A global payments provider Elavon, wholly owned by US Bancorp, has partnered with China UnionPay to enable merchants of Elavon accept UnionPay’s debit and credit card payments in Canada with the plans to further expand into Latin America. The partnership bases Elavon’s secure, world class international processing platform to provide merchants with the benefit of a single point of service for processing, funding, settlement and reporting for all Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express®, Discover® Network and UnionPay transactions.

According to a new TransUnion analysis consumers made about $72 billion more in payments on their credit cards than on purchases within the period of first quarters of 2009 and 2010.

Visa Inc announced its plans to introduce new fee scheme for US merchants. In a conference call with analysts Visa Chief Executive Joseph Saunders said the company would introduce a network participation fee in the United States for all of its debit, credit and prepaid card services. Among other things in the new policy Visa will lower the variable rate charged for transactions. The move comes in the wake of new fee structure that will take effect later this year under 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

appMobi is introducing cloudKey authentication solution and its immediate integration into appMobi’s 1Touch “single touch” payment system. A combination of 1Touch and cloudKey provides a secure and streamlined e-commerce experience, says the company statement.

Google Inc is launching a credit card for advertisers in a move to increase ad spending as the competition in the market is growing. The card will be offered to select Google’s clients in the US with a competitive interest rate, says Google. The card features ample credit line and no annual fee, and can be used only for paying for search advertising on the search engine website. The AdWords Business credit card allows businesses to spend more on Google’s search ads when their needs arise.

Second quarter profits of American Express increased by 31% according to the report posted by the credit card network. According to the data average spending by consumers on their American Express cards for the quarter rose by 15% to $3,767 from the same period a year ago.

Chase Card Services, a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co, has partnered United Airlines to introduce a new United MileagePlus® Explorer Card that offers unique benefits and perks. Cardmembers participating in MileagePlus Explorer program will receive special bonuses when traveling on United including first checked bag free, priority boarding, passes to United airport club lounges and the ability to redeem MileagePlus miles for any seat, any time, on any United flight, with no restrictions and no blackout dates.

American Express launched a first of its kind Facebook application “Link, Like, Love” to provide its cardmembers with deals, access and experiences based on the likes, interests and social connections of cardmembers and their Facebook friends. Using American Express Facebook page customers can link their cards to the program and choose their favorite deals; American Express will send statement credits to cardmembers’ accounts as they shop online or in stores, without the need to pre-purchase anything, print out or show a coupon at the point of sale.

Citi Cards along with American Airlines announced the addition to their 24-year Citi® / AAdvantage® credit card portfolio. Now the Citi ExecutiveSM / AAdvantage® World EliteTM MasterCard® will deliver exclusive elite-level travel services and experiences to American’s flyers. The Citi ExecutiveSM / AAdvantage® World EliteTM MasterCard® provides a new class of cardmember privileges, including:

A new stats from an industry report revealed that more consumers were in trouble paying on their credit cards and other debts during the first quarter of the year in view of increased prices for food and gas. The report released by the American Banker Association shows that there was a deterioration compared to the prior quarters and described the most recent quarter as a "soft patch."

Diners Club International, a subsidiary of Discover Financial Services, has partnered with Russian Standard Bank (RSB) to form a new Diners Club International franchise in Russia. RSB will assume all responsibility for the Diners Club brand and business in Russia and Ukraine in issuing and acquiring.

American Express in alliance with foursquare announced the national rollout of their new service following a successful pilot at South by Southwest in March. The service allows American Express® Cardmembers who link their foursquare profiles to their cards to “load” and seamlessly redeem merchant Specials without the need for coupons, special codes, or showing their mobile devices to cashiers.

AlertPay announced that now its customers can send online payments for free in India. Users may receive unlimited funds in their AlertPay e-wallet and keep it there for indefinite time. AlertPay account holders are free to send it to family and friends, make online purchases for goods and services or withdraw it by check or bank wire. Either with Personal or Business account users can send money for free by e-wallet or credit card to anyone with or without an AlertPay account.  

Ukash, the Global eMoney network, has announced the launch of the UkashOut MasterCard®, which enables consumers to convert their electronic money back to cash safely and securely. With UkashOut MasterCard®, consumers can “close the loop” on eMoney payments by loading their cash onto a UkashOut MasterCard® using their Ukash vouchers.

This week Citigroup Inc reported new figures of how may users had been affected by the May data breach. The company said that it affected over 360,000 of its customers, or almost twice the initial number. Citi has been pressed by regulators to disclose the details of data breach. On Wednesday the company provided more information. The breach, which Citigroup first made public on June 8, was initially detected on May 10. A total of 360,083 North American Citigroup credit card accounts were affected by the breach, the bank said.