Discover has announced that Cashback Bonus rewards continued to trend upward in 2011, with the company "citing a 20% increase over 2010."

“Not only did cardmembers respond favorably to the extra Cashback Bonus that more than 70 top retailers offered during the holiday season, but they also appreciated the various enhancements we made throughout the year to ShopDiscover, such as adding merchant coupons and site functionality,” said Dana Traci, vice president of rewards and product management at Discover. “As for increased redemption, cardmembers clearly are seeing there’s great value in redeeming their Cashback Bonus, whether it be for partner gift cards, merchandise, statement credits or on Amazon.com.”

Discover Financial Services has reported financial results for the fourth quarter 2011. The company said Discover card sales volume grew 8% from the prior year to $25.0 billion. The increase was driven by growth in spending from both new and existing customers. Credit card loans increased, ending the quarter at $46.6 billion, up $1.5 billion or 3% from the prior year. The delinquency rate for credit card loans over 30 days past due continued to improve, declining to 2.39%. The credit card net charge-off rate declined to 3.24%.

WorldPay and Diners Club International (DCI), a business unit of Discover Financial Services, have announced the signing of a merchant acquiring agreement that will increase the acceptance of Discover and Diners Club cards in the U.K. "WorldPay will build on its current relationship by adding Diners Club and Discover as standard options to its portfolio of payments processing services beginning in early 2012, in time for the summer Olympic Games in London."

On the web:

• Banks Quietly Ramp Up Consumer Fees - NYTimes.com
• Samsung Adds First Paypal-Capable App To Smart TV Apps Store - HDTVtest
• Square Mobile Payments Surge to $11M a Day - FierceMobileContent
• How Visa Protects Your Data - Fast Company
• Evidence for PCI’s Effectiveness in the Fight Against Fraud - Portals and Rails
• Isis Says It Continues to Make Progress - MobilePaymentsToday.com

On the wires:

• InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions Enhances Capabilities with New Discover Prepaid Cards
• FirsTech Launches Mobile Payments to Complete their Capabilities Suite
• Adyen to Power Pathé Payment Platform
• New Aite Group Report on Global Non-Cash Payments Market
• CardinalCommerce and STAR Network Announce Universal PIN Debit Service Initiative
• New Service Provides Small and Medium Businesses with Secure and Efficient Online Banking and Payment Services via the Cloud

Discover and Amazon.com have announced that Discover cardmembers can now pay directly with Cashback Bonus for purchases at Amazon.com. Additionally, Discover cardmembers can now earn double cash rewards on their purchases made at Amazon.com through the end of 2011.

Discover Financial Services has reported financial results for the third quarter 2011. The company said Discover card sales volume was an all-time record of $26.3 billion in the quarter, up 9% from the prior year. Total loans grew 8% from the prior year to $54.1 billion and were up 3% from the prior quarter, with credit card loans up 2% from the prior year and 3% from the prior quarter. The delinquency rate for credit card loans over 30 days past due continued to decline reaching a new record low of 2.43%. The credit card net charge-off rate declined to 3.85%.

Isis, the national mobile commerce joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, has announced that "Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express will join Isis in making mobile commerce a reality for millions of U.S. consumers and merchants."

“Since the formation of Isis in November, we have been committed to building a mobile commerce platform that aligns and advances the interests of consumers, merchants and banks,” said Michael Abbott, chief executive officer for Isis. “By working with the nation’s payment networks – Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express – we significantly advance the vision of an open and secure platform that provides banks and merchants with a new and highly relevant way to connect with consumers.”

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:

• Visa Offered 35% Interchange Cut for Small Merchants to Delay Durbin - Digital Transactions
• Peter Thiel: If I'd Known, I Would Never Have Started PayPal - Business Insider
• Beeline and Alfa-Bank Launch Russian Mobile Payments Brand Called RuRu - NFC World
• Discover Chief Says Pulse Has Beefed up for Expected Durbin Volume - Digital Transactions
• PayPal Says Mobile Payments To Hit $3 Billion - Wall Street Journal
• Can 'Zoosh' At The POS Overcome The Mobile Payments Gap? - StorefrontBacktalk
• Danish Cellcos Form Joint Venture to Tackle Mobile Payments - Rethink Wireless
• An Industry Divide over Durbin’s Impact on PIN Debit for E-Commerce - Digital Transactions

On the wires:

• More Americans Plan on Using Credit Card Rewards This Summer to Offset Rising Travel Costs

Discover Financial Services has reported financial results for the second quarter 2011. The company said Discover card sales volume was $25 billion in the quarter, an increase of 9% from the prior year. Total loans increased 5% from the prior year to $52.5 billion, while credit card loans declined 1%. Credit card loan balances grew $644 million, or 1% from the prior quarter. The delinquency rate for credit card loans over 30 days past due reached a 25-year record low of 2.79% and the credit card net charge-off rate declined to 5.01%.

On the wires:

• TSYS Expands Merchant Acquiring Presence With Acquisition of TermNet
• FIS Begins Processing New ELO Cards in Brazil
• Bill.com Rolls Out Official Integration with Sage Peachtree Software

On the web:

• FierceMobileContent: PayPal expects to process $2 billion in mobile payments in 2011
• TechCrunch: Jack Dorsey Shares Some Square Numbers
• Mashable: ING Direct Customers Can Now Pay Friends By Bumping Smartphones
• Wall Street Journal (SmartMoney):New Rules of the Credit Card Game
• Collections & Credit Risk: Discover To Pay Cardholders Referral Fee In Social-Media Push
• CRIENGLISH.com: Australian Payment Processor Will Start Accepting Unionpay Cards
• Times of India: Mobile payment system to gain steam in coming months
• Mobile Way to Pay: Will Retailers Use Tender Steering To Take Control Of Interchange?
• Portals and Rails: The Check's in the Mail, but it might be Fraudulent
• TechCrunch: Online Point Of Sale (POS) Systems Are The New Vogue

Discover Financial Services has reported financial results for the first quarter 2011. The company said Discover card sales volume was $24 billion in the quarter, an increase of 7% from the prior year. Credit quality continued to improve as the credit card net charge-off rate declined sequentially 99 basis points to 5.96%, and credit card loans over 30 days delinquent declined 47 basis points to 3.59%. The credit card net charge-off rate decreased to 5.96% for the first quarter of 2011, down 304 basis points from the prior year and 99 basis points from the prior quarter.

On the wires:

• Discover and InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions Announce Prepaid Issuing Agreement
• Fiserv Signs IBERIABANK for Turn-Key Debit Solution
• Pay-O-Matic Renews Contract with Prepaid Processor FSV Payment Systems
• CashEdge Signs Deal With Huntington to Provide Popmoney P2P Payments
• New Mercator Report on Prepaid BIN Sponsorship Opportunities for Financial Institutions

On the web:

• CreditCards.com: Credit Cards Magnetic Stripes Get Smarter
• Wall Street Journal: American Express Teams Up With Foursquare
• Inside Facebook: Facebook Credits GetBalance API Helps Developers Dynamically Price Virtual Goods
• TechCrunch: Why Payments Are Hard, Even For Apple And Google
• Wall Street Journal: Banks Look to Replace Lost Debit-Card Fees
• Portals and Rails: Moving to Chip-and-Pin: The Price of Foresight versus the Cost of Hindsight

Fiserv has announced that Discover Financial Services is now offering electronic bills through the more than 3,000 banks and credit unions in the Fiserv bill payment network. Cardmembers who pay their Discover bill online at their financial institution website will see an icon notifying them that a paperless, electronic version of their bill is now available at that site, and will be able to sign up for the service immediately.

On the wires:

• Discover Announces Agreement with Banco Popular de Puerto Rico
• Liberty Bank Selects Premier from Fiserv
• Intuit GoPayment One of First Mobile Payment Apps Developed for Android 3.0
• INSIDE Secure Brings True NFC Hardware Independence to Google Android “Gingerbread”
• Cardlytics, NetSpend Partner to Bring Targeted Rewards Offers to Underbanked Consumers via Prepaid Debit Cards
• Plastyc Secures Strategic Investment from Core Innovation Capital
• This Is Money: Credit Card Rates Hit a 13-year High in UK/a>

• BusinessWeek: In Broken Market, 'Swipe' Fees Must Be Regulated
• New York Times: Peer-to-Peer Lending: What the Future Holds
• Portals and Rails: Cash Acceptance: A Risky Proposition for Merchants
• BostInnovation: Clovr Media: Forever Changing How You Redeem Offers

Discover Financial Services has reported financial results for the fourth quarter 2010. The company said Discover card sales volume was $23 billion in the quarter, an increase of 6% from the prior year. Credit performance continued to improve, with net charge-offs down $103 million from the prior quarter and a net charge-off rate for the fourth quarter of 6.58%. The delinquency rate for loans over 30 days past due was 3.89%, with delinquent balances declining $181 million in the quarter.

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• Discover Begins Rollout of Contactless Devices to Consumers
• Commidea Leads Contactless Transactions Adoption in UK
• INSIDE Contactless Launches SecuRead System-in-Package for NFC Mobile Devices
• iPayDNA and Payment Network AG (aka sofortüberweisung.de) Establish Business Partnership
• GlobalCollect Obtains License Pursuant To European Payment Service Directive

• Wall Street Journal: Card Issuers Reward Purchases
• MIT Technology Review: Shopping via Text Message
• MediaNama: Seven Indian Banks Launch P2P Interbank Mobile Payments; How It Works
• New York Times: For PayPal, the Future is Mobile
• ArcticStartup: Fortumo Expands To Thailand
• China Business News: China UnionPay Expands Services in Switzerland
• Reuters: EU Set to Accept Visa Europe Antitrust Offer
• Digital Transactions: Retailers See Gift Cards Boom As They Stress Reloadability
• GlobalTimes: Alipay Tops 500 Million Users
• Portals and Rails: Prepaid in the Mobile Channel - Balancing Financial Inclusion and Risk Management

According to an update in the Wall Street Journal online, "Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA will formally announce their joint venture to create a mobile payment network, which will be financially backed by Barclays PLC (BCS) and Discover Financial Services (DFS), as soon as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the situation. The joint venture will be lead by Michael Abbott, formerly chief marketing officer at General Electric Co.'s (GE) GE Capital division. Discover and Barclays will also officially announce that they are participating in the venture. A formal announcement can come any time between Tuesday and Thursday."

Discover has announced that it has signed a merchant acquirer agreement with First National Bank Alaska, furthering is growth in merchant acceptance.

The agreement with First National Bank Alaska also marks a significant milestone for Discover, representing the completion of a multi-year effort to secure agreements and implement merchant acquiring programs with all of the top 100 merchant acquirers in the United States.

Consumers’ views about the economy were unchanged from August to September, but the number of consumers feeling that their personal finances are getting worse rose for the sixth consecutive month and reached a nine-month high, according to the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor released late last week.

Discover Financial Services has reported financial results for the third quarter 2010. The company said Discover card sales volume was $24 billion, an increase of 5% from the prior year. Credit performance continued to improve, with net charge-offs down $102 million from the prior quarter and a net charge-off rate for the third quarter of 7.18%.

According to a new J.D. Power and Associates report, "Overall customer satisfaction with credit cards has rebounded from a three-year low in 2009, but professed loyalty continues to slip as skepticism that card issuers are focused on customers' best interests remains."

"Despite massive efforts by the credit card industry during the past year to educate customers about credit card terms as a part of the CARD Act, customers' grasp of those terms continues to be elusive," said Michael Beird, director of banking services at J.D. Power and Associates.

A new study of debit cards in the US market commissioned by PULSE indicates financial institutions are employing new tactics to increase debit card use:

According to the fifth-annual study, 72 percent of issuers view improving the performance of their debit portfolios by increasing penetration, activation and usage as a top priority this year. One of the key tactics issuers are using to accomplish this objective is the deployment of instant issuance technology.

Discover's latest monthly US Spending Monitor for June 2010 finds that consumer confidence "continued to decline as fewer consumers see economic conditions or their personal finances improving in the month ahead."

"The Monitor - a poll of 8,200 consumers tracking consumer confidence and spending intentions on a daily basis - fell 2 points in June to 88.4. Overall, 28 percent believe economic conditions are improving, a 3-point decline from last month and a drop of 6 points over the last two months."

Discover Financial Services has reported financial results for the second quarter 2010. The company said Discover card sales volume was $23 billion, an increase of 6% from the prior year. The net charge-off rate for the second quarter was 7.97% versus the previously disclosed expectation of 8-8.5%. The net charge-off rate for the third quarter of 2010 is expected to be between 7.5% and 8%.

Discover's latest monthly US Spending Monitor finds that consumer confidence rebounded in April, "fueled by a distinct change of heart among 18- to 39-year-olds about the state of the U.S. economy."

"The Monitor – a poll of 8,200 consumers that tracks consumer confidence and spending intentions on a daily basis – jumped 5.5 points in April to 91.5 (based out of 100), the highest the Monitor’s index has been since November 2007. Overall, 34 percent, the most ever, believe economic conditions are improving." READ MORE »

Discover has announced the extension of its network agreement with Walmart through 2015 in which Discover will continue to be the exclusive network for transactions made on the Walmart Discover card issued by GE Money bank. READ MORE »

Discover Financial Services is holding a financial community briefing today. The webcast begins at 1 PM Eastern time. Discover's presentation material was filed in an SEC 8-K earlier today.

The Discover U.S. Spending Monitor rose 2.2 points in January to 85.2 (based out of 100), primarily driven by an increase in the number of consumers feeling better about their personal finances. Despite improving views about their finances, a majority of consumers continue to rate the economy as poor and nearly half don’t see economic conditions improving. As a result, consumer spending intentions were flat in January. READ MORE »

Discover Financial Services has launched CardBuilder, an online tool that gives applicants the ability to select certain terms, rewards preference and card design. Discover says that, for the first time, "CardBuilder provides prospective cardmembers with the ability to design a card based on how they want to use their Discover card." READ MORE »