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Tim Colebatch reports for The Age from Melbourne about criticism of the Reserve Bank of Australia's interchange fee regulation at a payments conference held at the Melbourne Business School earlier today. See this earlier post for comments from the RBA.

NACHA has announced that its PAYMENTS 2006 annual conference on electronic payments will be held from May 7-10 at the San Diego Convention Center.   » Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has announced its sixth payments conference "Investing in Payment Innovations: Risks and Rewards" to be held May 11-12, 2006 at the Chicago Fed.   » Continue Reading

Jane Kim reports for the Wall St. Journal on new promotions, including new debit card rewards, being offered by some banks to new customers opening checking accounts while, at the same time, increasing fees on checking customers who violate terms of their account agreements.

The Federation for Identity and Cross-Credentialing Systems, a coalition of government contractors, companies and not-for- profit organizations supporting development and implementation of an interoperable identity cross-credentialing network, has announced an agreement with the Department of Defense to create an interoperable identity network and an expanded membership base now including two of the nation's largest financial institutions: Citigroup and Wells Fargo.   » Continue Reading

The nation's three consumer credit reporting companies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- have jointly announced the introduction of a new credit score called VantageScore they say will simplify and enhance the credit process for both consumers and credit grantors.   » Continue Reading

JCB and MasterCard International have reached an agreement to share the MasterCard PayPass ISO/IEC 14443 Implementation Specification, which provides for a global standardized technology for contactless payment services.   » Continue Reading

The Consumerist is collecting stories from consumers who have recently had their debit cards replaced by their banks - several of which involve Washington Mutual in what appears to be the routine migration of WaMu's debit cards from Visa to MasterCard and not the result of any debit card data compromises.

A new working paper titled "The Future of Charge Card Networks" (PDF) by authors Robert E. Litan and Alex J. Pollock has been published by the Brookings Institution.

"At the end of the day, therefore, if none of the major scenarios or alternatives to the status quo is likely to produce significant benefits to consumers, as a class, one wonders what all of the controversy is about. It is a legitimate question."   » Continue Reading

Philip Lowe, Assistant Governor (Financial System) of the Reserve Bank of Australia, gave an address today titled "The Evolution and Regulation of the Payments System" to the Payments System Conference 2006 at the Melbourne Business School.

In his address, Lowe reviewed the growth in electronic payments as well as some of the effects of recent regulatory reforms imposed on the payment card industry in Australia by the RBA.   » Continue Reading

Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com that "law enforcement officials in New Jersey have arrested 14 people in connection with a crime spree that has forced banks across the nation to replace hundreds of thousands of debit cards."

Australia-based Fraud Management Technologies has announced FraudAlert, a new software or hosted solution designed to reduce the rate of increasingly sophisticated online fraud while protecting the convenience and ease of use of online banking and retailing.   » Continue Reading

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated.

• PassMark Integrates Best-In-Class IP Geolocation Technology From Quova, Enhancing Protection Against Online Fraud
• Robert E. Hyer, Jr. to Join Greenhill as a Managing Director
• ACI Customer Exchange Focuses on Payments Industry Direction and Product Strategies
• Debitman Names Anthony Ruebner Vice President of Sales & Relationship Management
• The Register: Online Fraud Museum details CC hacking techniques
• UK: Paying by iris and fingerprint - the next chip and PIN?
• Malaysia's Public Bank Starts JCB Merchant Acquiring
• Hypercom Introduces First Multilanguage Payment Terminal to Support Chinese Merchants in the United States
• Asia Pay Signs Strategic Alliance with China Market Development Company
• Cincinnati Post: Do we really need to know a bankruptcy score?