Jim Bruene has announced the lineup of finalists who will be demo'ing their wares at the Finovate 2008 Conference coming up on Tuesday, October 14th in New York City. He's culled from a list of over 100 companies to a set of 24 finalists who will have the chance to strut their stuff.

Jim writes: "In a single action-packed day, we'll see several financial startups launch, a few major product overhauls revealed, and a pile of new features shown to the public for the first time. It could be the single biggest "news days" in the history of online finance."

October's simply a great time to be in New York and the Finovate conference format (no boring PowerPoint slides to sit through - just quick, to the point, 7-minute demos) keeps things moving and "information rich"!

For a taste of Finovate, see my postings from the San Francisco FinovateStartup conference held earlier this year. If you're interested in financial services innovation, you'll definitely want to be at the New York session in October. Registration is open - with a $100 Early Bird discount available. Glenbrook will be there - and we look forward to seeing you there.

Des Moines-based TMG (The Members Group) has announced it is expanding its prepaid product line with the availability of general purpose reloadable cards to its credit union clients. "The reloadable card service, called ATIRAreload, allows cardholders (and other authorized users) to load money onto the credit union-branded card, which can be used for purchases almost anywhere Visa Debit cards are accepted. The cards also function as ATM cards, giving cardholders instant access to cash." READ MORE

First Data has announced that "during this year's Democratic National Convention (DNC), Denver's Pepsi Center will serve not only as a focal point of American politics, but also as an arena for the future of how people will pay for goods and services. Next week, First Data will introduce a new payment technology to thousands of select media and delegates attending the DNC. Beginning August 25 through August 28, media and delegates receiving a limited edition pin from First Data can use the commemorative pin as a payment device to purchase refreshments up to $10 in value at participating Pepsi Center concession stands." READ MORE

APACS issued a press release today responding to an earlier CPP release titled "Forecast is hot for fraud this Bank Holiday". APACS says that in the release "PP offers incorrect information when claiming that Spain and France are “… the top spots where Brits fall victim to card theft”. APACS says that its latest statistics "show that fraud in France on UK issued cards has decreased by £4.3million in two years, and France has dropped to fourth place for where fraud on our cards is committed. This is a direct result of the French introducing the same global chip and PIN system that we are using in the UK. Equally, fraud in Spain has fallen by £3.9 million since their rollout." In fact, based upon APACS 2007 fraud figures for UK-issued cards, the card fraud abroad is highest in USA (£24.6m) followed by Italy (£9.6m), Australia (£8.2m), France (£7.3m) and Spain (£5.7m). READ MORE

• Reuters: Olympics-Visa looks to extend sponsorship beyond London