Valerie Bauerlein reports for the Wall St. Journal on the increasing use of live chat services by major banks to provide real time help to online banking customers. According to Bauerlein, at least six of the twelve biggest banks have either launched live chat or are in the midst of rolling it out. She cites evidence from Bank of America and Citigroup about the significant positive effects live chat has on close rates for things like home equity loans and mortgages.

Kathryn Kranhold and Robin Sidel report for the Wall St. Journal on GE's expansion of its "road to credit" program that provides private label cards with low credit lines to consumers who otherwise might not qualify for traditional credit cards.

Robin Sidel and Ann Zimmerman report for the Wall St. Journal on Wal-Mart's presence in the financial services business - citing its current offerings of check cashing, bill payment, money orders and remittance services provided through a partnership with Moneygram - and exploring its plans for the future if its application for a Utah ILC is approved.

Sean Flynn reports for the Newport Daily News about citizen frustrations with a recently deployed card accepting pay-and-display parking system in Newport, RI. "It's a nightmare," said Richard Korn, co-owner of Yesterday's and The Place restaurants in Washington Square. "People have been getting tickets for the past eight weeks because the machine doesn't work. It's made for so many irate customers and angry visitors to Newport. It's unbelievable." [Editor's note: Sounds like the first law of payment systems - consumer convenience - has been violated with this system!]

Zions First National Bank, a subsidiary of Zions Bancorporation, and Pay By Touch have announced the introduction of biometric check-cashing to 12 locations throughout Utah and Idaho. The new service, powered by Pay By Touch, uses a finger scan to quickly and securely identify customers when they are cashing a government or payroll check.

Visa USA and First Data Corporation have announced they have settled a legal dispute that has been pending since 2002 over the processing of Visa payment card transactions. According to the two firms, "as part of this settlement, First Data and Visa agreed to work together to build a stronger business relationship to focus on streamlining the payments processing business. To achieve this, Visa will provide financial support to pursue mutual business opportunities and cost cutting initiatives that are expected to drive new innovation, reliability, security and new merchant acceptance. First Data will transition existing private arrangements between itself and Visa member financial institutions onto VisaNet."

Oscar Kimanuka reports from Nairobi for AllAfrica.com on the growth in mobile phone usage in Africa, enabling new businesses as well as mobile banking services. Kimanuka reports that, according to Dr Mohammed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh "one can reasonably make a statement that people are poor today because of the failure of the financial institutions to support them in the past."

According to a statement released yesterday, Retail Decisions says that "it has received an increased indicative proposal which may or may not lead to an offer being made to purchase the entire share capital of the Company. The Company has also received a number of other unsolicited approaches from third parties. In view of these events, the Board of Retail Decisions has concluded that it should engage in discussions with bona fide potential offerors in order to assess if an acceptable offer will be forthcoming."

Sewell Chan reports for the New York Times on sharp increases in complaints about "aggressive and sometimes unscrupulous tactics by debt collection agencies." According to the FTC, the tactics used include "misrepresenting the nature, size and status of a debt; making constant harassing and abusive phone calls at all hours; contacting a debtor's relatives, employers and neighbors; failing to investigate claims by consumers that a debt is paid, expired or fraudulent; and threatening to sue or seek prosecution."

99Bill has announced a cooperative agreement with Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to activate phone-based payment services that make it possible for users to make purchases and handle payment without logging on to the Internet.

The latest Nilson Report has arrived featuring an in-depth look at point of sale purchase volume at merchants by card issuer in 2005 (subscription only). This issue also has articles discussing general purpose cards in the Middle East and Africa, a look at first quarter 2006 results for Visa and MasterCard in the US, an update on Visa's new dynamic currency conversion rules and on Visa's deal with Verified ID to ease airport screening for travelers.

• Forbes: Google Checkout Could Boost EBay
  
• ACH Direct Launches Quarterly Newsletter For Its Customers
  
• CNET: With Checkout, Google is ready to take your order
  
• Financial Times: Google service that could click with users
  
• USA Today: Workers sue over use of Social Security numbers as IDs
  
• EmigrantDirect Pushes Online Savings Rate to Industry High 5%; Raises Variable 6 Month to Ten Year CD to 5.35%
  
• Berkshire Hathaway, Wal-Mart Among 14 Firms Lining Up to Start Banks
  
• GlobalPlatform Reaches Out to a Smart Audience for 7th Year Running
  
• NTT DoCoMo, Rakuten to develop cell phone Internet auction system
  
• Gemalto to Design, Build and Implement the First Smart Card-Based Healthcare System in Algeria