James Gardner writes on his BankerVision blog about what's happening with cloud computing and predicts: "In 10 years, 2 decades at the most, I believe banks will own neither data centres or networks."

Visa and Chase have announced a consumer pilot to deliver merchant offers directly to the mobile devices of Chase credit and debit cardholders in the Phoenix metropolitan area. According to the two companies, "the offers – from merchant discounts to specials – are tailored to match the personal interests selected by Chase cardholders and will be redeemable at the point of sale or the web site of more than 50 participating merchants." READ MORE

In a post titled "Could Mobile Payments Get a Boost from Lowly Stickers?", Jim Bruene writes on his NetBanker blog about contactless payment stickers - "It's a quarter-sized sticker you plop on the back of your mobile phone making it instantly payment enabled."

First Data has published "Contactless Payments: Consumer Trends and Usage Preferences" saying that "the first step toward mobile commerce is the introduction of consumer-friendly form factors (i.e. a sticker attached to a person’s mobile device or ID badge; a wristband; or a key fob)." FDC calls its contactless stickers GO-Tags.

Click here for a Google search that will find more articles about contactless stickers.

Capco has published its latest Journal of Financial Transformation - with this issue focusing on retail financial services. From the abstract: "Within the financial sector the retail financial services area is one where innovations have been most evident. Financial institutions are increasingly recognizing and reacting to growing competition in this space, both from banks and non-bank players, and learning how to incorporate best practices from other retail disciplines. As this diffusion of ideas into the industry increases, so will the number of new and innovative services. This issue of the journal provides a comprehensive review of the developments made in the world of retail and the aspects that have been, or can be, applied within the financial services sector."

99Bill Corporation has announced the launch of a new service offering installment credit enabling consumers to buy goods by paying in installments. 99Bill says this is the first of its kind in China's electronics payment service market. READ MORE

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