Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson interviewed Steve Ellis, NACHA Chairman, recently about the use of ACH to access consumer checking accounts and NACHA's Secure Vault Payments initiative. Read on for her full report. READ MORE

Toronto-based CPNI has annouced it has released an enhanced version of PATbank, its mobile banking platform. According to the company, "this latest release extends the ability for banks to provide mobile solutions to their retail, private banking and wealth management customers. PATbank complements CPNI's mobile payments solutions, including PATsend which allows person to person payments and PATbuy which provides for mobile purchases from merchants. PATbank, PATbuy and PATsend combine to provide the industry's only mobile banking and ad hoc mobile payments solution on a single platform." READ MORE

Bill Me Later has announced that QVC, one of the largest multimedia retailers in the world, "has added the Bill Me Later alternative payment method to further enhance the shopping experience for its valued customers online, in the call center and via automated phone service." READ MORE

India's Business Standard reports that the Reserve Bank of India has asked banks "to keep their mobile payment services on hold till it issues final guidelines for such transactions." The RBI is in the midst of finalizing its Operative Guidelines for banks on mobile payments. It recently posted a draft of the guidelines and solicited comments. According to today's RBI notice, "While RBI has no objection for use of mobile channel to provide basic services such as mobile alerts for credit or debit entry, balance enquiry etc. which are in the nature of providing information, due care needs to be taken for permitting the channel for customers to initiate payment instructions."

Forrester has published a new report titled "Consumers Are Apathetic About Mobile Banking" by Emmett Higdon. According to the summary: "online bankers and bill payers are uninterested in the mobile banking pitch. ... Why? Online bankers and bill payers don't see their transactions as urgent enough to warrant mobile access. Instead, they prefer to wait until they can access the Web, ATM, or phone channel."

Mobile Money Ventures, the San Francisco-based joint venture of Citi and SK Telecom, has announced its first customer implementation with Citibank Hong Kong. According to MMV, Citibank will use the its mobile platform to deliver mobile financial services to its customers in Hong Kong in Q3 2008 including supporting the recently announced Apple iPhone3G. READ MORE

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