Last week, Judge Barbara S. Jones issued a ruling narrowing the scope of Discover's antitrust lawsuit against MasterCard and Visa.

MasterCard commented: "MasterCard Worldwide said today it is pleased that Judge Barbara S. Jones narrowed the scope of Discover’s antitrust case against MasterCard by granting certain aspects of MasterCard’s summary judgment motion."

Visa commented: "As a consequence of these summary judgment rulings, Discover cannot challenge the legality of the agreements Visa has signed with its debit issuance partners. As such, it is unlikely the Discover litigation will have a significant impact on Visa's ongoing business operations."

Jim Bruene takes a look at Intuit's recently introduced Quicken Beam service - "the free service sends users text messages balance and activity alerts from most U.S. bank, credit card, and credit union accounts." Here's the press release introducing the service. Quicken Beam is one of the first services introduced by Intuit Labs.

Metavante has announced an alliance with Connect Software Solutions, an online banking provider for credit unions to bring Metavante’s bill presentment and payment solutions and Connect’s online banking platform together into a fully integrated online banking and bill pay product that will be delivered to the credit union market by Connect. READ MORE

• New Mercator Advisory Group Report: Driving Consumers toward Mobile Money Services: Lessons from South Africa, the Philippines, and Kenya
• globeandmail.com: Mexicans to use cell phones to pay stores, taxis
• Alliance Data's Epsilon Signs Multi-Year Marketing Services Agreement With Commerce Bank
• Chris Skinner: How many cards are left in Chip&PIN terminals every day?
• Plastic Jungle Announces Board of Directors
• MediaWhiz Introduces Innovative Publisher Payment Solution Powered by Payoneer
• Discover(R) Small Business Watch(SM): Small Business Economic Confidence Increases for Second Consecutive Month