Capital One has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire NetSpend Holdings, Inc., the parent company of NetSpend Corporation, a retail marketer of prepaid debit cards, for $700 million in an all-cash transaction.   » Continue Reading

The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) has announced the "results of a survey on consumer attitudes towards reloadable prepaid cards. These cards generally carry the logo of Discover, MasterCard, or Visa and can be purchased by consumers or offered by employers, enabling cardholders to make purchases almost anywhere, pay recurring bills and get cash from ATMs. Survey respondents indicate that these products fill an unmet need and respond favorably to their benefits. In addition, early users of reloadable prepaid cards overwhelmingly have had positive experiences — good evidence these cards are easy to use, meet consumer expectations and offer solid value."   » Continue Reading

Last week, Visa Inc. filed with the SEC Amendment No. 2 to its Form S-4 Registration Statement. Visa filed its original S-4 on June 22, 2007.

BankServ has announced that Lending Club's collaborative person-to-person (P2P) lending platform is built upon BankServ's Magex Payment Platform, ACH reporting and cash management solutions.   » Continue Reading

ClickandBuy is introducing a new web cash service in the UK - saying it is "giving users the ability to physically deposit and spend with cash online, at thousands of top brand websites, like - iTunes, Skype, Disney and BT. Using cash online should be instantly familiar to millions who top-up their “Pay-As-You-Go” mobiles at convenience stores and newsagents up and down the country - as ClickandBuy has teamed up with payzone, the market leader in branded retailer payment outlets with 29,000 locations."   » Continue Reading

Sybase 365 has announced its mobile banking services are available to financial institutions in the Americas, extending its reach from Asia and Europe. Additionally, the company commissioned a mobile banking survey across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, demonstrating the growing mobile banking trend.   » Continue Reading

James Gardner, Head of Innovation and Research in Group IT at Lloyds TSB in London, blogs about the "the first Innovations Forum, a meeting of people in banks who are involved in the innovation process," held yesterday in London. According to Gardner, "there were two topics on the table: driving an innovation culture, and managing the innovation process."

Dave Birch reflects on a Facebook poll that we ran recently - about online payment preferences among 18-24 year olds - and concludes: "One crucial difference that might be apparent in the Facebook case is that these consumers don't distinguish between banks, non-banks and third-party offerings. They go by convenience, utility and brand. And brand is so, so important."

Fintura Corporation has announced the GreenPay MasterCard credit card - calling it "a new eco-friendly rewards credit card in the United States where the reward proposition goes directly toward the purchase and retirement of carbon credit offsets. The GreenPay MasterCard enables conservation-minded consumers to fight global warming with every card purchase." The card is issued by MetaBank.   » Continue Reading

MasterCard and USA Technologies have announced the "installation of a record number of cashless payment terminals into Coca-Cola Enterprises vending machines in several markets nationwide. Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., the world's largest non-alcoholic beverage bottler, will install the new terminals in selected vending machines in the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Seattle markets." The enabled vending machines will accept both mag stripe and contactless payment cards.   » Continue Reading

Mark Schwanhausser writes for the San Jose Mercury News about contactless payments and Santa Clara, CA-based Vivotech, a major provider of contactless payment acceptance devices. Vivotech has announced closing a $22.5 million Series C financing round. Strategic investors in the round include First Data Corp. and NCR (here's the NCR press release announcing their participation in the financing).

Consumer Reports has announced results from its latest "State of the Net" survey concluding that one million U.S. consumers lost more than $7 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware, and phishing schemes and that consumers face a 1 in 4 chance of succumbing to an online threat and becoming a "cybervictim."

Citi has introduced the Citi CashReturns Card - calling it "the only card that allows cardmembers to earn and redeem unlimited cash back -- automatically." The Citi CashReturns Card is also available with MasterCard's PayPass contactless technology.   » Continue Reading

• MasterCard Advisors, LLC Launches Report on U.S. Gasoline Demand
• CONIX Systems' Enhanced Dupe Detective Now Eliminates Fraud at Day 1
• Shift4 Offers Merchants Options to Achieve PCI Compliance
• Dexit announces name change to Hosted Data Transaction Solutions Inc. (HDX), Closing of the Acquisition of Quick Service Restaurant Division, Private Placement and Conversion of Special Warrants
• Cadence Bank Selects Saylent Technologies To Drive Debit Card Profitability
• Tyfone Announces Mike Noble, Retired COO and EVP of Wells Fargo Services Company, to the Advisory Board
• Australia: Visa, MasterCard push for EMV smartcard rollouts

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Kim Anderson been named head of product strategy and development and general manager for Credit Solutions for Vesta Corporation. Previously, Anderson was Executive Vice President and General Manger of IDT Financial Services.
• Michael W. Campbell has been named senior vice president, credit, at RBS Lynk. Campbell joins RBS Lynk from Chase Paymentech, where he was most recently vice president of compliance and fraud investigations.