In today's Apple announcement, Steve Jobs said that Apple's iTunes now had over 100,000,000 accounts - each including payment card credentials and enabled for one click purchasing.

International mobile banking solution provider, M-Com, announced today that it now has reached the milestone of 50 distinct one and two-way SMS (text messaging) alerts live in the market, the broadest range in the industry. M-Com has found that alert capabilities are increasingly in demand by consumers, as they provide relevant and timely information on account activity.  

“We are delighted to be leading the market when it comes to the breadth and range of one and two-way text message alerts being delivered to consumers by our financial institution customers,” comments M-Com CEO and Founder, Adam Clark.  “The research and M-Com’s proof points around the world demonstrate that the demand for such alerts is from both online consumers and those that have limited access to online banking channels.”

Ten industry leaders — Yahoo!, PayPal, Google, Equifax, AOL, VeriSign, Acxiom, Citi, Privo and Wave Systems — have announced "they will support the first pilot programs designed for the American public to engage in open government — government that is transparent, participatory, and collaborative. This open identity initiative is a key step in President Obama's memorandum to make it easy for individuals to register and participate in government websites — without having to create new usernames and passwords. Additionally, members of the public will be able to fully control how much or how little personal information they share with the government at all times."

These companies will act as digital identity providers using OpenID and Information Card technologies. The pilot programs are being conducted by the Center for Information Technology (CIT), National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and related agencies. The participating companies are being certified under non-discriminatory open trust frameworks developed under collaboration between the OpenID Foundation (OIDF) and the Information Card Foundation (ICF) per the federal government Trust Framework Provider Adoption Process. READ MORE

In an article titled "Overspending on Debit Cards Is a Boon for Banks" in today's New York Times, Ron Lieber and Andrew Martin write about the fees banks charge on debit card overdrafts - reporting that "this year alone, banks are expected to bring in $27 billion by covering overdrafts on checking accounts, typically on debit card purchases or checks that exceed a customer’s balance."

On the GSMA's Mobile Money for the Unbanked blog, Paul Leishman interviews Zahir Khoja, Executive Director - Mobile Money (M-PAISA) about the launch of mobile money in Afghanistan.

Non-cash payment volumes continued to grow in 2008 after an increase of 8.6 percent globally in 2007 to 250 billion transactions, according to the World Payments Report 2009, released today by Capgemini, RBS and Efma. The use of cards continues to be the single strongest driver for this growth with llobal card transactions (credit and debit) growing 14.5% in 2007 and 11.2% in 2008. READ MORE

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