MasterCard Worldwide, Credicard, Citibank’s credit card administrator for the Brazilian market, and Redecard have announced the launch of MasterCard PayPass contactless payment technology in Rio de Janeiro for public transportation and other quick service merchants. MasterCard says that PayPass is the first contactless payment product to be introduced for public transportation in Latin America. READ MORE »

Citigroup reported financial results for the third quarter of 2009 this morning. In its Citi Cards unit, end of period open accounts were 54.6 million, down 11% from 61.1 million a year ago. Purchase volume on its cards was $65.5 billion, down 13% from $75.5 billion. Managed net credit losses were 10.29% vs 6.39% a year earlier.

Maria Aspan reports in this morning's American Banker that Citigroup "is shutting down the cobranded cards it issues for a prominent retail partner, Home Depot Inc."

Maria Aspan reports for American Banker this afternoon that Citi Holdings has sold $1.3 billion of managed card portfolios to US Bank. She reports that the portfolios were associated with KeyCorp, Associated Banc-Corp, and the affinity card portfolio for the American Dental Association.

Earlier, Floyd Norris of the New York Times posted a commentary about Citi's earlier press release announcing the sale - calling it the "least informative announcement." He said that "I can’t remember a deal announcement when a company said it had sold undisclosed assets to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed price, resulting in an undisclosed profit or loss."

In an article titled "Card Act's Collateral Damage: Networks", Maria Aspan writes for the Monday edition of the American Banker about Citi "slashing some travel insurance benefits on its high-end credit cards." According to Aspan, "Citi said last week that it is reducing the amount of "travel accident insurance" it offers on several elite cards, in some cases to a quarter of the former coverage levels, effective Oct. 1."

In an article titled "Annual Fees: Citi Takes Leap" in tomorrow's American Banker, Maria Aspan reports that Citi "has started adding annual fees to some of its existing credit card accounts in one of the first such attempts by a major issuer to offset the effects of the government's crackdown." Many have expected to see a return to annual fees for more accounts as a result of Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act signed into last May.

Citigroup Inc. today reported net income for the first quarter of 2009 of $1.6 billion and a loss per share of $0.18.

In its North American credit card business, "purchase sales declined 18% reflecting a continued decline in discretionary and non-discretionary consumer spending. Average managed loans declined 4% due to lower purchase sales and balance transfer volumes, partially offset by a decline in payment rates."

"Continued weakening of leading credit indicators and trends in the macro-economic environment, including rising unemployment, higher bankruptcy filings and the housing market downturn, drove higher credit costs. Credit costs also reflected a significant increase in delinquencies, as well as the continued acceleration in the rate at which delinquent customers advanced to write-off. The managed net credit loss ratio increased 395 basis points to 8.88% in the Citi branded portfolio and 508 basis points to 12.40% in the retail partners portfolio."

MasterCard Canada, in partnership with Citi Cards Canada and Bell Mobility, has completed the first near-field communications (NFC) trial of Mobile PayPass in Canada. The four month long closed trial allowed participants to use Bell Mobility's wireless network to make purchases using their mobile device at MasterCard PayPass acceptance locations across Canada. READ MORE »

Citi has announced the launch of Citi Forward, calling it "a credit card designed to meet the specific financial needs and interests of today’s consumers. Specially built to help consumers maintain healthy credit, Citi Forward is the only credit card that lowers the purchase interest rate by a quarter percent when cardmembers use credit wisely and rewards them with ThankYou Points each billing period for paying on time and staying under the credit line." Citi Forward is a Visa-branded card. READ MORE »

Citi has announced it is offering members of its ThankYou Rewards Network the chance to put their creativity into wallets around the world with the launch of the ThankYou Gift Card Design Contest. READ MORE »

A group of credit card issuers and payments networks (Bank of America, Capital One, Citi and Discover Card along with MasterCard and Visa) have introduced Help With My Credit, a resource to assist and educate consumers struggling to make their credit card payments.

According to a press release issued late Tuesday, "Help With My Credit invites consumers to call a toll-free telephone number (1-866-941-1030) where operators will provide them with information about speaking with customer service representatives within participating credit card issuers or to accredited credit counseling agencies, depending on the individual’s situation and needs."

Consumers can also visit a new Web site, http://www.HelpWithMyCredit.org, which provides consumers information on how to manage credit cards and better communicate with their credit card companies, and how to identify and speak with an accredited credit counselor. READ MORE »

Citi today has announced the first edition of a new quarterly report on its use of TARP funds. The report, titled "What Citi Is Doing to Expand the Flow of Credit, Support Homeowners and Help the U.S. Economy" includes a section on Citi's credit card business (page 23) - where it says:

"Citi’s primary objective, particularly in this environment, is to fund the expansion of credit to existing card members and target new account originations, based on their ability to repay their loans" and that "in 2009, Citi Cards plans to extend a significant amount of new credit to U.S. consumers, within Citi’s customary sound lending standards."

What's not clear from Citi's TARP report is how these plans relate to Citi's upward adjustment of interest rates on outstanding credit card balances that began in mid-November.

In a story titled "Credit card holders livid about 'rate-jacking'", CNN looks at cardholder reactions to changes in the interest rates on credit card accounts - in particular by Citibank. "Citigroup seems to be the target of most bloggers' venom -- partly because Citigroup issues so many credit cards and partly because Citi began sending the notices at about the same time it was getting a $20 billion, taxpayer-financed government bailout."

See alto this story on Bloomberg.com: Credit-Card Users Feel Pain as Banks Reap Gain From U.S. Cash and Michelle Singletary's column in the Washington Post: Overcharged and Over a Barrel.

Citi’s ThankYou Rewards Network has announced that it now allows its members to redeem ThankYou Points for products fulfilled through Amazon.com. According to Citi, "members can enjoy using their points to shop the millions of items Citi has made available to them from Amazon.com, the online retailer that features earth’s biggest selection." READ MORE »

Citi and Firethorn Holdings have introduced Citi Mobile for Cards - call it "an advanced mobile solution that allows Citi credit card customers to quickly, easily and securely access real-time credit card account information on their mobile phones. Citi Mobile for Cards is now available to AT&T subscribers as part of AT&T Mobile Banking, and to Verizon Wireless customers who download and use the free mobile banking application on Get It Now." READ MORE »

In an article titled "Despite Pledge, Citigroup to Raise Credit Card Rates, Blaming ‘Difficult’ Environment", Eric Dash writes for the New York Times that Citi is "reneging on a promise it made to tens of millions of credit card customers in good times" by raising interest rates - by 2 to 3 percent - on credit cards for its customers that haven't had an increase in the last two years. The increased interest rate will be communicated to cardholders in their November statements. The affected cardholders can then choose to decline the increase and continue to pay interest at the original rate but only until their cards expire.

Citigroup has reported its third quarter 2008 financial results. In its cards business in North America, Citi reported a decline in purchase volume of 3% year over year along with a 3% decline in the number of open credit card accounts. Average managed loans in its North America cards business grew 4% while credit losses grew 68%. "The managed net credit loss ratio increased 262 basis points to 7.13%." Floyd Norris of the New York Times comments on Citi's overall financial results.

Citi has announced the launch of Citibank Paylink for Cards - calling it "an end-to-end electronic payment solution for corporations, financial institutions and public sector clients, that combines the capabilities and benefits of a purchasing card with the control and consistency of a traditional electronic payment process." READ MORE »

Citi and Green Dot have announced "a strategic alliance to provide Citi-issued general purpose gift cards and reloadable prepaid debit cards to consumers. In addition, Citi Cards’ retail business partners will have the opportunity to offer co-branded versions of these prepaid products to their customers. With this partnership, Green Dot further expands its national retail distribution of prepaid products." READ MORE »

Mobile Money Ventures, a joint venture of Citi and SK Telecom, has announced that its mobile financial services solution is compatible with Android, a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. Google and other players have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders. According to MMV, its offering "will enable financial institutions and carriers to offer customers the ability to use a comprehensive set of mobile financial services on Android-powered mobile devices." READ MORE »

AT&T and Citi have announced the launch of the AT&T Universal Business Rewards Card that rewards small business owners for their purchases and also provides them with a prescription drug benefits program and an around-the-clock personal business assistant. READ MORE »

Citi has announced it is offering its cardholders "an exciting, new benefit on participating credit cards called Extra Cash from Citi that allows customers to earn discounts on some of the biggest and most popular names in travel, entertainment and merchandise -- just for using their card." READ MORE »

Citi has announced enhancements to its Citi Diamond Preferred suite of cards - saying the cards now offer 'an array of exceptional privileges and benefits typically found only in fee-based rewards credit cards -- all for no annual fee.' READ MORE »

Citigroup is holding an investor and analyst day today in New York. A presentation is available online along with a webcast. Included in the presentation discussing Citi's innovation efforts are mentions of its mobile banking and mobile payments efforts with Obopay, SK Telecom, AT&T and Firethorn (slide 17). In an article titled "Blue-Light Specials at Citigroup as Its New Chief Plans a Revival", Eric Dash reports for the New York Times on efforts by Citi over the last several months to dispose of some of its weaker business assets.

Citigroup announced its first quarter financial results this morning - including plans to cut 9,000 more jobs on top of the 4,200 layoffs announced in January. ""It is clearly feasible for us to take 10, 15, 20 percent off our cost base, especially in information technology and operations," Citi CEO Vikram Pandit told the Financial Times. Citi also disclosed it had a $349 million pre-tax gain on Visa shares and a $161 million pre-tax gain on the sale of MasterCard shares during the quarter.

The House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit is holding a hearing today on H.R. 5244, The Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights. The prepared testimony of the witnesses is available on the Subcommittee's hearing page. Four consumers are testifying along with other financial services regulators (from the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC, and OTS), card industry executives (from Citi Cards, American Express, and Discover) and consumer groups (Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Action, and US PIRG).

Update: CNNMoney.com reports on the hearing and testimony by Sen. Carl Levin and Sen. Ron Wyden who both urged the House to take action on the legislation.

In a press release, Orbiscom has announced that 'millions of consumers are taking control over risks from identity theft and online fraud with a free security service from Orbiscom. The service is available from credit card and online payment issuers and generates disposable numbers linked to a real account that can only be used within constraints specified by the card holder. As a result, merchants and unauthorized persons are prevented from seeing direct financial details in transactions that do not require the physical card, like online or by phone.' READ MORE »

Citi, the world's largest provider of credit cards, has announced the launch of its EcoSweepstakes, "a promotion to encourage customers to go paperless. Every time cardmembers enroll in one of Citi's convenient online account management services or perform eligible activities, they are automatically entered to win great green prizes, including a Brand new hybrid car or a green home makeover." READ MORE »

Discover Financial Services has announced that it has signed an agreement with Citi to acquire Diners Club International - saying the combination will result 'in a global payments network with increased transaction volume and worldwide acceptance of Discover Network cards once the networks are fully integrated.' Discover said it will not issue cards or extend consumer credit in international markets as a result of this acquisition.

Citi Cards and Firethorn Holdings, a Qualcomm company, have announced a 'strategic relationship to enable Citi credit cardmembers to easily and securely access real-time account information anytime, anywhere on their wireless handsets. The new service is expected to be available to Citi credit card customers across the U.S. by the third quarter this year.'