Each year, Glenbrook attempts the impossible – to create a simple table showing U.S. payments system volumes, by both “amount” (dollar value) and “count” (number of transactions) – all mapped to payments domains. We use the term “domain” to refer to the purpose of the payment – so that purchases at the point of sale, bill payment, person-to-person payments, etc. are domains.

To read more about our analysis for 2008 - and to request a copy - see this post on PaymentsViews.com by Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson.

Cellfire has announced the expansion of its nationwide digital grocery coupon program to include Safeway, one of the largest grocery providers in the country. According to the company, its digital grocery coupons are now available via mobile phone or computer and redeemable at more than 1,500 Safeway stores nationwide under the banners of Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Dominick's, Genuardi's and Safeway. READ MORE »

Bling Nation has announced that "La Junta, Colo.-based The State Bank went live on May 21 with the Bling Nation Community Payments Service, a contactless payments network that enables banks and merchants to avoid global network costs and keep money within the community through a secure local debit network. The bank markets the local payments network as an alternative to expensive, traditional payments networks and accompanying rewards program as Redi Pay Bling." READ MORE »

Calling itself "a social media payment platform", http://www.oneTXT.com has announced that it has closed $2 million in Series A financing. "Metamorphic Ventures, New York City, led the round, joined by KPG Ventures of San Francisco, and New York Angels Fund. Individual angel investors also participated, including David Hirsch, formerly at Google; Geoffrey Judge, co-founder of 24/7 Real Media (now part of WPP); Roger Ehrenberg, former president and CEO of DB Advisors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG; and Mark Michel, formerly Group Head at TD Capital, TD Bank's private equity fund focused on the media and communications sectors." READ MORE »

American Express has announced a new service that "provides American Express Charge Cardmembers with the ability to set spending limits for Additional Cards on their account. It’s the only consumer card on the market to offer this type of spending control. Now, instead of providing cash to their teenagers, other family members, the nanny, or other household helpers, Cardmembers can set, manage and track spending limits on Additional Cards, helping them to maintain a tighter household budget and track all family expenditures billed to their Card." READ MORE »

On the New York Times Bits blog, Saul Hansell writes about PayPal's fraud risk management techniques - noting that "you may not have ever bought anything with PayPal, but it’s got a file on you anyway, just in case."

Merchant Link has announced that it will offer later this year its TranactionVault hosted credit card security product and service to users of the latest version of the MICROS OPERA Property Management System (PMS). READ MORE »

• Bill Me Later and Zappos.com Host Live Discussion with Insights from Experts and Findings from Survey of More Than 600 Women on the Role of the ’Household CEO’
• The PayPal Blog: PayPal Launches DoStuffForMoney
• CBS MoneyWatch.com: Experts Were Wrong About Credit Card Reform
• Zoompass at Third Tuesday
• Diebold's Latest Cash Acceptance Innovation Takes Deposit Automation to the Next Level Through Improved Efficiency and Ease of Service
• TSYS Partners with IBM for a Dynamic Technology Infrastructure (in Brazil)
• NetDeposit Supports Epson For Full Array of Remote Deposit Capture Solutions
• Kroll Predicts Corruption Costs Could Total $500 Billion Worldwide, as FBI Braces for Next Wave of Financial Fraud Tied to Stimulus Spending
• Williampaid.com Announces Founding Advisory Board
• Mobile Banker: USAA to Bolster Its iPhone Mobile Banking Service
• Economic Times (India): First Data leads race for ICICI unit
• Bloomberg.com: Warburg Pincus Said to Seek Bids for Payment Processor Easycash
• First Global Financial Literacy Summit Hailed a Success
• Chicago Sun-Times: Accertify helps nail the fraudsters who lurk on the Web
• Rick Savard Joins FSV Payment Systems Board of Directors
• Veritec Introduces Its Mobile Toggle (Debit) Card Solution
• Fidelity National Information Services and Metavante Technologies Provide Update Regarding Proposed Merger