NACHA has announced the availability of new education and training materials for businesses and financial institutions to implement NACHA's new rules on identifying business checks that are ineligible for conversion. The new rules, which become effective September 15, 2006, provide methods for corporate Originators to identify business checks that are ineligible to be converted and provide corporate Receivers with methods to opt-out of check conversion.   » Continue Reading

Mark Mahorney writes on the blog Seeking Alpha about Coinstar's prepaid cards for coins program - saying "I know it’s not very logical, but I think I’m a lot more likely to toss my coins into their machine if I can get a card for some free coffee or a free book."

Business Week takes a look at Target's credit card issuing business - which it says was responsible for three-quarters of the company's 15% earnings gain in the first quarter - and reports that "a close look at Target's $5.8 billion credit-card operation reveals a portfolio growing at four times the rate of other lenders and brimming with riskier borrowers -- a dangerous combination."

Ben Harrington reports for the UK's Daily Telegraph on reports that Wright Express has entered the bidding to acquire Retail Decisions. Harrington also reports that Comdata and FleetCor as well as a private equity firm may be among other potential bidders for Retail Decisions.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports on a review by the Australian House of Representatives, Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration, of the Reserve Bank of Australia and Payments System Board Annual Reports 2005 which includes recommendations that the payments industry in Australia consider implementing "PIN authorisations for credit cards, online functionalities for EFTPOS cards and chip technology for all cards." The committee also reviewed the Reserve Bank of Australia's actions regarding interchange fees and concluded "that the benefits of the reform, at this point, outweigh any alleged disadvantages." The full committee report (PDF) is available online.

Wade Roush writes for MIT's Technology Review about Google Checkout and the threat it could represent to PayPal for consumer ecommerce payments to merchants - even with its lack of a person-to-person payment capability. Roush suggests that, for consumers, it's a "relatively small step to give Google a credit card number and let the company track online purchases, especially when the promised reward is simpler transactions in the future, along with tools like the purchase history and transaction tracker."

[Editor's note: Seems like Wade has his merchant value proposition reversed - our understanding is that Google provides a credit toward Google Checkout fees based upon the amount the merchant spends on Google AdWords - at the rate of a $1 credit for every $10 spent on AdWords. We also noticed last night that Google is running its own AdWords ads promoting Google Checkout with the language: "Running an eCommerce site? Learn how you can process sales for free."]

• Hitachi Consulting's Dove Consulting Division Adds Fred Gore to Expand Payment Solutions Consulting