In an article titled "Citigroup Ready to Shrink Itself by a Third", David Enrich reports for the Wall St. Journal on plans expected to be announced soon by Citigroup to shed several business units.

Earlier today, Citi announced it had entered into a "definitive agreement to combine Morgan Stanley's Global Wealth Management Group and Citi's Smith Barney, Quilter in the UK, and Smith Barney Australia into a new joint venture to be called Morgan Stanley Smith Barney."

According to Enrich's reporting, Citigroup "executives hope to dump or shrink businesses that cater to less-affluent customers."

First Data has announced signing a partnership agreement with WestLB to launch a new business, First Merchant Solutions, to provide card acceptance services for retailers in Germany and across Europe. "As part of this new venture, WestLB, a German regional state bank with a strong European presence, will provide the licenses and payment services infrastructure while First Data will provide a comprehensive range of merchant acquiring services." READ MORE

EFT Network has announced the FAXTellerPLUS remote deposit capture solution - calling it "a brand new way for businesses, financial institutions even consumers to participate in remote deposit capture by using a standard fax machine with absolutely no hardware equipment or software to purchase or download." READ MORE

Visa has announced that it is "the first in the payments industry to introduce a new type of fraud evaluation technology in Latin America that is expected to help card issuers reduce payment card fraud. The new technology called, Visa Advanced Authorization provides risk scores & risk condition codes in real-time to issuers which will help them decline more fraudulent transactions." READ MORE

iovation has announced that it "helped eCommerce companies stop more than 3.5 million fraudulent activities in 2008. Using innovative device reputation technology to identify computers that have been associated with fraud or abuse in the past, iovation enables online businesses to proactively block bad transactions before they happen to reduce fraudulent activities and other unwanted behavior across multiple industries." READ MORE

Obopay has announced "three widgets - small applications that can be added to web pages such as blogs and profile pages - to help people give, donate and pay money quickly and easily. Receiving and sending money with Obopay to friends and loved ones online has never been easier." READ MORE

In an article titled "Banks Make Rewards Plans Less Rewarding", Jane J. Kim writes for the Wall St. Journal about how banks and credit card issuers have been reducing the value of rewards programs - just like the airlines have been doing for a while. The article includes a summary of changes to rewards programs either made or upcoming by the major card issuers.

In an article on TechCrunch titled "Mobile Payments Getting Traction On Social Networks, But Fees Are Sky High", Michael Arrington takes a look at the SMS-based mobile payments companies Zong and Mobillcash. He writes: "Lots of merchants and application developers would love to take mobile payments, but paying 40% or more of the transaction to the carriers is a non-starter." READ MORE

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