Wachovia Corp. has announced it is re-entering the credit card business and will end a relationship with MBNA Corp. under which MBNA has issued cards for Wachovia since 2002. The news comes on the same day that MBNA shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve a $35 billion acquisition of the monoline …

Noted in recent years for its strategy of buying assets in high-growth processing niches, TransFirst LLC is back in the hunt, this time looking for a bill-payment processor that can help it create a service for small financial institutions that would allow customers to pay bills on the banks' Web …

A new guidance from federal banking regulators calling traditional user names and passwords “inadequate” for online banking could lead to a major push for strong authentication next year. The guidance, released last month by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, recommends what it calls multi-factor authentication, or identification systems involving …

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and First Data Corp. have come to terms on the long-awaited merger of acquiring-service providers Chase Merchant Services LLC and Paymentech L.P. in a deal that will create a behemoth processor handling 13.1 billion electronic transactions annually. According to a news release distributed this afternoon by …

Metavante Corp., which through acquisitions has been steadily building a major franchise in processing electronic transactions for multiple constituencies across card, check, and automated clearing-house channels, today announced it is buying Link2Gov Corp., a 10-year-old processor of payments for governmental agencies, utilities, and health-care entities on the Internet and at …

After five years of development, Boca Raton, Fla.-based startup ECOM Financial Corp. is planning to introduce an anonymous, disposable prepaid card that will clear transactions through the MasterCard network and be usable for purchases on the Internet as well as at the point of sale. The company, which says it …

Recent reports concerning the dual online threats of phishing and malware indicate mixed news: the phishing threat is down as measured by number of incidents, but fraudsters' use of malicious code to steal passwords and re-direct unsuspecting Web users is increasing steadily. Postini Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based producer of …

MasterCard International said today it will appeal a decision from the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading that concluded the bank card network's method of setting interchange was anti-competitive. Meanwhile, a trade group representing British merchants said it was disappointed in the OFT ruling and may also appeal. The U.K. regulator …

A top official of a regional gasoline marketers' association who wrote a letter to Congress earlier this month calling for regulation of bank card interchange fees says he would like to see the federal government impose a cap on interchange. “They need to look at Australia [where banking regulators last …

Citigroup Inc. plans to roll out 2.5 million key fobs for contactless debit card payment following a launch of the technology this fall in the New York area, the banking giant announced today. The so-called tap-and-go transaction devices will fit on consumer's keychains, and will be based on MasterCard International's …