Saying that "bank marketers that ignore Wesabe are missing the bigger picture," Ron Shevlin writes on his Marketing ROI blog about how Wesabe's focus is right - on benefiting the customer by validating their financial decisions.

Bank of America has announced that it is expanding its program to reimburse $3,000 to associates purchasing a new hybrid vehicle. The program will now be available to more than 185,000 U.S.-based associates.   » Continue Reading

Forrester's Bruce Temkin has published a new report asking whether financial institutions meet customer needs. From the abstract: "When it comes to meeting customer needs, banks once again top the list; seven out of ten consumers feel that banks meet their current needs. At the other end of the spectrum, only about half of consumers think that their credit card providers meet their needs."

Chip & PIN Migration: A Canadian Retailer's Perspective, an independent study by the J.C. Williams Group commissioned by Visa Canada, has been released - showing "long-term benefits for retailers who implement upgraded technology that allows them to accept more secure payment cards." The study claims that retailers will be able to recoup their investment in new chip-capable POS equipment in less than three years.   » Continue Reading

Jim Bruene reports on his Financial Marketing Weekly blog about ING Direct's latest results - showing a decline of about $600 million in deposits (about one percent) and 150,000 accounts (about four percent) in the third quarter of 2006. Bruene notes that ING Direct has not kept pace with new competitors on the interest rate it's been offering, apparently deliberately slowing its growth.

Brian Krebs reports for the Washington Post on plans by the US House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) for new legislation that, among other things, would hold retailers accountable for data breaches involving customer information.

Nathan Parmelee writes for the Motley Fool about NTT DoCoMo's latest financial results - commenting about "the company's osaifu-keitai (portable wallet) functionality, which allows a mobile phone to function as a cash card (stored money), credit card, train pass, plane ticket, or other item. Starting from next to nothing a year ago, 20 million subscribers now have phones with this functionality, and 1.5 million have applied for and activated the credit card functionality."

Visa USA says that American consumers are likely to stock up on much more than just food, beverages and electronics this Super Bowl weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) - according to historical Visa data, jewelry and floral retailers also are likely to experience large increases in consumer spending.   » Continue Reading

AuctionBytes' Ina Steiner updates information on Alibaba's volumes in China for 2006: over 33 million registered Alipay users with daily payment volume reaching US$ 12.8 million.

APACS has issued December 2006 spending figures for the UK showing that spending on plastic over the Christmas period reached a record £31 billion. There were 669 million plastic card transactions in December 2006, six per cent more than during December 2005, equating to a record 250 transactions per second - day and night - through the month. Spending on plastic cards accounted for 63 per cent of total retail sales.   » Continue Reading

Bank of America has announced the launch of Franchise Banking, a "new program designed to support the business growth goals of franchise owners with revenues below $20 million. Building upon the Bank's market leadership with large-scale, restaurant franchise operators, Franchise Banking will serve a wide range of national brand franchise concept owner/operators in the food service and other industry sectors."   » Continue Reading

• When stores claim credit card minimums, you can whip this out
• TD Banknorth Renews Payment Agreement with Online Resources
• TASQ Technology Expands into Canadian Market
• City Holding Company Announces Enhanced Merchant Processing Services Through Strategic Alliance with NOVA Information Systems, Inc.
• UK: Confessions of a credit card fraudster
• RP Solutions Launches RD Express For Remote Deposit
• Managing Director appointed to lead new First Data Corp. joint venture with Standard Chartered Bank
• First Data Names Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand