Online Resources has released the results of its second survey of U.S. households looking at how bill payment patterns are being affected by the "ongoing economic softness. The survey shows that Americans’ personal financial stability continues to decrease, as the mortgage crunch, rising energy costs and a decreasing savings rate hit more households."   » Continue Reading

A few days back we wrote about some expert views on the industry cost of PCI compliance. We've had several interesting discussions in email from folks reacting to the $2 billion number that my expert friends at dinner came up with. One of those, long-time friend and former colleague, Walt Conway, sent along his own "very rough cut estimate" of the PCI compliance costs. Walt's been consulting with colleges and universities on PCI for the last couple of years - and I asked him if we could share his thinking here.   » Continue Reading

MSN India reports on mobile wallets and payments in India saying that "current payment players in India are mChek, Obopay and PayMate." The article notes that the Reserve Bank of India is currently formulating the regulatory guidelines for mobile payments with the final draft expected by June 2008.

Paradise Lost - that's the title of the special report in this week's issue of the Economist. "This special report will ask how banks should be run and regulated so that the next time boom turns to bust the outcome will be less miserable for all concerned."

In late April, First Data Corp. announced the acquisition of InComm, a marketer, distributor and technology innovator of stored value gift and prepaid products. At the time, specific terms weren't announced. Yesterday, First Data filed a 10-Q with the SEC reporting its financial results for the first quarter of 2008. In that filing, First Data disclosed more information about the acquisition: "The Company will acquire InComm for approximately $980 million, plus contingent future payments of up to $250 million over a three-year performance period." FDC says the acquisition is expected to close later this year.

When I was in London a few weeks ago for the Digital Money Forum, I got introduced to Twitter, an addictive social networking service that allows you and your friends to follow each others latest thoughts. At the recent Finovate Startup conference in San Francisco, several of us in the audience (and around the globe!) were twittering back and forth about the presenters in real-time.

Anyway, the new Business Week has an article titled Why Twitter Matters. You can follow Payments News on Twitter (and get real-time updates about posts and my random thoughts). You can also use TweetScan to search for recent "tweets" about specific subjects - for example, here's a Tweetscan of every tweet mentioning PayPal. TweetScan even lets you setup an RSS feed of your favorite scans so you can monitor them in Google Reader, etc. Some big companies regularly monitor Twitter for mentions of their brands.

What's this got to do with payments, you ask? Nothing - but it's Friday and a pretty slow news day so far!

Mobilians International has announced commercial availability of its phone-based payment service on NHN USA’s ijji.com online gaming website. With Mobilians’ PhoneBill service, NHN USA’s customers now can purchase ijji.com “G-Coins” in multiple increments by charging them to their home phone bill.   » Continue Reading

Metavante Technologies Ltd. has announced that it has been granted Payment Application Best Practice (PABP) certification from Visa Europe for both card issuing and transaction acquiring. Metavante Technologies Ltd., a provider of prepaid and debit card processing and licensed software in Europe, is part of Metavante, a U.S.-based provider of banking and payments technology.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled Rising Credit Card Interchange Fees Equal Double Punch at Pumps, Convenience Store News reports on yesterday's testimony at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on interchange fees. "Last year, convenience stores paid $7.6 billion in credit card fees, a figure more than double industry profits of $3.4 billion."

Tom Robinson, president of the San Jose, Calif.-based Robinson Oil Corp. who testified at the hearing (his full testimony is here) went on: "Right now there is no market for interchange fees. The fees are fixed by the banks, hidden from the public and forced on merchants in a take-it-or-leave-it offer. The Credit Card Fair Fee Act will create a market for interchange fees for the first time by allowing merchants and the card associations to negotiate on equal footing."

• TrialPay Named 2008 Red Herring North America 100 Winner
• TSYS Acquiring Solutions names COO
• Business Week: The Brewing Credit-Card Storm
• Record Second Quarter Earnings Reported by Meta Financial Group
• First Data Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
• AirTran Airways and Bill Me Later Partner for Summer Travel Promotion
• Identity Theft Assistance Center Expands Offerings to ID Theft Prevention with Launch of ITAC Sentinel™
• OCC Offers Consumer Tips to Avoid Foreclosure Rescue Scams
• CNNMoney.com: Mobile Banking Is Major Priority For U.S. Banks - Study
• AP: Retailers assail credit card fees in House hearing
• Phone-wallets for masses still years away
• CUNA: Don’t Get Hung Up on Phone Payments by Julie Reincke