Fort Knox National Company has announced the results of research commissioned with Crone Consulting and Javelin Strategy & Research that consumers are increasingly turning to electronic methods to pay their bills and prefer to make those payments directly with their biller.

First Data Healthcare Services and Medem have announced a new personal health service and card that combines the iHealth personal health record with all payer health plan eligibility verification and a healthcare debit card.

MasterCard International, Genworth Financial, Toyota Financial Services and Toyota Financial Savings Bank, and New Century Financial Corporation have become members of the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC), a not-for-profit cooperative initiative that offers free victim assistance.

CheckFree has announced CheckFree Positive Pay Accelerator, a fully integrated, real-time software module to the CheckFree ARP/SMS product, that enables financial institutions to improve operational efficiency, speed detection of fraud and provide corporate clients with the ability to prevent fraudulent payments.

Nearly 14 billion automated clearing house (ACH) payments were made in 2005, a 16.2 percent increase over 2004, according to statistics announced by NACHA. Annual ACH payment volume has doubled in the last 5 years, spurred by growth across all transaction categories and newer applications used primarily to collect consumers' bill payments.

NACHA has released its latest NACHA Top 50 lists of the largest originating and receiving financial
institutions of automated clearing house (ACH) payments for 2005.

NACHA has announced that its voting members have approved an amendment to the NACHA Operating Rules that will allow retailers and billers that accept checks at the point-of-sale or at manned bill payment locations to convert eligible checks to ACH debits in the back-office. Known as back-office conversion, or BOC, the rules become effective March 16, 2007.

Online Resources Corporation has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Princeton eCom Corporation, an electronic payments provider to financial institutions and billers.

IDC and Financial Insights have announced results from a recent study concluding that financial institutions are increasingly looking to third parties to manage entire payment functions, rather than the process alone. IDC estimates that U.S. spending on payments BPO services reached $3.3 billion in 2005 and will grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2% to reach $4 billion by 2010.

The 41st Parameter has announced that it has secured $11.2 million in Series B funding led by investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with additional capital from Series A lead investor Norwest Venture Partners.

Neil Martin wrote in this weekend's Barron's (subscription required) about Digital Insight and how it helps smaller financial institutions "become a full-service financial institution" with its online banking offerings.

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report: "Mobile Payments In The United States: SMS and NFC Implementations Enter the Market" written by Mike Friedman, Director of Mercator Advisory Group's Emerging Technologies Practice.

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