Glenbrook's Payments Boot Camp in Denver next week is completely sold out. If you're interested in learning more about the "soups to nuts" of electronic payments at one of our Boot Camps, the next one will be held on Feb. 7-8, 2007 in Santa Clara, California. Registration is now open. If you've got a more urgent or customized requirement, contact Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson about our Private Payments Boot Camps that allow you and your team to share a "deep dive" into the world of electronic payments in a private setting.

Ted Griffith reports for the Wilmington News Journal about Bank of America's plans to conduct a 500 employee test of mobile phones as contactless credit cards.

A contactless payment key fob smaller than the keys on your keychain and a thin oval-shaped wristband are just two of the payment possibilities enabled by Texas Instruments ISO/IEC 14443 contactless payment chip and antenna packages. According to TI, "the release of the industry's smallest payment products, fully MasterCard PayPass certified, brings new versatility and convenience to the contactless payments industry, as issuing banks explore a range of form factors, from traditional cards to fobs and wristbands."

IBM has been awarded US patent number 7,128,274 titled "Secure credit card with near field communications" (PDF). The patent was filed by inventors Edward E. Kelley and Franco Motika.

When Visa recently announced its plan to restructure and pursue a public offering, it posted a Global Business Overview (PDF) presentation on its corporate web site that describes its global business in detail.

Visa International Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has announced it is bringing contactless technology to Latin America for the first time with the launch of its program in Guatemala, implemented by Visanet Guatemala, local banks Banco Cuscatlan, Banco Industrial and Banco Uno, and 100 fast-food and movie theater point of sale terminals.

MasterCard has announced that, in partnership with Nokia and 7-Eleven, it is now conducting a consumer trial in Dallas, Texas, of Near Field Communications (NFC)-enabled mobile phones with MasterCard PayPass capability.

easycash, a German point of sale (POS) Network Service Provider, has announced that financial investor Warburg Pincus has reached agreement with First Data International to acquire 100% of easycash. First Data sold easycash in a competitive auction, which attracted the interest of both industrial buyers and financial investors. The completion of the transaction is subject to approval of the German Federal Cartel Office ("FCO"). The parties agreed to keep the terms of the transaction confidential.

CheckFree has announced the results of a 2006 survey by Lieberman Research Worldwide on consumer bill payment behaviors. "The survey, a follow-up to a study announced in 2004 that first introduced Americans to six segments of bill-payer personalities, found that consumers today are more trusting of the Internet, particularly when it comes to financial management, and that there has been a significant, positive shift in several of the bill payment behavioral categories. The survey was conducted by Lieberman Research Worldwide, a Los Angeles-based firm that specializes in consumer segmentation research."

Dave Birch has posted on his Digital Money blog the first part of a two-part podcast with Tim Jones "drawing out key lessons from Mondex and Simpay."

SVPCO - Electronic Clearing Services has announced that Sterling National Bank is now participating in the Image Payments Network. Sterling’s first exchange partner is Bank of America.

Visa USA has announced it estimates overall retail sales (excluding auto sales) for the 2006 holiday season will grow 7.5 percent, slightly lower than the growth rate of holiday sales in the previous two years.

• Oberthur Card Systems’ Innovative VersaFOBTM Certified as an Approved MasterCard® PayPass™ 3D Fob
• By Kids For Kids and ECOM Financial Sign a Deal to Bring Kid's MasterCard Gift Card to Market
• Paul Burel Joins Fujitsu as Self-Checkout Strategic Marketing Leader
• Proginet's Two-factor Authentication Solution Mitigates Risks of Online Banking
• ACI to Provide Faster Payments Service Gateway for Lloyds TSB
• Corillian and uMonitor Partner for Online Account Opening & Funding Services