U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin is chastising small banks and credit unions for not liking his debit card interchange regulation proposal, and Visa Inc. claims consumers strongly oppose legislation that would raise their costs or reduce their cards’ utility. These developments emerged as the House of Representatives and the Senate begin …

It started out as a way to pay other people through the wildly popular Twitter social network, but now a recapitalized and re-energized Twitpay Inc. is concentrating on much narrower niches where it sees greater potential. In March, using a homegrown, in-house platform, it started processing charitable donations, and in …

Consumer spending growth began to slow in April and May after a rebound during the first quarter, with general merchandise stores posting their lowest year-over-year dollar-volume growth, according to at least one major processor. Low-end consumers pulled back from spending, squeezed by an uneven economic recovery and high unemployment. However, …

The Apple iPhone, long a staple among consumers who pay bills and transfer funds via mobile devices, is now being challenged for mobile-banking leadership by a surging Android operating system, according to new research. Handsets that use Google Inc.’s open-source Android OS now account for 12% of the smart-phone market, …

“Thanks, but no thanks,” was the message on Wednesday from representatives of small financial institutions who made it clear they oppose a Senate amendment that would empower the Federal Reserve to regulate debit card interchange. The chief executives of two credit union trade groups and of a small-bank association voiced …

MasterCard Inc. this week rolled out a service that lets users of MasterCard-branded prepaid cards pay bills at the card issuer’s Web site or by phone. Aimed squarely at the underbanked population, the service relies on the MasterCard RPPS network for links to biller accounting systems and Aliaswire Inc., a …

Credit-union representatives descended on Capitol Hill Tuesday to lobby Congress against proposed debit card interchange regulations in the Senate version of the sweeping financial-reform bill. On Wednesday, two frequent political enemies—banks and credit unions—will declare that they’ve stopped fighting each other so they can fight the so-called Durbin Amendment together. …

Acquisitive financial-institution processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc. on Monday said it has completed its $300 million buyout of iPay Technologies, a low-profile but fast-growing electronic bill-payment processor that will add substantial mass to Jack Henry’s already sizable bill-pay business. Monett, Mo.-based Jack Henry provides bill-pay services to 1,050 of …

Everyone knows data breaches are expensive and affect a lot of people, but just how much is startling. In a new analysis, Javelin Strategy & Research estimates credit and debit card issuers spent $252.7 million in 2009 replacing more than 70 million cards compromised by data breaches. Analyst Robert Vamosi …

Presenting yet another wave of petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of customers, the convenience-store industry turned up the heat on Congress Thursday to enact curbs on debit card interchange. The 1.68 million signed petitions, collected by Speedway SuperAmerica LLC and unveiled by the c-store chain and NACS, an industry …