In an article titled "PayPal Launches Its First Mobile Service on a Downloadable Application", Digital Transactions reports that PayPal is one of the mobile payments offerings included in Sprint Nextel's MyMoneyManager application. Sprint Nextel says "think of it as a web browser where you add bookmarks to all of your financial services providers on your phone." The article quotes Menekse Gencer, director of business development PayPal’s mobile group: "Our intent is to make PayPal ubiquitous on the handset."

Obopay has announced the closing of its fourth round of venture funding, raising $20 million along with adding two new board members. Essar Communications Holdings Limited, the telecom subsidiary of Essar Global Limited, led the round. The two new board members are K B Rajendran, Senior Vice President, Essar Global Limited and Robert G. Hottensen, Jr., Senior Vice President for Public Equity at Olayan America Corporation. READ MORE »

Jayne O'Donnell and Erin Kutz write for USA TODAY that 'a handful of retail chains are dangling discounts and promotions to try to get people to spend their [tax rebate] checks in the companies' stores.' The article lists a number of retailers who are offering the opportunity for customers to exchange their rebate checks for gift cards typically with a 10% increase in value over the value of the rebate check itself.

American Express has reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2008 with net income from continuing operations down 11% compared to the same quarter last year while revenues net of interest expense were up 11%. READ MORE »

Social personal finance website Wesabe has announced the launch of a new "Tips" feature that provides members with customized, side-by-side comparisons of competing businesses across a number of data points. Wesabe says that 'Tips gives members financial power by arming them with the most comprehensive mix of purchase behavior data, consumer satisfaction ratings and advice.' READ MORE »

MasterCard has filed its annual Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement with the SEC in advance of its upcoming annual meeting of shareholders scheduled for Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at MasterCard headquarters in Purchase, NY. Included are details regarding candidates for election to the board of directors along with compensation details for principal executive officers of the company.

The afternoon session on day 2 of the Digital Money Forum was devoted to discussions about mobile payments. Samee Zafar from Edgar Dunn & Co. chaired the afternoon session and introduced Diane Coyle (who spoke on Mobile Money in Emerging Markets), Dirk-Jan de Haan (who spoke on experience from the Payter NFC trial in Rotterdam), and Guido Manglagalli from Visa EU who spoke about Visa's Mobile Platform and an NFC trial currently underway in London. READ MORE »

At mid-day today at the Digital Money Forum in London, five of us bank/payments bloggers took the stage for a lively discussion about blogs in financial services. The participants were Dave Birch from the Digital Money Forum blog (and the superb producer/director of this whole Forum!), Chris Skinner of TheFinanser.com, Colin Henderson of The BankWatch, Aneace Haddad of Aneace's Blog, and me, Scott Loftesness, of Payments News. The panel was introduced and deftly moderated by Steve Bowbrick. READ MORE »

Consumer groups have been active in the US pointing out the overdraft charges that banks charge their checking account customers for non-sufficient funds. In the UK, the issue has been litigated and the BBC reports today that "the UK's biggest banks have lost a test case about overdraft charges." The Guardians headline reads "Customers in line for billions as banks lose unfair charges case." The court decision is available online .

We're back at the Digital Money Forum in London for the day 2 agenda. This morning's topics are focused primarily on European payments issues - SEPA in particular in presentations by Charles Bryan and John Chaplin.

Aneace has done a great job on blogging the two SEPA sessions this morning. In particular, I enjoyed John Chaplin's eight SEPA predictions - along with the two "jokers" that could change everything.

WebMoney also presented on their ecommerce payment system based in Moscow. Colin blogs about WebMoney here.

• Digital Transactions: PayPal Launches Its First Mobile Service on a Downloadable Application
• ComputerWeekly: PayPal to extend Teradata data warehouse
• Target says good-bye to credit-card debt
• Tri-Counties Bank: Free Checking Just Got Mighty Interest-ing
• eMarketer: Sick of Gas Prices, Shoppers Head Online
• GlobalCollect Expands its Global Presence by Opening an Asia-Pacific Office in Singapore