Dave Birch's latest Digital Money Forum podcast features an interview with James McDonald, head of Contactless Payments for Barclays Business in the UK. His focus in 2008 is to roll out contactless payments nationally, and in this podcast McDonald talks about the state of the current contactless roll out in London and where the business might move in the future. If you're interested in the "on the ground" perspective regarding contactless, be sure to find 30 minutes for a listen. Highly Recommended!

Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson recently interviewed Stephanie Sturgis-Griffin, the newly named CEO of Pariter Solutions, the Wells Fargo and Bank of America joint venture for ACH processing announced in May. According to the announcement press release, Pariter will be “the country’s largest processor of ACH payments." READ MORE »

Obopay and Grameen Solutions have announced what they're calling "a unique, first-of-its-kind alliance to use mobile technology to deliver banking services to a billion of the world’s poorest people by 2018. The Grameen-Obopay Bank A Billion Initiative will provide access to affordable financial services, including cross-border remittances, money transfer, payments, savings and credit accounts. By empowering life and work endeavors with mobile technology that is ubiquitous even in the most impoverished and remote corners of the world, Grameen-Obopay are bringing the full power of banking to those who need it most." READ MORE »

Deloitte's Center for Banking Solutions has published a new paper titled "Building Consumer Trust in Retail Payments" .

PayPal's beginning its series of August Wednesday webinars today (11 AM Pacific) on the topic of "Capturing the voice of your customer to drive ROI." Participating will be Mark McWeeny, Executive Vice President and General Manager, SmartBargains and Patti Freeman Evans, Research Director, Jupiter Research.

Tom Wills, Senior Analyst, Security and Fraud, at Javelin Strategy and Research has published a new report titled "Consumer Authentication for Retail Banking: Compliance Does Not Equal Security".

"With the majority of financial institutions in compliance after the frenzied rush to meet the authentication requirements of the 2005 FFIEC Guidance, a number of financial institutions have relaxed into a satisfied mode. Compliance is not security, however, and complacency increases risk. Weaknesses have already been proven for widely adopted methods such as mutual authentication and device recognition." READ MORE »

• PayPal Names New Senior Vice President of Platform Services
• New Mercator Advisory Group Report: Brazilian Payment Card Market: Major Changes Ahead
• The McKinsey Quarterly: How US banks attract middle-market customers
• eBillme™ and Forrester Research to Host a Webinar on the Current State of the Economy for Online Retail
• Digital Money Forum Podcast: James McDonald, Barclaycard Business
• London Times Online: Analysis: what is wardriving
• India: The Economic Times: Mobile payments require legal framework as well
• Economist.com: Banknotes - Hey big spender
• Norway's Largest Financial Services Organization Selects Entrust Zero-touch Fraud Detection Solution