The BBC reports on a new £20 note featuring a portrait of Scottish economist Adam Smith that is being introduced by the Bank of England. The new note includes a number of security features - including the following comment: "some unpublicised "covert features" are designed to further deter counterfeiters."

United and Chase Card Services have announced a program offering United Mileage Plus Visa cardmembers double miles for every eligible dollar spent when they use their card to pay their personal (or quarterly estimated) federal income tax, or when they pay their state or property tax between March 1 and May 25, 2007.   » Continue Reading

Jeremy Kirk reports for Network World that PayPal is working on persuading email providers to block email messages appearing to come from PayPal that don't contain digital signatures - in an effort to try to reduce phishing attacks.

Reuters is reporting that Travelex is acquiring business-to-business payments provider Reusch International for $440 million and merging it into Travelex's Commercial Foreign Exchange division.

Visa has released results from a new global survey finding about 25 percent of companies plan to increase their use of corporate payment cards and decrease their reliance on checks in the near future. According to Visa, these companies "believe that corporate payment cards will reduce costs and enable greater cash flow management as a result of more transparent financial data for payables and receivables."   » Continue Reading

At the CTIA show this week, Kyocera Wireless says it will be demonstrating several solutions that "deliver on the promise of next-generation wireless technologies to enable a variety of mobile consumer applications. Kyocera Wireless and Visa International are demonstrating mobile payments utilizing NFC technology, essentially turning a mobile phone into a Visa payment solution using the Visa mobile platform."   » Continue Reading

ViVOtech has partnered with Mobile Candy Dish to "provide consumers a complete end-to-end mobile commerce platform" by combining ViVOwallet OTA and NFC mobile payment software and the Mobile Candy Dish Blaze suite of mobile services. With the combined offering, the two companies say "consumers can use their mobile phone to get movie information and pay for tickets using any form of credit, debit or gift card, as well as to redeem theater tickets electronically without any delays at the venue by using the ViVOtech contactless readers."   » Continue Reading

Obopay has announced the launch of an m-commerce payment solution for mobile merchants and application providers that are looking to engage consumers via their mobile phones.   » Continue Reading

Cyveillance has announced availability of a report titled “Online Financial Fraud and Identity Theft” (PDF) that highlights the growth of Internet attacks and identifies the industries most at risk.   » Continue Reading

AT&T and Firethorn have announced that Wachovia, Regions and SunTrust Banks have selected Firethorn's mobile banking and payments solution to provide their customers with anytime, anywhere access to their financial information and transactions capabilities.   » Continue Reading

Metavante has announced the "signing of a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture with Monitise, a European provider of secure mobile banking and payments capability, to operate a mobile payments system in the United States."   » Continue Reading

• Comodo Announces Unified SSL Communications Certificates
• Digital River Expands Global E-Commerce Platform with Fully Integrated Physical Fulfillment Solution
• More than Half of Americans Spend One to Two Hours Each Month Paying Bills, Reports Visa Survey
• Fair Isaac and Turkey’s Akbank Expand Partnership through Deployment of Falcon ID
• TowerGroup: Recent TJX Gift Card Fraud at Wal-Mart and Canadian Debit Breach Signals Need for More Significant Fraud Control
• Electronic Clearing House Announces Termination of Intuit Merger Agreement
• Intuit Announces Mutual Termination of Electronic Clearing House Acquisition
• China UnionPay To Offer New Mobile Payment Service
• Experian and US Biometrics Enter Technology Sharing Agreement to Offer Encompassing Authentication Solutions
• Cubic and Los Angeles County Metro Team to Demonstrate New Smart Card System to Transportation Officials