The Emerging Payments Research Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston held a Contactless Forum at the bank on May 21, 2007. The forum "brought together invited industry experts, academics, and Federal Reserve System payments professionals to explore consumer and merchant payment choices related to contactless (RFID) technology, examine security risks and vulnerabilities with RFID-enabled payments, and finally look at future adoption—the barriers and the opportunities with contactless smart cards." A copy of the agenda (along with links to the several presentations given) is available on the bank's web site.

JCB, a global payment brand and credit card issuer and acquirer in Japan, has announced the a brand slogan "Good times start here.", as part of a new global branding strategy.   » Continue Reading

Jay Loomis reports for the Westchester County, NY Journal News about MasterCard's recent investor day presentation of some of MasterCard's new technology initiatives. "MasterCard currently has more than 100 new products under development. Many are focused on new ways for credit cards, debit cards or electronic payments to replace cash and checks in fast growing areas of the economy such as health care."

The proxy statement filed by First Data Corp. with the SEC earlier this week contains a section that provides background on how the acquisition discussions began and how they evolved. It all began with a discussion in late November or early December of last year between Henry Kravis, a founding member of KKR, and James Robinson III, a director of First Data.