.68% in the prior quarter.
• Excluding the Washington Mutual and Commercial Card portfolios, Credit Card sales volume was $91.0 billion, up 9% compared with the prior year and 7% compared with the prior quarter; excluding also the impact of the Kohl's portfolio sale, sales volume was up 14% compared with prior year.

On the web:

• Starbucks Launches ‘pay by app’ for iPhone Users in UK - Telegraph
• Spindle Plans Mobile Payment Product for Small Banks - American Banker
• Square Expands Retail Partnerships to Include OfficeMax And UPS Store Locations - TechCrunch
• PayAnywhere Lets You Build Payments Acceptance Into An App Of Your Own - Business Insider
• Is what you see what you get? Proposed Pricing Disclosures for Electronic Remittances - Portals and Rails
• State Bank of India Drops Plan for Merchant Acquiring JV with Visa, Elavon - The Times of India
• Top 7 Card Readers For Smartphones: Apple, Android, and Blackberry - Mobile POS News
• The Future of Self-Service Checkout - STORES.org
• The State of ACH Fraud - Bank Info Security

On the wires:

• New Mercator Report on India's Prepaid Card Market
• SunGard Closes Syntesys Acquisition to Offer Expanded SWIFT Connectivity and Services
• Chase Partners with Southwest Airlines to Enhance Ultimate Rewards Travel Options for Cardmembers
• U.S. Bank Implements Secure Vault Payments for Nebraska Online Child Support Payments

On the web:

• French Bank and Carrier Team Up to Bring Mobile Payments to Market - NFC World
• Telefonica Digital and RIM Announce NFC payments Market Trial in Spain - FierceMobileContent
• 3G Direct Pay Ltd (Kenya) to Integrate M-Pesa and Airtel Money - businessdailyafrica.com
• Starbucks Launches Mobile Payments App in UK and Ireland - Marketing Magazine
• Google Engineer Shares 2012 Plans for Google Wallet - American Banker
• Orange expands Money services in Africa - Rethink Wireless
• Visa and Retailers Discuss Chip Migration - NACS Online
• Australian Taxis Now Take China UnionPay - People's Daily Online
• EU Weighs Need For Mobile Payment Rules To Attract Industry Investment - Bloomberg

On the wires:

• Top Card Issuer Takes Online Resources’ Collections Global
• Ink from Chase Enhances Rewards Program for Small Business Cardholders
• Facebook Adds SafetyPay as New Global Payment Option for Facebook Credits
• Skrill (formerly Moneybookers) Offers Skrill World Post

Chase and British Airways have announced that EMV chip-with-signature technology is now available on the British Airways Visa Card.

“The addition of EMV chip-with-signature to the British Airways Visa Card offers cardmembers a higher level of convenience,” said Naney Pandit, general manager, Chase Card Services. “Since most of our cardmembers frequently travel abroad, we want to provide them with benefits that make them feel right at home, no matter where they are. Cardmembers can now use the British Airways Card at any chip-enabled, point-of-sale device, such as train ticket kiosk, restaurant or gas station.”

On the web:

• Dwolla Says It Wants to Compete With Credit Card Networks - ABC News
• Blink and It s Gone: Chase Drops Contactless Brand from Cards - American Banker
• Facebook Makes More Global Payment Methods Available to Buy Facebook Credits - ZDNet
• Swedish Operators to Form Mobile Payments Joint Venture - Mobile Europe
• Remote Deposit Capture: If You Expand It, Will Fraud Come? - Portals and Rails
• 28 Indicted in Theft of Credit Card Data at Steakhouses - NYTimes.com
• Lockbox: Still Crazy After All These Years - Celent Banking Blog

On the wires:

• U.S. Bank Customers Get Mobile Remote Deposit and Mobile P2P Payments
• Jollibee Launches Its Online Payment Service with AsiaPay (Philippines)
• Payair Rolls Out US Mobile Payment Services

On the web:

• Intuit says Mobile Payment 'Swipes' Will Go Away, But NFC Probably Not The Solution - Forbes
• Scan Your Groceries on Your Own Mobile Phone with a Grocery Shopping App - Mobile POS News

On the wires:

• ShopSavvy Secures $7 Million Round Led by Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin
• Chase Military Credit Cards Unveil Enhanced Cash Back Rewards, No Foreign Transaction Fees
• Cardtronics Acquires Mr. Cash

JPMorgan Chase has reported financial results for the third quarter 2011.

• For its Card Services unit, Chase reported net income of $849 million, compared with $926 million in the prior year.
• Excluding the Washington Mutual and Commercial Card portfolios, Card Services net revenue as a percentage of average loans was 11.68%, compared with 11.33% in the prior year and 11.95% in the prior quarter.
• Excluding the Washington Mutual and Commercial Card portfolios, Credit Card sales volume2 was $84.8 billion, up 10% compared with the prior year and 2% compared with the prior quarter; excluding also the impact of the Kohl’s portfolio sale, sales volume was up 14% compared with prior year.

Chase Paymentech merchant processing volume was $138.1 billion, up 18% from the prior year and 1% from the prior quarter; 6.1 billion total transactions processed, up 17% from the prior year and 3% from the prior quarter.

On the web:

• Mobile Payments: 8 Awesome Ways to Pay with Your Phone - TheNextWeb
• Pay-by-Phone Parking: No quarters, but Hidden Costs? - MSNBC.com
• Monitise brings mobile payments to Nigeria - Real Business
• Mobile payments: How safe are they? - The Oregonian
• Paymentwall’s In-Game Payment Options Gain a Good Following - VentureBeat
• In a Surprising Twist, Reloadable Prepaid Not As Durbin-Proof As Originally Thought - Digital Transactions

On the wires:

• AsiaPay Expands its Payment Services and Technologies to Malaysia
• Chase and United Unveil United MileagePlus Explorer Card
• FICO and Círculo de Crédito Bring Credit Scores to Mexican Lenders
• TxVia Completes Certification to Process Payment Cards Using the Discover Network

On the web:

• Blaze Mobile Wins NFC Sticker Patent - NFC World
• Philippine Bank to Issue China UnionPay Cards - Cards & Payments Asia
• Core Changes Help Chase Accept Amazon Points As Dollars - American Banker

On the wires:

• USAA’s Deposit@Mobile App Available on iPad 2
• Citi Cards and American Airlines Introduce New Elite Traveler Credit Card
• NYCE Payments Network Adds Record New Participants in the First Half of 2011

JPMorgan Chase has reported financial results for the second quarter 2011.

• For its Card Services unit, Chase report net income of $911 million, compared with $343 million in the prior year. The improved results were driven by a lower provision for credit losses, partially offset by lower net revenue.
• Excluding the Washington Mutual and Commercial Card portfolios, the net charge-off rate was 5.28%, down from 9.02% in the prior year and 6.20% in the prior quarter; and the 30+ day delinquency rate was 2.73%, down from 4.48% in the prior year and 3.25% in the prior quarter.
• Excluding the Washington Mutual and Commercial Card portfolios, sales volume was $83.1 billion, up 10% compared with the prior year and 11% compared with the prior quarter

Chase Paymentech merchant processing volume was $137.3 billion, up 17%, on 5.9 billion transactions processed.

On the web:

• An "Open" Perspective on Near Field Communications - ReadWriteWeb
• Card.io Enables Card Data Capture with Phone Camera - PCMag.com
• Eric Schmidt: Mobile Payments at Retail to Explode - CNET News
• Survey: Discounts and Coupons Will Drive Adoption of Mobile Payments - NFC World
• Apple Is Now Pimping Square’s iPad App In A 'How-To' Video - TechCrunch
• Itautec Unveils 3-D ATM in Brazil - ATM Marketplace

On the wires:

• Chase Upgrades Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card by Adding Amazon Shop with Points
• Optum EFT Solution Makes Health Care Payments Faster and Cheaper
• SponsorPay Introduces Offer-Based Monetization Suite For Publishers

On the web:

• ABA Seeks ‘Grace Period’ on Fed Swipe Fee Rules - ETA
• American Express Prepaid Lineup Looks Like Overkill - American Banker

On the wires:

• Ping Identity Fuels Growth with $21M in Financing
• Citi Ventures Makes Strategic Investment in Mobile Billing Company Billing Revolution
• Elavon Introduces SAFE-T Suite Point-to-Point Encryption and Tokenization Solution
• Chase Card Services Adds EMV Chip Technology to Its J.P. Morgan Select Visa Signature Card
• NetSecure Technologies Introduces Kudos Credit Card Acceptance Solution in Canada
• New Aite Group Report Merchant Funded Card Incentives
• 2ergo develops new mobile payment system for PizzaExpress (UK)
• Ally Bank Adds P2P Payments to Suite of Services

On the wires:

• Chase Card Services to Issue Chip-and-Signature Cards
• Jimdo (Germany) Expands Internationally With Using Zuora
• New Juniper Research Report on the NFC Retail Payments Market

On the web:

• Rethink Wireless: AT&T Launches White Label M-Commerce Platform for Retailers

JPMorgan Chase has reported financial results for the fourth quarter 2010.

• For its Card Services unit, Chase report net income of $1.3 billion, compared with a net loss of $306 million in the prior year.
• Excluding the Washington Mutual portfolio, the net charge-off rate was 7.08%, down from 8.64% in the prior year and 8.06% in the prior quarter; and the 30-day delinquency rate was 3.66%, down from 5.52% in the prior year and 4.13% in the prior quarter.
• Excluding the Washington Mutual portfolio, sales volume was $83.2 billion, an increase of $7.5 billion, or 10%.

Chase has announced that it is offering new commercial card payment solutions and capabilities to its mid-market corporate client base using single-use accounts technology with new online reporting and program management capabilities. The bank also has revamped its mid-market corporate rewards program and introduced a streamlined Executive Card program. READ MORE »

JP Morgan Chase has reported financial results for the first quarter 2010. For its Card Services unit, Chase report a net loss of $303MM compared with a net loss of $547MM in 1Q09. The net charge-off rate (excluding the WaMu portfolio) increased to 10.54% in 1Q10 vs. 6.86% in 1Q09 and 8.64% in 4Q09 and nnd-of-period loan outstandings (excluding the WaMu portfolio) were $132.1 billion, down 12% YoY and 8% QoQ. Card sales volume (excluding the WaMu portfolio) was up 7% YoY to $66.9 billion.

Chase Paymentech merchant processing volume was $108 billion on 4.7 billion total transactions processed.

"By all measures, 2009 was a terrible year for our credit card business" - so begins Jamie Dimon's discussion of JP Morgan Chase's Card Services business unit - as Dimon writes in his annual letter to shareholders. The unit lost $2.2 billion in 2009 with an additional impact coming this year resulting from the recent CARD Act changes that have recently taken effect. Dimon notes that "in the future, we will no longer be offering credit cards to approximately 15% of the customers to whom we currently offer them" - due to the changes imposed by the law.

Chase Card Services has announced it is increasing the cash back rate on its Chase Freedom credit card to 5 percent on popular seasonal spending categories, like home improvement, gas and department stores. READ MORE »

In an article titled "JPMorgan Chase Ends Credit Card Arbitration", Maria Aspan writes for the American Banker that JP Morgan Chase has joined Bank of America in abandoning mandatory arbitration clauses as part of their credit card agreements.

Chase has announced the addition of two new credit cards - Ink and Ink Capital - to its Ink portfolio of business cards that provide additional purchase rewards or an interest-payment refund to customers with Chase business checking accounts. READ MORE »

Recently, US travelers to Europe have encountered problems having their magnetic stripe-based credit cards accepted at some merchants where Chip and PIN have been implemented. See, for example, "The End of Cards as We Knew Them?" by Glenbrook's Jacqueline Chilton.

Earlier today, JP Morgan announced several commercial card initiatives regarding expansion into Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Included in that press release was mention of a new card that the bank will be issuing next year: J.P. Morgan’s International Dollar Card (USD) which the bank calls "a cross-border dollar solution complete with Chip and PIN security, and the ability to support clients’ needs in the Middle East, Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia."

J.P. Morgan has announced that it has "significantly advanced its commercial card expansion initiative in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to provide corporate clients with higher degree of visibility and flexibility on spending and expenses in today’s challenging economic environment. As part of its continued investment in its global Treasury Services business, J.P. Morgan has introduced several new commercial card product offerings and service enhancements in the region, while a number of new product offerings are due to launch early next year." READ MORE »

JP Morgan Chase has reported financial results for the third quarter of 2009 - reporting net income of $3.6 billion, compared with net income of $527 million in the third quarter of 2008.

Chase Card Services reported a net loss of $700 million, a decline of $992 million from the third quarter of 2008. End-of-period managed loans were $165.2 billion, a decrease of $21.3 billion, or 11%, from the prior year and $6.3 billion, or 4%, from the prior quarter. Card charge volume was $82.6 billion, a decrease of $11.3 billion, or 12%, from the prior year. Merchant processing volume at Chase Paymentech was $103.5 billion, on 4.5 billion total transactions processed.

In an article titled "Chase Cards Today: No Wamu DNA", Maria Aspan writes for the American Banker in Thursday's edition about how Chase Card Services has been handling the Washington Mutual credit card portfolio it acquired when Chase took over WaMu earlier this year. Bottom line: Chase is much more risk averse and decided to exit much of WaMu's higher risk cardholders.

Aspan notes: "If there is one issuer from which JPMorgan Chase is taking lessons these days, it is all the way at the other end of the spectrum from Wamu and Providian: American Express Co. ..."

Chase Card Services has announced Ink℠ from Chase, a suite of business cards developed specifically for small businesses. The new business card portfolio includes four distinct cards "to deliver on the unique needs of small business owners and marks Chase’s introduction of a pay-in-full charge card – a first from issuers of Visa or MasterCard." READ MORE »

Over on PaymentsViews.com in a post titled "The Era of Responsible Credit Card Borrowing Begins Today", Glenbrook's Bryan Derman takes a look at Chase Blueprint - saying that it "represents a significant generational inflection point in the evolution of the US credit card business."

Chase Card Services has introduced Chase Blueprint - calling it "an innovative set of features that dramatically improves the way customers can manage their spending and borrowing. Blueprint helps consumers take charge of their finances with free tools they can use to pay down balances, manage everyday spending and pay off major purchases."

Blueprint, in what Chase is saying is a "first for the banking industry", enables Chase customers to better manage their expenses – from everyday spending like groceries to major purchases like appliances or home repairs – and adjust their plan at any time without penalty. Blueprint is integrated into customers’ accounts, enabling them to create customized payment plans and track their progress on every statement, either online or on the phone working with a Chase advisor.

Chase says that the launch of Blueprint follows more than two years of planning and research focused on better understanding the way consumers think about borrowing. According to a Chase survey of 4,026 U.S. consumers, 74 percent say it is “very important” that they have complete control over managing their finances and believe that cards are an essential part of that equation. READ MORE »

Chase Card Services has announced the launch of Chase Sapphire - calling it "the next generation rewards card designed for the affluent market." According to Chase, "Sapphire has been built from the ground up to address the needs of the top 15 percent of U.S. households by income who expect premium rewards, outstanding value, and exceptional service."

Earlier this summer, Chase had announced the Ultimate Rewards program where Sapphire was initially mentioned. READ MORE »

Chase has announced a new program that gives its checking account customers "more rewards on every purchase when they use their Chase Freedom credit card."

“This is one more way to thank customers for doing more business with Chase,” said Scott Powell, head, Consumer Banking. “That’s especially important as consumers watch every dollar they earn and spend.”

According to Chase, its "Chase Exclusives program rewards Chase checking account customers with better rates, more rewards and bigger discounts on nearly all the financial products offered through Chase’s bank branches." READ MORE »