card payments

China UnionPay card network operator has launched an initiative to organize a group of national banks, wireless operators and handset makers to form a mobile payments industry alliance in a move to make the sector be more standardized and regulated.

According to the official statement members will be working to promote mobile payment business adopting the international standard on contactless communication defined by the ISO.

MasterCard Worldwide has introduced a number of enhancements to its Worldwide Network which are meant to allow partnering financial institutions and merchants to improve the shopping experience for cardholders; identify new business opportunities; and improve operational efficiencies.

 Retail Banking Research has released the results of its study on the payments cards usage across the Europe. The research found that Europeans have changed their habits in how they pay for their purchases and services with preference given to prepaid cards while debit and credit cards dropped in popularity as the crisis makes people rely mostly on real money than on debt. The study found that the largest and the fastest growing prepaid cards market is the Italian one with 8.2 million prepaid cards recorded in circulation at the end of 2008.

 PayX, a global leading Payments Knowledge Provider™, and PaymentsWorld, a partnership involving the world’s highest calibre BASE24 consultants, combine to deliver BASE24 customers with compelling specialist services to maintain effectiveness today, and thrive in the future.

VeriFone Holdings represents the QX1000 plug-and-play solution for adding contactless card payment acceptance to existing point-of-sale devices, electronic cash registers (ECR) and PCs. The QX1000 is a global contactless solution from the leader in payments and is suited to the widest range of EMV and mag-stripe contactless cards from Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, as well as non-payment applications such as MiFare.