The winds of change are really blowing in the US payments business. Tonight, Dennis K. Berman reports for the Wall St. Journal on rumors of a plan to spin Metavante out of Marshall & Isley Corp. into a new public company. According to Berman, Warburg Pincus would take a minority position in the new company. Former Bank of America CEO David Coulter, also a member of the board of directors of First Data Corp, is reported to be helping Warburg Pincus with its financial technology investment efforts.

The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has published two new papers. The first, titled "Bankruptcy: Is It Enough to Forgive or Must We Also Forget?", authors Ronel Elul and Peiro Gottardi develop a model in which entrepreneurs must repeatedly seek external funds to finance a sequence of risky projects under conditions of both adverse selection and moral hazard. The second, titled "Competitive Effects of Basel II on U.S. Bank Credit Card Lending", by William W. Lang, Loretta J. Mester, and Todd A. Vermilyea analyzes the potential competitive effects of the proposed Basel II capital regulations on U.S. bank credit card lending.

As of Sunday,April 1, 2007, new procedures went into effect in England, Wales and Northern Ireland requiring that "banks and financial institutions become the first point of contact for cheque, plastic card and online fraud offences. In most cases consumers will be required to report instances of this type of fraud straight to their bank or building society and not to the police. It will be up to the financial institution involved, and not the account holder, to pass details of the relevant crime on to the police."

Anita Hamilton writes for Time.com about Citi's launch of its new Citi Mobile mobile banking service - noting that the new service is independent of any wireless carrier. There's an FAQ on Citi Mobile available from the bank's web site.

SkyeTek, in partnership with Isochron, has announced they have enabled cashless payment at vending machines located throughout the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Consumers equipped with RFID enabled credit cards can now make a purchase by just waving a card within a few feet of the new vending machines.

MasterCard Worldwide has announced MasterCard Nearby - calling it "a trial of a new service that allows MasterCard cardholders to use their mobile phones to access a wealth of helpful information, including ATM and merchant locations, driving directions, rewards and special offers, and much more. All MasterCard cardholders in the United States are now eligible to sign up for MasterCard Nearby at www.mcnearby.com or by calling (877) 877-NEAR from any phone."

First Data Corp. has announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) in a transaction with a total value of approximately $29 billion. The agreement was unanimously approved by the First Data Board of Directors based upon the recommendation of the Strategic Review Committee comprised of three independent directors. Under the agreement, First Data shareholders will receive $34 in cash for each share of First Data common stock they hold, representing a premium of approximately 26% over First Data's closing share price of $26.90 on March 30, 2007 and a premium of approximately 34% over the average closing share price during the previous 30 trading days.

ClairMail has announced a strategic partnership with TELUS, a Canadian national telecommunications company, to enable retail banks, credit unions, brokerages, and credit card companies across Canada to offer mobile banking and payments services.

Molly Hennessy-Fiske writes for the Los Angeles Times about payment card interchange fees - and the prospect that Congress may begin a close examination of them.

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• AirDefense’s Revolutionary New Technology Ensures PCI Compliance by Protecting Devices Using Legacy Encryption
• WAUSAU Acquires DMP Payment Systems
• SmartPay Partners With China Unicom in Shandong to Jointly Develop Mobile Payment Services and Network of 'Agent Toll Stations'