Javelin Strategy & Research has announced new report titled "Mobile Banking Security: The Call for Technology Standards and Proactive Security Messaging" (PDF).

First Data Corp. has announced a strategic investment in ViVOtech and that it plans to use ViVOtech's collection of emerging technologies that include Near Field Communication (NFC) terminals and mobile commerce enablement. According to First Data, its investment will come in the form of acting as the lead investor in ViVOtech's Series C round of financing.

The April 2007 issue of the First Annapolis Navigator is now available (via free email subscription). This is features an interview with Bob Carr of Heartland Payment Systems along with articles on commercial cards, recent card issuer performance, and gift cards.

The Federal Reserve has announced that it will shortly begin a new statistical study of household finances, the Survey of Consumer Finances, intended to provide policymakers with important insight into the economic condition of all types of American families. The survey has been undertaken every three years since 1983 - results from this new survey will be available in 2009.

Erin McCune blogs about Brad Smith's article on mobile banking in this week's edition of Wireless Week - noting one bank's claim of a 3 month ROI on their investment to provide mobile banking.

Julian Goldsmith reports for Silicon.com in the UK that "incidents of face-to-face credit and debit card fraud have tumbled by 67 per cent since the introduction of the chip and PIN standard 24 months ago. But card fraud overall has only dipped by a few per cent according to payments industry organisation Apacs, with much of it migrating to card-not-present (CNP) fraud and overseas transactions."

MasterCard reported first quarter financial results this morning - a presentation discussing the results is available online. MasterCard's net revenues for the quarter were $915 million, a 23.9% increase versus the same period in 2006, growth in gross dollar volume (GDV) of 16.4%, on a local currency basis, to $509 billion, and a 19.4% increase in the number of transactions processed to 4.2 billion.

• Fujitsu Announces Launch of U-Scan Genesis Self-checkout
• BISYS Announces Agreement to Be Acquired by Citi
• VeriSign and Innovative Card Technologies Address Worries of Online Merchants With New Fraud Protection That Fits in a Wallet
• American Express and Costco Add New Benefit to the True Earnings(R) Business Card for Small Businesses