In an article titled 'Cash rules at some pumps", Elizabeth Douglass writes for the Los Angeles Times about how "at more and more gas stations, it pays to be part of the cash crowd."

The latest Chicago Fed Letter is titled "Using Payment Innovations to Improve Transportation Networks: A conference summary" (PDF). It contains a conference summary from a session held on June 12, 2007.

AccountNow, a marketer of network branded prepaid cards for the estimated 40 million underbanked consumers in the US market, has announced that the Center for Financial Services Innovation’s new Catalyst Fund is the final investor in the companies third round of venture funding announced in June.

In its Occasional Papers series, the European Central Bank has published a paper titled "The Economic Impact of the Single Euro Payments Area" (PDF) by Heiko Schmiedel. From the abstract: "...banks are expected to face downward pressure on their revenues as competition will increase across borders and as a result of new market entrants."

NEC Corporation and Valista International have announced forming a "strategic partnership to target payments solutions business opportunities in Japan with secure and flexible payments offerings." The two companies also said that "the partnership also has sights beyond the Japanese domestic market aiming to expand into the global telecommunications market combining NEC's proven strength in system integration and Valista's global experience in payments, settlement, and merchandizing solutions."

The American Bankers Association has announced results of a recent survey concluding that "sixty-five percent of consumers spend $3 or less in monthly fees for bank services such as checking account maintenance and ATM access." The ABA also reported that the "portion of consumers this year that pay no bank fees grew to 52 percent, a 9 percent increase from 2006."

Jane Kim reports for the Wall St. Journal that some card issuers have "recently raised fees and interest rates for some of their credit-card customers."

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