Mercator Advisory Group has announced a teleconference titled "U.S. Mobile Banking and Payments: Finding the Seams, Accelerating the Pace" - scheduled for Friday, June 1, beginning at 1 PM Eastern.

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report that "evaluates the changes that have occurred in the Debit Reward marketplace in the last year by comparing the state of the debit reward programs at the top fifty debit card issuers (in annual card holder spending) today as compared to more than a year ago."   » Continue Reading

APACS has highlighted this week as the 10th anniversary of online banking in the UK, calling it a significant milestone in the evolution of UK banking and payments. "Over the last ten years online banking has become increasingly popular and the number of people using the service has risen five fold in the last six years alone. In 2006 there were a record 18.1 million Britons banking online and for the first time the number of adults using internet banking exceeded those using telephone banking. Today, half of all internet users in the UK bank online."   » Continue Reading

MasterCard has announced that it will host an investment community meeting on May 31, 2007 at the Company's headquarters. Members of MasterCard's senior management team will provide updates on the company's operational, business and product initiatives. A live web cast of the formal presentations beginning at 9:00 AM EDT will be available on the Investor Relations section of MasterCard's website. A replay of the event will be available approximately one day later and will be archived for 90 days.

We're fans of Google's Patent search service and its fast and easy searches of issued US patents. Google recently added a "Download PDF" option to the service that allows you to quickly save a copy of a patent that you've found of interest. Here's an example: US Patent 6,341,724 titled "Cardless Payment System".

Forrester has published a new report about how Wells Fargo's Internet Services Group "used Web site metrics, customer survey data, and internal search information to develop a home page steeped in analytics, not opinions. Forrester sat down with Stephanie Smith, senior vice president and head of online sales and marketing, and Brett Pitts, manager of the ISG's Web channel management to discuss the Web site launch and its results to date."

Robin Sidel reports for the Wall St. Journal that Citigroup is "replacing thousands of Visa-branded American Airlines credit cards with new account numbers and cards that carry the American Express logo." Some cardholders aren't happy about the change.

The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), an independent industry standards body providing management of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (DSS) on a global basis, has announced the results of elections for the PCI SSC Board of Advisors. The Board of Advisors will represent the current roster of nearly 200 PCI SSC Participating Organizations and provide feedback to the ongoing enhancement of security standards managed by the Council.   » Continue Reading

• StoreFinancial Licenses American Express Incentive Services' Patented DirectSpend(SM) Process
• U.S. Bank and Cache Inc. Launch Cache's First Affinity Credit Card
• Acxiom Corporation and Acuity Mobile Partner to Power Targeted Mobile Marketing Solutions
• Alliance Data Signs Multi-Year Private Label Credit Card Services Agreement With Top 100 U.S. Furniture Retailer
• TSYS Chosen Global Processor of the Year by Cards International