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Capital One has reported first quarter 2009 financial results. In its credit card business, credit card purchase volume declined 11.9% vs 1Q2008 and the number of loan accounts declined over 13%. The U.S. credit card charge-off rate increased to 8.4 percent for the first quarter of 2009 vs. 5.85% a year ago.

Equifax has announced "a suite of products and industry initiatives to protect consumers' identity online and enhance security for personally identifiable information. Led by Ron Carpinella, vice president of identity management and identity marketing, Equifax's "Identity 2.0" program builds a pipeline of products that make online transactions easier and more secure for consumers and businesses. The Equifax I-Card(TM) and its enhanced authentication offering, eIDverifier(R), are two of the company's initiatives." READ MORE

GlobalPlatform has published a new white paper titled "The GlobalPlatform Proposition for NFC Mobile: Secure Element Management & Messaging" that is intended to outline its technical contribution and commitment to the near field communication (NFC) mobile market. The paper details how GlobalPlatform Specifications are able to support all roles in the NFC ecosystem and outlines the roles and responsibilities of each player in the maintenance of an end-to-end security chain to ensure the secure management of over-the air applications between a service provider’s back office and the secure element on a chip.

PlaySpan has announced an agreement to acquire Spare Change - calling it "the first and largest micropayments solution on social networks whose platform enables buyers and sellers to transact safely, easily and inexpensively." READ MORE

Verifi, a provider of transaction risk management services for card-not-present merchants, has announced that Edward Katzin has joined the company as Chief Technology Officer. According to Verifi, "Edward is a senior executive with over 17 years of diversified experience in application development, enterprise technical architecture, infrastructure build-out, datacenter operations, and systems management. Mr. Katzin was most recently the CIO of Revolution Money, Inc. where he was responsible for managing the company’s technology infrastructure and system’s development as well as defining the technology strategy to achieve the company’s growth plan." READ MORE

Yodlee has announced the Yodlee PostcardCheck - saying it is "aimed at increasing efficiency and lowering the significant costs associated with paper payments in online bill pay. Nearly two of every ten payments originated online in the U.S. are still processed via paper check. Financial institutions offering online bill pay to their consumers incur per item costs of a single paper payment up to ten times higher than comparable electronic payments. Paper payments are by far the most costly component of any online bill pay system. Yodlee has built a new, proprietary PostcardCheck solution that helps financial institutions immediately lower the cost of single check payments by up to 30%." READ MORE

TowerGroup has published a new research report titled "After Boom and Bust: Navigating the Credit Card Industry into the Next Economic Cycle". According to the report, "the severe contraction that the credit card industry is experiencing after decades of business boom is a direct result of antiquated business models used to measure risk and monitor changing consumer profiles. TowerGroup believes it will take time for the industry to change its business model, but that forward-thinking issuers should begin planning for the post-recession era even as they struggle in a down economy today." READ MORE

• CNNMoney.com: Obama to lean on credit card CEOs
• Seeking Alpha: Capital One Financial Corp., Q1 2009 Earnings Call Transcript
• Number of U.S. Online Banking Customers Continues to Grow Despite Challenging Financial Environment
• NewsHour Extra: Obama Goes After Credit Card Companies That Target Young People
• Newsday.com: Schumer eyes parental consent for student credit cards
• Seeking Alpha: U.S. Bancorp Q1 2009 Earnings Call Transcript
• NetBanker: Online Banking Customer Satisfaction Remains High
• Bank Systems & Technology: Mobile Financial Applications to be Worth $124B by 2014, Study Says
• Wells Fargo Encourages Banking Customers to Make Switch to Online-Only Statements
• Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.com: Navy Federal Credit Union renews contract with TSYS
• Visa Inc. Announces Results of Annual Meeting Stockholder Vote
• comScore: Number of U.S. Online Banking Customers Continues to Grow Despite Challenging Financial Environment
• CSmonitor.com: Buried by credit-card fees? Washington is on it.
• Los Angeles Times: U.S. aims to crack down on credit card issuers
• China Business News: China UnionPay inks deal with Global Payments
• Paymo: Harnessing a Global Mobile Payments Market
• Dealbook - New York Times: Bank Profits Appear Out of Thin Air
• Bankrate.com: Pay credit card bill early and save
• First Comprehensive Business ID Theft Program in the United States Launched By NXG Strategies & Merchants Information Solutions
• Democrat and Chronicle: Lenders lower limits, raise rates on credit cards
• Western Union Reports First Quarter Results
• CreditCards.com: Is the American love affair with credit cards over?