SmartPay has announced the beta launch of www.172.com, a convenient payments portal that allows users to pay their phone bills, utility bills, buy lottery tickets, purchase air tickets and make other purchases, primarily using their mobile phones or fixed-line telephones.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association has announced approval by the Office of Thrift Supervision of its application for a Federal Savings Bank charter for the Blue Healthcare Bank. The charter allows the Blue Healthcare Bank to provide healthcare-related banking services in all 50 states. The bank is located in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

The Merchants Payments Coalition has announced that it views Visa, MasterCard and their affiliated banks as receiving a "one-day Valentine gift of $169 million this year because of hidden "interchange" fees collected on
transactions during the holiday."

The GSM Association has announced more information about its initiative to help facilitate the worldwide use of mobile phones for payments at point of sale. According to the association, "the 'Pay-Buy Mobile' initiative is a natural progression for the industry, following the GSMA's program - announced last year - to define a common global approach to enabling Near Field Communications (NFC), the technology used to link mobile devices with payment and contactless systems. By embedding mobile contactless services, such as credit and debit payments, in the SIM card the mobile industry will extend the role of mobile phones in customers' everyday lives."

CircleLending has announced an innovative private lending product, Family Advantage that allows families to "arrange private loans that feature the benefits of traditional reverse mortgages without the drawbacks. Family Advantage loans are more flexible and eliminate many of the costs and restrictions those who need a reverse mortgage face."

Chockstone has announced Receipt and Respond, an advertising network linking its restaurant and retail clients with national and local advertisers. According to Chockstone, the new advertising network "delivers point of purchase advertisements and promotional offers directly on consumer receipts. Specific ads are delivered based on actual transaction parameters, including retailer, store location, consumer spending pattern, type of transaction (e.g. loyalty, credit card), day of week, time of day, and items purchased."

Bank of America has announced that its Online Banking customers "will be able to use their cell phones and smartphones when they're on-the-go to check account balances, pay bills and transfer money with the launch of secure mobile banking." The bank is launching the service in Tennessee beginning in March and will roll mobile banking out to markets across the country through mid-year.

Visa USA has launched a new advertising campaign called "Visa Signature Living" that the company says "illustrates that these unique experiences and opportunities are more accessible than ever with the Visa Signature card." Visa is targeting the "new affluent" - Visa Signature’s core audience - that is defined by Visa as U.S. households with more than $125,000 or more in annual income.

China Unicom and SmartPay have announced the launch of "China Unicom Mobile Wallet" in Guangdong Province. Guangdong Province is the largest province in China by number of mobile users and total mobile revenues.

Miriam Jordan and Valerie Bauerlein report for the Wall Street Journal about Bank of America's immigrant-focused credit card issuing efforts - "open to people who lack both a Social Security number and a credit history, as long as they have held a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft," according to Jordan and Bauerlein. The program is currently focused in the Los Angeles area with national rollout planned for later this year. Upfront fees are charged for the credit cards along with higher rates of interest on revolving balances.

Maria Aspan writes for the New York Times about Visa USA's new advertising campaign for its Visa Signature cards. The print and online campaign "hopes to raise the profile of Visa's high-end cards," according to Aspan. The campaign doesn't involve any television ads because the eyes of Visa's "new affluent" consumer base aren't there.

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