Target has introduced a new bill payment offering for its Target Visa REDcard cardholders that encourages the use of their Target Visa cards to make either automatic or manual bill payments at biller-direct web sites while earning rewards and avoiding having to write checks to pay bills.

Digital Transactions reports on Obopay's launch with Amp'd Mobile earlier this week and last week's agreement with Vivotech to connect to contactless payments at the point of sale. According to the article, Obopay "is promoting signups now with an offer of $5 for each account as well as $5 for each account referred by current users. Each Obopay accountholder receives a MasterCard debit card linked to the funds in his account and issued by First Premier Bank, allowing users to get cash from ATMs and spend it in stores."

MasterCard, Citi, and Cingular have launched a web site devoted to the New York City Mobile Trial of near field communication (NFC) technology at MasterCard PayPass acceptance locations - including some specially equipped NYC Subway turnstiles.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has released a new booklet for consumers, Pre-paid Cards (PDF), describing the "pre-paid" type of Visa and MasterCard branded payment cards, explaining what they are, how they work, and the various fees that can be charged for their use - reminding us that "pre-paid cards can be an expensive way to spend your own money."

American Express has announced the "Event Ticket Protection Plan, a new benefit available to consumer and business Gold, Platinum and Centurion Card members at no extra cost. Through the Event Ticket Protection Plan, American Express will reimburse Card members for the cost of tickets purchased with their eligible Card to virtually any event that takes place within the United States, including theater, concert and sporting tickets that they are unable to use due to a covered incident."

With the latest round of quarterly financial results, several banks have reported their merchant acquiring business volumes for the third quarter. Of particular interest is the 18% growth experienced by Chase Paymentech - handling $168.7 billion in payment volume during the quarter. Bank of America's Merchant Services unit grew by 6.2% to $97 billion in payment volume while US Bank's Nova handled $56.4 billion, up over 26% although US volume vs. international isn't broken out in Nova's numbers.

Visa USA has announced the launch of “Business Breakthrough, Presented by Visa”, an "experiential and engaging online resource designed exclusively for small business owners."

The supplemental data provided by Bank of America as part of its third quarter earnings release includes one very interesting chart on page 19 - titled "E-Commerce & BankofAmerica.com".

Bank of America is featuring on its home page its new American Express-branded Rewards Card. It appears the bank is offering the same signup offers on the Amex card as it is currently offering on its Visa Signature and MasterCard WorldPoints cards - a 0% APR on balance transfers and cash advance checks during the first 12 billing cycles on the card along with a $50 statement credit following use of the card for "qualifying transactions" (read the fine print!).

The days of merchant-subsidized credit card rewards programs, rapid increases in interchange fees, and confusing fee structures for credit card purchases are numbered, according to new research by Diamond Management & Technology Consultants.

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Jeffrey S. Gardner has been named President of PaySimple.
• Ron Carter has been named President of Pay By Touch Payment Solutions. Carter was formerly President and Chief Operating Officer of Verus Financial Management.

According to a survey commissioned by the Canadian Interac Association, and conducted by The Strategic Counsel, 92 per cent of Canadians recognize the importance of shielding their PIN at a bank machine or a debit card terminal. However, 60 per cent do not always shield their PIN if they believe nobody can see them entering it, and 37 per cent do not always shield their PIN even if they believe somebody can see them entering it.

A number of presentations from the annual meeting of the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) held last week in New York are available online.

As part of a continuing effort to help organizations in the electronic payments industry understand and meet their obligations to comply with rules issued by the major credit card brands, the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) will offer the first stand-alone version of its Compliance Day forum on November 6-7, 2006 at the Crowne Plaza O’Hare in Chicago.

Sean Hargrave writes for the UK's The Guardian about the deployment of NFC-equipped mobile phones for payments in the UK. Hargrave quotes Alan Wright, head of mobile strategy at Motorola, who "points out that many of the new handsets coming on to the market within 12 to 18 months will be NFC-enabled. From then, it should become commonplace to pay for low value goods and services on a mobile phone - beginning with tickets."

Mallory Duncan, chairman of the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) and senior vice president and general counsel at the National Retail Federation, issued a statement yesterday following Visa's posting its interchange fees on its web site.

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• Litle & Co. Ranks #3 on Deloitte's 2006 Technology Fast 500 List of the Fastest Growing Companies in North America