Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Visa USA have announced "the start of an 18-month pilot program that will enable millions of Californians to pay their utility bills conveniently using Visa-branded payment cards, such as consumer debit, credit and prepaid cards. PG&E is one of the country's largest providers of natural gas and electric service and is now the nation's largest utility company to offer its residential customers the option of using a Visa card for their monthly payments."

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Jeff Scheel, formerly corporate development officer for PassMark Security, has been named executive vice president, product strategy and business development initiatives for GuardID Systems.

American Express and eFunds Corporation have announced "a global, multi-year strategic partnership in which eFunds will provide processing services for the American Express portfolio of prepaid cards."

The Government Accountability Office has published a new report titled "Credit Unions: Greater Transparency Needed on Who Credit Unions Serve and on Senior Executive Compensation Arrangements" (PDF).

The Center for Financial Services Innovation has announced publication of two new papers on alternative credit data. The first, "Market Interest in Alternative Data Sources and Credit Scoring" (PDF) by Katy Jacob and Rachel Schneider, investigates the potential interest in alternative data on the lender side, by interviewing senior lending officers and other key decision-makers at 23 major financial institutions. The second, "Accessing Credit: The Role of Private Loan Services for Underbanked Clients and Prospects at CircleLending" (PDF) by Katy Jacob and Helen Payne Watt, surveys users of CircleLending's pioneering process to formalize and automate private person-to-person loans, to better understand why customers chose this credit option, and how it effected their behavior.

Merchants might not agree with that headline, but it's used over a letter to the editor written by Peter T. Madigan, Director of the Electronic Payments Coalition, and published today in the Albany Times Union. According to Madigan, "the cost for merchants to accept electronic payments is small compared to the merchant's ability to offer customers the convenience, reliability and security of electronic payments."

USAA Federal Savings Bank has announced it is now "the largest nationwide bank to offer an easy-to-use, secure new service that enables its customers to deposit checks into their bank accounts using a home scanner and an Internet connection."

David Lazarus writes for the San Francisco Chronicle about the fees banks have been charging for various forms of electronic transactions. He points out that legislators - including Democrats about to take over key committee chair positions in the new Congress - are increasingly scrutinizing these fees. Lazarus says "considering the volume of transactions that major financial institutions handle, it's difficult to imagine any behind-the-scenes process that merits a fee of nearly $15 being attached to individual electronic transactions."

Following on the heels of Bank of America's successful launch of its "Keep the Change" program over a year ago, Lloyds TSB in the UK has announced Save The Change, a savings program starting February 1, 2007 that rounds up purchase amounts to the next pound when Lloyds TSB Visa debit cards are used. Lloyds also says it will be running a matching promotion during February and March: "From 1 February to 31 March 2007 we will match the amount of “change” transferred to your nominated savings account up to a total amount of £50 in February and £50 in March."

Roger Nebel writes for SearchSecurity.com about the encryption requirements to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard - PCI DSS. "Requirement 3.4 stats that merchants must render [the Primary Account Number], at minimum, unreadable anywhere it is stored (including data on portable digital media, backup media, in logs, and data received from or stored by wireless networks)." Nebel's a fan of using a hashing approach to protect card information - pointing out that hash functions are "readily available to programmers as this is the normal way passwords are stored and used in modern operating systems."

The Korea Herald reports on a new mobile commerce service - actually a gifting service - launched by SK Telecom in Korea. "Transactions are done as such: a user sends a "flashcon" representing a Starbucks caramel macchiato, cafe latte, tea latte, juice, a Haagen Dazs single bar, green tea mini cup, or foods sold at convenience stores - ham sandwiches, instant noodles, tinned honeyed water and tinned coffee - on the chat screen."

Google has announced it is extending its original offer to provide Google Checkout free to merchants through the end of 2006 - by extending the free processing offer for all of 2007 as well! "From now through December 31, 2007, we'll process all of your Checkout transactions for free." Google has also enhanced merchant coupon creation features, introduced email invoicing, and simplified website integration of Google Checkout for merchants. ""In a retail sense, using Checkout as a loss leader to get market share works for Google, because they will make it up with more advertising, which is highly profitable," says Martin Pyykkonnen, an analyst at equity firm Global Crown Capital, as quoted in an article by Jefferson Graham about the Google Checkout promotion in USA Today.

• New GuardID Partner Program Accelerates Adoption of Consumer-Driven Two-Factor Authentication Solution
• Online Resources Deploys Multi-Factor Authentication with High Consumer Adoption
• eMarketer: Gift Card Giving Grows in Canada
• FedACH Participant RDFIs Lookup XML SOAP Based Web Service Released by XWebServices, Inc.
• Canada: Multi-Store Gift Card Coalition Supports Ontario Government's Consumer Protection Legislation