New Resource Bank, an innovative commercial bank in San Francisco, has announced an agreement to provide simple and one-step financing to California customers of SunPower residential solar systems with SunPower Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of the world's highest-efficiency, commercially-available solar cells and solar panels.

InternetRetailer.com reports that Arroweye Solutions is partnering with Yahoo! to offer gift cards that online shoppers can personalize with their own photos and text.

PRBC, also known as Pay Rent, Build Credit, Inc., has announced that it has "completed a round of equity financing that will enable it to expand its business as the leading "alternative credit bureau" in the United States."

eFunds International Limited has announced that it will be working with LINK Interchange Network Ltd., the payments processor whose infrastructure powers the UK's real-time online ATM network, to provide the core functionality for the new Faster Payments Service (FPS) to deliver real-time funds transfer from one bank account to another.

Prepaid Media has announced three new media properties: PayBefore.com, Prepaid Card Report (PCR), and Prepaid Card Report Newsletter (PCR Newsletter) that will be launched in phases beginning at the 2007 Prepaid Card Expo to be held in Las Vegas, February 26-28, 2007.

TransUnion has announced that it has joined Utica College’s Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP), a research collaborative composed of elite public and private sector organizations, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Secret Service, LexisNexis, IBM and three prominent universities. The organization is dedicated to using applied research to further a national research agenda on identity management, information sharing and data protection.

Wells Fargo has announced that it is the first major U.S. bank to offer consumer remittance services to China and Vietnam along with expanding its consumer remittance services to the Philippines.

Yesterday, Google announced a new custom search engine feature - and we've used it to create a new Payments News search engine that's customized to search those sites most likely to have information that payments professionals are looking for.

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Fred Gumbel has been named CEO of WAY Systems. Previously, Gumbel was CEO of Payment Insight, Inc., a consulting firm to the financial services industry.
• Walt Levengood has been named Senior Vice President of the new Payment Services Group at The Bancorp Bank. Phone: +1.302.385.5086. Bancorp Bank's Payment Services Group provides payment services (Sponsoring, Issuing, Acquiring, ACH, Wire, Swift) to large ISOs, Third Party Processors, and the nation's largest third party billers.

Paul Lufkin, CEO of ePayments Corp. of Denver, says "we're on the verge of a major boom in check conversion. Individual and chain retail operations along with major industry sectors such as utility and telecom companies are finally starting to grasp the benefits of electronic check conversion."

RSA has announced RSA Adaptive Authentication for Phone, a product designed to "meet the financial industry’s need for strong, automated and convenient caller authentication for telephone banking, given the nature of fraud migration and the regulatory requirements stated in the FFIEC’s Authentication in an Internet Banking Environment guidance."

Tagit has launched what it says is a first-of-its-kind Mobile Ticketing Service in India.

Katie Wilmeth reports for the Examiner about I4 Commerce's Bill Me Later - reporting that "the company, which was founded by four former credit card industry executives, has used that wariness over online credit card fraud to build up a roster of nearly 2 million customers — many of them in the “soccer mom” demographic."

Reuters reports that GE Money, the consumer finance arm of General Electric, and Wal-Mart have launched a credit card in China this week

• Coinstar E-Payment Program Receives Frost & Sullivan Leadership Award
  
• Chase Announces Credit Card Partnership With optionsXpress
  
• InComm Adds Build-A-Bear Workshop(R) to Gift Card Offering
  
• American Express Enhances Corporate Gifting Services to Tap Fastest-Growing Segment of Burgeoning Gift Card Market
  
• U.S. Armed Forces Choose ActivIdentity Solution for 3.5 Million Next-Generation HSPD-12 Ultra Secure Smart ID Cards
  
• Radiant Systems Enhances Technology Solution to Canadian Market with Ingenico Partnership
  
• Omni Hotels Invites American Express(R) Cardmembers to 'Take Five' and Receive a Special Sensory Gift When Booking Online
  
• MetroCorp Selects Digital Insight to Provide Robust Suite of Internet Banking, Business Banking and Bill Payment Solutions
  
• IP Commerce and RemitPro Partner to Deliver Remote Check Deposits with IP Payments Framework
  
• NOVA Information Systems Selects VeriFone Vx 610 for Sprint Nextel CDMA Wireless Payment Systems
  
• Retailer Suing Visa® and MasterCard® Wants Exact Merchant Interchange Fee Printed on Each Credit and Debit Card Receipt by Thanksgiving
  
• New credit card settlement service launched in HK
  
• The Progressive Corporation Obtains a License Under The Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. Patents