Visa has released an updated commercial payment card best practices study that it says "reveals procure-to-pay (P2P) automation is among leading factors contributing to more efficient business processes and cost savings at today’s companies across the globe." READ MORE

Equifax and Fair Isaac have announced a partnership "to develop and sell advanced analytics and scoring solutions for businesses and consumers. Under the agreement, the two companies will leverage Equifax's consumer credit data and Fair Isaac's scoring technology, and will jointly market and sell new FICO analytic products." READ MORE

Wells Fargo -- saying it is "the only provider of browser-based mobile banking for commercial customers" -- has announced the addition of wire transfer services and image positive pay functionality to its CEO Mobile service. READ MORE

Unisys has announced results of a recent study of 13,296 consumers worldwide that found that "71 percent of all consumers surveyed in 14 countries will not consider using a mobile device to bank or shop online." READ MORE

InComm has announced a relationship with American Cash Exchange, Inc., a personal payment solutions provider and creator of the Poni Card, a US-to-Mexico money remittance card sold in peso values. Under the terms of the agreement, InComm will exclusively process and distribute Poni Cards throughout North America. READ MORE

In addition to today's action by the Federal Trade Commission against CompuCredit, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has issued enforcement actions against CompuCredit and two FDIC-supervised banks "for allegedly marketing subprime credit cards in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) The FDIC settled with a third bank also involved with CompuCredit." The third bank was Columbus Bank and Trust, Columbus, Georgia, a wholly owned banking subsidiary of Synovus Financial Corp. READ MORE

The Federal Trade Commission has announced the filing of a lawsuit charging CompuCredit Corporation and its wholly-owned debt collection subsidiary, Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC, with deceptive marketing practices in selling credit cards to consumers in the subprime market. The complaint is available online.

In his column today titled "The Great Seduction", New York Times columnist David Brooks writes about how, in his view, the US has moved from "industrious, ambitious, and frugal" to "financial decadence, the trampling of decent norms about how to use and harness money." He's stimulated by a recent report titled "For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture" from the Institute for American Values - a summary of which is available online in this article titled "A Nation in Debt" by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead.

Chase has announced Chase Exclusives - calling it "one of the banking industry’s widest ranging package of rewards" to encourage its checking account customers to expand their relationship with the bank. "Chase Exclusives provides all Chase checking accounts holders with better rates, more rewards and bigger discounts on nearly all other products offered through the branch." READ MORE

Jennifer Levitz writes in today's Wall St. Journal about support groups and how they're increasingly dealing with consumers with serious credit card debt problems. She describes one church that "keeps fishbowls and scissors up near the stage for anyone inspired to cut up the credit cards on the spot."

NovoPayment, a Latin America prepaid card service provider and program manager, has announced "new regional forecasts for general purpose spending cards – the classification given to branded payment cards similar in function to debit cards, but that require no underlying banking account." READ MORE

NetIQ has announced results of a survey of over 300 companies in North America concluding that, "despite multiple extensions of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance deadline, companies are still struggling to adequately protect the data of their customers. The threat of significant fines (up to $500,000) and loss of customers and company reputation in the event of a security breach have not radically spurred PCI compliance." READ MORE

Phil Windley is reporting on his Technometria blog from this week's Internet Retailing conference in Chicago. His first post on the conference reviewed the keynote address by Mike Boylston from JC Penney. His second post reviews the talk by Robert Antall, CEO, Lake West Group, on the new level of competitiveness in e-retailing. Digital Transactions is also reporting from the conference.

The PULSE debit network has launched its annual ATM & Debit Card Safety Awareness Month, encouraging consumers to review and practice safety tips when using their ATM/debit cards. This month, PULSE will release a series of safety tips for consumers to consider when traveling or making debit card purchases throughout the year. READ MORE

Rebecca Buckman writes for the Wall St. Journal that NetSpend's founders, Roy and Bertrand Sosa, have started a $100 million investment fund named MPower Ventures to make investments in new startups pursuing the unbanked market.

PayMate India has announced the closing a $9 million second round financing led by Mayfield Fund with participation from existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers and Sherpalo Ventures. READ MORE

Lori Montgomery writes for the Washington Post about the US Treasury Department's rollout of Direct Express MasterCard debit cards for the 2.1 million Social Security recipients who don't have bank accounts and can't receive electronic payment of their benefits. The card issuer is Comerica Bank. The program was originally announced earlier this year. Here's today's full press release on the rollout now underway.

On the Digital Money Forum blog, Dave Birch posts about Harry Leinonen's paper titled "Payment Habits and Trends in the Changing E-Landscape 2010+" . From the foreward: "This book is the summary of a project undertaken in the Bank of Finland with the objective of discovering business and technological innovations, with which possibly new payment approaches could be introduced to the market and changes in future payment habits could be brought about. Payments habits have changed slowly in the past and therefore the time period selected for the study is 2010+, ranging to about 5–10 years beyond then. According to the findings we appear to be heading towards a new era in payment technology." READ MORE

• NetSpend(R) Expands Management Team; Announces Promotions
• MPOWER Ventures: Prepaid Debit Pioneers, Omnilife Founder Partner in Global Mission to Empower the Underserved
• New Forrester Report: What Consumers Want From Financial Institutions
• WAUSAU Financial Systems and RMS Partner to Provide Integrated Healthcare Payment Processing
• Charlotte Observer: Debit-card holds can take a nasty bite
• TenderCard Class A Certifies Gift and Loyalty Applications on Hypercom’s Optimum T4200 Platform
• CompuCredit Comments on Anticipated FTC and FDIC Allegations
• Capital One Survey Highlights What Today’s College Graduates Want from Employers
• Environmental Protection Agency Renews JPMorgan Contract for Charge Card Program
• Credit Cards Now Accepted Online for Franchise and Excise Tax Payment at http://www.Tennessee.gov
• Unified Grocers Enters Strategic Relationship with NCR
• CAM Commerce Solutions, Inc. to Be Acquired by an Affiliate of Great Hill Partners in a Transaction Valued at Approximately $180 Million
• Chicago Tribune: Discover: Fair play worth $6 billion - MasterCard, Visa 'prevented growth'
• Webloyalty Acquires Lift Media to Boost Conversion Rates and Attack Shopping Cart Abandonment for E-Tailers
• 7-Eleven Stores Deploys Aerohive Wireless LAN
• Citi Leverages Ariba Technology to Deliver Enhanced Payment Solutions
• Panini and Merrill Lynch Release Remote Deposit Capture Customer Video
• WSJ: Investors Are Happier to Bet On Kenya After Safaricom IPO
• Mobile Banking - Threats and Mitigation
• Credit Slips Blog: Obama on Credit Cards and Bankruptcy
• Mobile payment: Crandy launches its international P2P service with Africa
• Bank Lawyer's Blog: Remote Deposit Capture: Is Fraud Risk Remote?
• eMarketer: Online Banking User Demographics

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Phil Wall has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer at First Data Corp., replacing Kim Patmore. Previously, Wall served as senior vice president of finance for First Data’s international operations.
• Chuck Fillinger has been named an associate at The Strawhecker Group. Previously, Fillinger worked at First Data Corp. for 23 years, mostly recently as Vice President of Product and Business Development.