CSO Magazine has released the results of the 2006 E-Crime Watch survey, revealing a decline in security events, yet an increase in the financial and operational losses caused by such electronic crime incidents.   » Continue Reading

Atlanta Spirit, Chase, Cingular, Nokia, NXP, Visa USA and ViVOtech have announced the completion of the first North American Near Field Communication (NFC) trial for mobile phones, including contactless payments and content downloads at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.   » Continue Reading

The August 2006 edition of the First Annapolis Navigator is now available. This month's issue features an article on health care and payments, a snapshot of Target's credit business, how to think like a major retailer about self-acquiring, exploring the relationship between risk and losses in US acquirers, and a summary of second quarter 2006 US card issuer performance.

Lighthouse1, a provider of consumer driven healthcare administration solutions, has announced an agreement with First Data Healthcare Services to deliver a debit card and transaction processing services for subscribers using Lighthouse1's healthcare programs. First Data will provide healthcare card services, including a transaction card processing solution for members to access their fund contributions at the point of care. UMB Healthcare Services will work with First Data to support debit card access, investment programs and transaction processing.   » Continue Reading

Jane Kim reports for the Wall St. Journal on this season's marketing efforts by banks on college campuses around the country - and the trinkets, from iPod Shuffles to cases of Coca-Cola to lava lamps, that they're giving away to entice students to open new student checking accounts, signup for new credit cards, etc. Nope, no toasters are included.

Steve Bills writes for the American Banker about a "sweeping" set of rule changes NACHA is planning to propose designed to help reduce potential fraud risks in the ACH system. In June 2005, NACHA's board failed to adopt a Network Returned Item Fee proposal that was intended to provide the mechanism for a receiving bank to be compensated by the originating bank in the event an ACH item was found to have been unauthorized (submitted in error or fraudulently) by the receiver. Today, there's no such mechanism in the ACH system. Bills reports that this time around NACHA is looking beyond just the returned item fee at other risk management approaches.

Card Technology reports on Inside Contactless' latest round of venture financing raising $25 million led by Granite Global Ventures. More details following from the Inside Contactless press release announcing the financing.   » Continue Reading

Tom Gordon reports for Scotland's The Herald about the decline in payment card fraud by 40% since the introduction of chip and PIN earlier this year. "The huge drop was revealed in the Scottish Executive's annual survey of recorded crime, with cases of fraud now at their lowest level for a decade."

• Mellon Acquires ClearTran
• Health Savings Accounts Changing the Formula for Success Among Healthcare and Financial Services Firms
• TowerGroup: Financial Service Institutions Gain Competitive Advantage with Adoption of Profit-Based Pricing
• Fifth Third Processing Solutions Signs Three New Merchant Services Contracts
• Entrust Offers U.S. Financial Institutions a Guarantee on FFIEC Compliance
• FEXCO Awarded Important Payment Card Industry Accreditation - PCI Compliance
• CardLogix Introduces the CREDENTSYS(TM) Dual Interface Smart Card Family for Secure ID

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Patrick (Pat) Coll has been named executive vice president of retail payments for US Bank, overseeing the company's consumer credit, debit, stored value and prepaid card businesses. Coll most recently founded Percolate, a marketing services company and, prior to that, was chairman and chief executive officer of Fleet Bank Credit Card Services.
• Robert Lewis has been named Chief Executive Officer of The 41st Parameter, an online fraud detection and prevention provider. Mr. Lewis most recently has been CEO at Evant, a provider of retail planning, replenishment and enterprise data management software.
• MobiClear Ltd., a personal identity verification provider, has appointed Grahame T Sewell as Chairman and John Clarke as Managing Director.

Vesdia Corporation, a leading provider of loyalty and reward programs to financial institutions is seeking an energetic and seasoned sales professional to sell its suite of loyalty services to the top 100 credit and debit card issuers. Vesdia has an existing sales pipeline and numerous referencable Fortune 500 clients including Citibank and MasterCard.   » Continue Reading