J.P. Morgan has announced that "Brooklyn and Chicago recently used J.P. Morgan prepaid debit cards in successful campaigns to take firearms off the streets. The gun buy back programs were sponsored by local law enforcement officials who offered citizens prepaid debit cards for working guns, no questions asked. More than 7,500 firearms were collected at community churches and other turn-in sites in the two cities." READ MORE

According to a survey sponsored by CheckFree, "more Americans than ever, an estimated 63.1 million households or three-fourth of those online, are paying their bills online rather than writing paper checks. The 2008 Consumer Banking and Bill Payment Survey, the eighth conducted by CheckFree since 2002, highlights Americans’ growing use of online banking and bill payment services to help manage their personal finances." READ MORE

Today's PayPal webinar, last of the August webinar series, will focus on the topic of reducing shopping card abandonment. Patti Freeman Evans, research director from JupiterResearch, and Lewis Broadnax, director of e-commerce at Lenovo are participating. More info here - register here.

Videos and presentations from the eBay/PayPal Developers Conference held in June in Chicago are available online.

In a multi-part series, Sramana Mitra interviews mChek CEO Sanjay Swamy about his company's mobile banking and payments platform in India. Swamy comments: "It is very important to ensure there is a means of instant gratification. It may not expose you to all of the features and capabilities, but at least the customer can touch it now. That is what we had to do. We had to simplify the product and get it out there."

TrialPay has announced the launch of a new Gifts & Gourmet category with the company saying that "top companies from the food industry have enlisted in this new advertising section, marking a milestone for the payment method widely used for digital goods and services." READ MORE

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