Peppercoin has announced that the 4th Annual Micro and Small Payments Conference will be held November 28 at New York City's Marriott Financial Center. The conference's theme is "Transforming Transactions" and growing the small payments markets. Niki Manby, senior vice president of product innovation at Visa USA, and Robert Carr, chairman and CEO of Heartland Payment Systems, will keynote.

Chase Card Services has announced the launch of a multimillion-dollar Hispanic advertising campaign using the tagline "Confia en Ti. Confia en Chase." "Have Confidence/Believe in yourself, Have Confidence/Believe in Chase."

Rick Aristotle Munarriz writes for Motley Fool about Google Checkout. He reports on the experiences of one retailer who's seeing 8% to 12% of its transactions closed using Google Checkout vs. 3% to 4% for PayPal.

Rennhack Marketing Services (RMS) has announced the results of its 2007 ConsumerTrac™ research, an annual survey that helps define which retail banking incentives have the most appeal to consumers. According to RMS, "sixty percent of this year’s participants said a free gift makes a difference in their banking decision. Eighty-three percent still prefer instant gratification, or a gift given on the spot, especially in comparison to gifts sent to the home or “electronic change jar” programs."

MasterCard has announced it now provides cardholders with a mobile, location-based search and directory service so they can request the location of the nearest ATM be sent to their mobile phone via SMS text message. Customers simply call 1-877-FIND-ATM, and state their coordinates to request the location of the nearest MasterCard ATM and can also choose to have a text message sent to their mobile phone detailing the location of the nearest teller.

Blackhawk Network has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire EWI Holdings, Inc. (EWI), a provider of prepaid payment processing technology and services. According to Blackhawk, "the acquisition of EWI expands Blackhawk Network’s market and enhances its ability to service a wide spectrum of retailers with turnkey transaction technology and services."

Carl Howe blogs for Seeking Alpha about the "new Microsoft cash system" called Microsoft Points originally rolled out with the Xbox Live Marketplace and to be used for making online music purchases for Microsoft's new Zune music player.

Visa Asia Pacific has announced that the number of Visa EMV chip cards in Asia Pacific continues to grow with 52 million EMV chip cards now in circulation, a year-on-year growth rate of 48 percent. The number of EMV chip terminals in the region has risen to more than 1.5 million as of the end of June 2006, up 81 percent. Markets that have seen more than a 50 percent increase in the number of EMV chip terminals include Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. At the end of June 2006, 28 percent of all terminals deployed in Asia Pacific were EMV compliant.

As the payments landscape continues to evolve and corporate payments migrate from paper to electronic formats, organizations are continuing to seek greater efficiencies in the wire transfer process. In order to better understand customer demand and position the wire transfer system for potential growth in the future, the Federal Reserve Banks and The Clearing House conducted a joint research study entitled “Business to Business Wire Transfer Payments: Customer Preferences and Opportunities for Financial Institutions” (pdf). The study offers an in-depth view of the issues facing organizations that routinely make wire transfer payments and focuses on the motivations driving payment decisions as well as potential opportunities for achieving growth in wire payments.

Wachovia Treasury Services has announced it is adding the benefits of online hosting to its remote deposit capture (RDC) service.

The Smart Card Alliance kicked off its annual conference in San Diego this year focusing on trends in contactless, mobile and transit payments. Among the strategies being discussed is the potential use of aggregation by transit operators to reduce their cost of accepting "open" contactless bank cards.

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