The Members Group has released a white paper for credit unions considering adding gift card as a product. The paper steps through the advantages of an effective program.

In an article titled 'Villagers across 12 states to benefit from mobile banking', Leslie D`Monte writes for India's Business Standard about mobile banking and how government is helping increase adoption.

In its latest Letter to Stakeholders, the FDIC notes that "FDIC-insured commercial banks and savings institutions reported net income of $28.7 billion in the third quarter of 2007, a decline of $9.4 billion (24.7 percent) from the third quarter of 2006. The year-over-year decline is primarily attributable to increases in provisions for loan losses and a decline in non-interest income."

This Thursday in the San Francisco Bay Area, we'll be hosting a special focus workshop on Card Payment Processing - The Value Chain. If you're interested in some current insights into the merchant card processing side of the business, be sure to take a look at the recent conference call transcripts on quarterly earnings from both Global Payments and Heartland Payment Systems. Thanks to Seeking Alpha for making the transcripts available.

In an article titled 'Money is going mobile through phone services', Cassell Bryan-Lowe reports for the Wall St. Journal about Safaricom, a joint venture between Vodafone and Telkom Kenya, that provides person-to-person remittance services in Kenya. According to the article, Vodafone is planning to add India as well as cross-border remittance services between Kenya and the UK.

Dynamic Card Solutions has introduced contactless card personalization - "allowing financial institutions to maintain the customer and revenue benefits of instant issuance while capitalizing on one of the card industry’s new growth opportunities."   » Continue Reading

Viewpointe has announced that Fifth Third Bank will begin using Viewpointe's Pointe2Pointe solution for check image exchange.   » Continue Reading

The fourth quarter report from the University of Michigan on its American Customer Satisfaction Index is out and reports that "banks climb 1.3 percent to 78, lead by improvements in the “all others” category, up 3 percent to lead the industry with a score of 80. Wachovia, down 1 percent to 79, is still the top scoring bank, despite its first drop since 2000. JPMorgan Chase climbs 3 percent to 74, and Bank of America is unchanged at 72. Wells Fargo and Citigroup each drop 4 percent to 69, the lowest scores in the industry."

Ross Kerber writes for the Boston Globe that "last year the number of ATMs in the United States fell 9 percent, the first big drop since the devices were introduced in the 1970s."

Aite Group has announced a new report titled "Card Networks' Rebates and Incentives" that "addresses the strategic implications of card networks' rebates and incentives for industry stakeholders, including details concerning networks themselves, issuers, merchants, acquirers and regulators."   » Continue Reading

RentPayment has announced the implementation of Cardinal MAX, the mobile platform from CardinalCommerce Corporation, to allow residents to make payments via their mobile phones.   » Continue Reading

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