China And Your Card Information; Making Cards Less Vulnerable To Fraud

Forget Balloons: China is Coming for Your Credit Cards

Since the Dodd-Frank financial reform law was passed in 2010, an under-the-radar company called UnionPay has been processing debit card transactions in the U.S. thanks to a provision in the bill referred to as the Durbin Amendment. UnionPay was created by China’s central bank in 2002 and is funded by the government. The 2010 law required banks to include alternative networks, including UnionPay, as options for merchants to process debit card transactions. Now, despite the wave of spy balloons being shot down by the American military, the same people pushing the debit card policy want to do the same thing to the credit card market. Giant corporations including Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot. Target and Kroger have teamed up with some U.S. lawmakers to push legislation that would allow UnionPay to process your credit card transactions. [The Washington Times]

Make Your Credit Cards Less Vulnerable to Fraud

Last year, one of my family’s credit cards was used to rack up hundreds of dollars in bogus charges at Apple.com. Dealing with the aftermath taught me to prize security over convenience, and to change some bad habits that made me an easier target. Sites where you make multiple purchases each month need to be monitored carefully for bogus transactions. Compare what your credit card statement says you’ve charged with your purchase history on the site. And if you find fraud, report it, even if it’s beyond the 60-day deadline. I also learned that I could “lock” my card in the mobile app to prevent unauthorized use. Unlocking it when I want to make a charge just takes a few seconds. I already had two-factor authentication, which requires a code and a password to sign in, on my financial and email accounts. I added it to my most-used retail sites as well. I’ve also started using a mobile payment system wherever possible. These systems—which include Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay—create a “token” that’s transmitted to merchants so that your credit card number is never exposed or stored. [Associated Press]

Credit Card Debt Higher Than Savings for Record Percentage of Americans

Month after month of stubbornly high inflation has squeezed Americans’ budgets to the point that many are relying on credit or dipping into their savings in order to make ends meet. Now, the percentage of U.S. adults with more credit card debt than emergency savings has reached a new high. In survey results released by Bankrate, more than one-third, 36%, of U.S. adults reported that their credit card debt outweighs their emergency savings. That is the highest level recorded since the poll launched 12 years ago, and it is a marked increase from 22% in January 2022. Nearly half of respondents, 49%, said they have either less money in emergency savings or none at all compared to a year ago. [Fox Business]

Credit Card Delinquency Rates for New Users Were Higher Than for Those with Established Credit

In the U.S., many new borrowers’ ability to pay off debt was slightly less favorable than that of more established credit-served customers, according to the Empowering Credit Inclusion study by TransUnion. New-to-credit (NTC) consumers who opened credit cards over the last two years reflected higher credit card delinquency rates after the first six months following opening their accounts, compared to people with established credit and similar credit scores who opened new credit cards during the same time period. The credit card delinquency rate for near-prime NTC consumers was 3.4% compared to 2.2% for near-prime consumers with established credit. For prime NTC consumers, the delinquency rate was 1.2% compared to 0.7% for prime users with established credit. [Fox Business]

Americans Have a Collective $21 Billion in Unspent Gift Cards

Some people love them, some people hate them. Worse, a large number of us who receive them on special occasions are indifferent to them, or even forget about them entirely. Such is the sad fate of gift cards; millions of which go unused each year and have a collective value estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Almost two-thirds of American consumers have at least one unspent gift card tucked away in a drawer, pocket, wallet or purse. And at least half of those consumers lose a gift card before they use it, according to a new report from Credit Summit. The report said there is as much as $21 billion of unspent money tied up in unused and lost gift cards. [CNN]

Senate Panel Targets the Collection of Gun-Sale Data by Credit Card Companies

Credit card companies could face fines up to $10,000 per violation for tracking firearm and ammunition sales in Florida, under a measure approved Tuesday by a Senate committee. The Republican-controlled Senate Banking and Insurance Committee voted 7-3 along party lines to approve a bill that would target yet-to-be-enacted plans by some credit card companies to create a separate “merchant category code” for sales at firearm businesses. Similar four-digit codes are already used to separate purchases and collect data from places such as grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and bookstores. [WUSF]

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Biden Selects Ex-Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga for World Bank President

President Biden will nominate Ajay Banga, the former president and CEO of Mastercard, to serve as president of the World Bank. Banga is currently the vice chairman of General Atlantic, a private equity firm, and would succeed David Malpass as head of the World Bank. Malpass was tapped for the post by former President Donald Trump and announced this month his plan to step down on June 30, four years into a five-year term. The World Bank president has been an American citizen since its founding after World War II, and the U.S. candidate is traditionally chosen to head the bank. The nominee must be confirmed by the World Bank’s executive board. [CBS News]

Citibank is Offering a Bonus of Up to $2,000 for New Checking Account Customers Right Now

Over the past year, the Federal Reserve has worked tirelessly to tame a record-high inflation rate. As a result, the federal funds rate has been raised consistently in 25-to-75 basis-point increments in an effort to get the economy running smoothly once again. The catch: raising rates raises the cost of borrowing. But for savers and checking account holders, it’s not all bad news. Having fewer borrowers means banks look for other ways to reel in new customers, often in the form of higher annual percentage yields or lucrative checking account bonuses. For a limited time, Citibank is offering a cash bonus of $200, $500, $1,000, $1,500, or even $2,000 to new customers who open a Citibank, Citi Priority, Citigold, or Basic Banking checking account between now and April 4, 2023. [Fortune]

ACH Network Sees Same Day Payments Up 15.5% and B2B Rise 11.8% in ’22

Same Day ACH and B2B payments on the ACH Network saw double-digit growth in 2022. These gains came during a year in which, overall, the number of payments processed by the ACH Network grew 3% to 30 billion and the value of those payments rose 5.6% to $76.7 trillion. 2022 marked the 10th consecutive year in which the total value of ACH payments increased by at least $1 trillion. Same Day ACH recorded a 15.5% increase in volume and an 86.3% increase in the value of payments during 2022. [PYMNTS]

Stripe Expands Tap to Pay to Android, Turning NFC-Enabled Android Devices into Payment Terminals

Stripe, the payments and financial services upstart, made waves in the world of mobile commerce last year when it became Apple’s first payment partner for “Tap to Pay,” the iPhone giant’s move to turn any iOS device into a payment-making or payment-taking terminal. Now, Stripe is expanding that business by a factor of googol. From today, businesses that use Stripe Terminal to take in-person payments now will be able to carry out Tap to Pay transactions on NFC-equipped Android devices, too. [Tech Crunch]

Klarna Jumps Back to Y2K with Help from Paris Hilton

Klarna has partnered with Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media on a global advertising campaign starring the hotel heiress and social influencer. Creative draws on Y2K fashion trends and shows Hilton responding to the fintech marketer’s payment and shopping services with “That’s Smooth,” a spin on the “That’s hot” catchphrase she popularized in the early aughts. Commercials and stills attached to the effort roll out globally on Feb. 27 and will appear throughout March on social, digital, broadcast and out-of-home channels. 11:11 Media is handling aspects of the digital execution, including posts from Hilton’s personal accounts. [Marketing Dive]

Wells Fargo Seeks to Catch Faster-Growing Rivals by Boosting Engagement with Rich Clients

Wells Fargo is unveiling a new platform to boost digital engagement with its 2.6 million wealth management clients. The service, called LifeSync, lets users create and track progress on financial goals, ingest content tied to their plans, and contact their advisors. It will be delivered through a mobile app update in late March. Banks are jockeying to provide their customers with personalized experiences via digital channels, and this tool should enable Wells Fargo to boost satisfaction and loyalty. CEO Charlie Scharf has highlighted wealth management as one source of growth for the company, along with credit cards and investment banking, amid his efforts to overhaul the bank and appease regulators. [CNBC]