Reuters reports that KDDI, Japan's second-largest mobile phone operator, is planning to cooperate with credit card issuer JCB to offer mobile phones that can be used as credit cards - apparently aiming to counter a service by NTT DoCoMo.

The Portland Business Journal reports that West Coast Bank has announced a deal with Coinstar to offer prepaid gift cards through jointly administered kiosks in West Coast's branches. According to the article, "Lake Oswego-based West Coast Bank will join Coinstar, of Bellevue, as it becomes one of the country's first banks to offer cards from numerous merchants within its branches."

Joris Evers reports for CNET News.com that Yahoo! is testing a new "sign-in seal" security feature intended to help prevent phishing attacks from being successful. According to Yahoo!, a "sign-in seal is a secret message or photo that Yahoo! will display on this computer only." The seal, customized by the user can be text-based or an image uploaded by the user. If the user doesn't see their customized sign-in seal on a Yahoo! web site, then it's not a genuine Yahoo! site.

Marisa Torrieri writes for CR80News.com about new ultra-thin, flexible lithium-polymer batteries called "Flexion" now available from Solicore and other batteries from Thin Battery Technologies (TBT), a small spin-off of Eveready. Torrieri reports that "until recently, on-card power supplies have been in-the-lab only. With recent advancements in thin, flexible batteries however, expect to see powered cards serving a whole host of functions identified and yet unimagined."

The British Government's Department for International Development has prepared a research report titled "BME Remittance Survey" (PDF) that provides a comprehensive look at the private money transfer habits of Britain’s Asian, African, Caribbean and Chinese communities.

INSIDE Contactless has announced that its MicroPass platform has been selected as the initial chip platform for Wells Fargo's launch of its new Wells Fargo Visa Platinum and Wells Fargo Visa Signature contactless cards. On June 14th, Wells Fargo announced its plans to launch contactless credit cards. Peter Ho, Wells Fargo Card Services vice president and product manager, said at the time "we believe our customers will benefit from the speed and convenience offered by this exciting technology."

Visa International, Latin America and Caribbean Region, has conducted a study that "revealed the banking potential of remittance recipients, as well as their interest in establishing more productive relationships with financial institutions. The remittance market reached US$52 billion in 2005, marking a 15 percent increase over the previous year."

Clint Riley reports for the Wall St. Journal on changes that Citigroup is making to its Citi Dividend MasterCard cash-back reward program. Riley reports that Citi is scaling back from 5 percent to 2 percent the reward paid for purchases made at supermarkets, gasoline stations and drugstores but adding convenience stores and utilities, including cable operators, to the list of qualifying merchants.

Visa USA has announced that Travelocity now "offers customers the opportunity to purchase their getaways using Verified by Visa, a payment card fraud-prevention service that protects Visa cardholders when shopping online."

Brian Smith blogs on Comparison Engines about comments made yesterday in a research note by Piper Jaffray's Safa Rashtchy regarding retailer concerns about "ceding customer ownership to Google" if they implement Google Checkout. Rashtchy's survey of retailers raised "concerns about disintermediation, lack of system flexibility and the perception that Checkout provides Google too much visibility into their business, especially relating to Google search driven conversion rates."

Digital Transactions reports on comments by a PayPal executive that eBay's action barring eBay auction sellers from using Google Checkout is "aimed at barring new payment techniques until they can prove they control fraud and otherwise protect users."

The 41st Parameter has announced it has identified an e-commerce fraud scheme in which fraudsters are coordinating their attacks against e-commerce merchants by using personal, digital and financial data that all appear legitimate to typical detection systems.

• Strategic Partnership Offering Safe2Login(TM) Multi-Factor Authentication Technology Making Credit Unions FFIEC Compliant
• Shift4(R) Adds High-Speed Access to Valutec(R)
• Givex and Computability Expand Gift Card Transaction Processing Capabilities
• American Express to Close Out Summer in NYC With Colossal Five-Week 'Membership' Celebration
• Gemalto Wins Best Vendor Partner Award from MasterCard
• Cousins Subs Ups Customer Convenience, Insight into Purchasing Behavior with Chockstone Gift Card Program
• HSBC Adopts Fair Isaac Strategy Science Framework to Fuel Growth in Asia-Pacific Region
• Financial Industry Leaders Collaborate with Nomis Solutions to Share Perspectives on Pricing Practices, Namely Profit-Based Pricing
• Voca chooses Distra to support payments services
• PaySimple Provides Payment Processing Functionality to Probill A/R Software

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Eric Descombes has been named Country Manager of Mexico by Experian.
  
• David Fonseca has been promoted to Senior VP, Sales and Marketing at Symmetrex, Inc., a Maitland, FL-based full service credit and debit card processor. Phone: +1.407.551.1358.
  
• Chris Rossi has joined Benefit Concepts as Sales Manager. Phone: +1.732.331.6648. Benefit Concepts is a Benefits Administration Company focusing on benefits enrollment, COBRA Administration, & FSA/HRA Plans.